Fashion icon, Durham native Andre Leon Talley's possessions auctioned, Mt. Sinai to benefit
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Rihanna's outfit during her Super Bowl halftime performance may have been a tribute and nod to the late fashion icon, North Carolina native and former Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley.
Talley frequently wore a red Norma Kamali sleeping bag coat. That coat is one of many items owned by the icon that were auctioned days later.
According to CNN, the Feb. 15 auction fetched nearly $3.6 million.
Before becoming a world-renowned fashion icon, Talley's humble beginnings started in Durham. He graduated from Hillside High School and North Carolina Central State University.
'Anyone who knew Andre knew he was special': Durham friends remember fashion icon Andre Leon Talley
Talley died in New York in January 2022.
André Leon Talley, fashion icon and longtime creative director of Vogue, dies at 73
Talley was an American fashion journalist known for his work in shaping U.S. Vogue and fashion as a whole. He was the magazine's fashion news director from 1983 to 1987 and its creative director from 1988 to 1995. He was later made editor-at-large, a position he held until 2013.
In his 2003 memoir, "A.L.T.," Talley described his childhood in Durham, where he was raised by his grandmother and worked as a taxi driver to save money. When it was time for college, he enrolled at North Carolina Central, where he majored in French, and later, got a scholarship to Brown University, for his master's. Soon after graduating, Talley got his first job in fashion as a volunteer assistant to Diana Vreeland at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Once inside the fashion bubble, he landed a position at Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, where his career as a journalist took off, and later moved around to WWD, Vanity Fair, Vogue and various other publications.
