Celebrating the Extraordinary Life of André Leon Talley

Carolina Herrera, Naomi Campbell, Marc Jacobs, Bethann Hardison, Anna Wintour and others all gave heartfelt remarks about the indelible mark that André left on their lives. More than 700 well wishers looked on, at times dabbing their eyes, other times laughing with the stories that were told.

The legendary Valerie Simpson belted out what felt like what we call 3bibi nyum (black music) in Ghana. Accompanied by the piano, she told stories of André coming to her party—still with his church tambourine. She sang “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” to celebrate. 

“One thing about André, he was always authentic,” she said.

André’s dear friend Diane von Furstenberg held us all together as she shared stories of their 40-plus year friendship. She spoke of André, “always loyal, always tall.”

Bette Middler, Edward Enninful, Darip Calmese, Kimora Lee Simmons, Karlie Kloss, Kate Moss, Grace Coddington, Ralph Rucci, Rachel Maddow and a host of young people, who may never have worked with André, but certainly walk in the path that he blazed.  

They came to share, to celebrate and to be in that moment of history.

The torch has firmly been passed to an able-bodied group of people in this next generation to carry on with the same grandeur and style that Andre brought. Though there will never, ever be another—we will, as Dario Calmese put it, “forever sing his name in the halls of history.”