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West Charlotte High School Black History Month CTE/ Pathway Fact of the Day! 
Apparel & Interior Design
Name: André Leon Talley
Occupation: Fashion Journalist
Significance:
Talley was born on October 16, 1949, in Washington, D.C. His parents moved him in with his grandmother, Binnie Francis Davis, who was a cleaning lady at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina. His love for fashion was cultivated at an early age by his grandmother, Binnie, and his discovery of Vogue magazine, which he first found in the local library at the age of 10.
Talley was educated at Hillside High School, graduating in 1966, and North Carolina Central University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French Literature in 1970. He later won a scholarship to Brown University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in French Literature in 1972.
He worked for Andy Warhol, Women’s Wear Daily and W, The New York Times and other publications in New York City, before finally landing at Vogue. He worked as the Fashion News Director from 1983 to 1987 and then as Creative Director from 1988 to 1995. He pushed top designers to have more African-American models in their shows. He left Vogue and moved to Paris in 1995 to work for W, and served as contributing editor at Vogue. In 1998, he returned to Vogue as the editor-at-large until his departure in 2013 to pursue another editorial venture.
