American fashion journalist and editor André Leon Talley was BOTD in 1948. Born in Washington, D.C., he was raised by his grandmother in segregated North Carolina, winning a scholarship to Brown University where he studied French literature. In 1974, he apprenticed for Diana Vreeland, who arranged for him to work at Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. He became a fashion journalist for Women’s Wear Daily, The New York Times and Ebony and a fixture of the 1970s nightclub scene, partying with Warhol, Diana Ross and Yves Saint-Laurent. He moved to American Vogue magazine in 1983, becoming a staff members for the next 30 years. As a larger-than-life, openly gay African American man in the whitewashed world of fashion, he became a vivid and much-loved figure, known for his love of opera capes and kaftans. He promoted the work of Black and Asian designers including Jason Wu, Tracy Reese and Rachel Roy and became a mentor to model Naomi Campbell, casting her as Scarlett O’Hara for a Vanity Fair photoshoot. He left Vogue in 2013, appearing as a judge on America’s Next Top Model. His 2020 memoir The Chiffon Trenches provided a frank account of racism within the fashion industry, and his dismissal from Vogue by editor Anna Wintour. Famously secret about his private life, he became increasingly isolated in his final years, dying in 2022 aged 73.