Fashion icon André Leon Talley has died at the age of 73. Vogue’s former creative director and one-time editor died Tuesday at a hospital in White Plains, New York. At this time, it’s unclear exactly why he was in the hospital.

André Leon Talley was born on October 16, 1948, in Washington, D.C., to Alma and William Carroll Talley. His grandmother, Bennie Frances Davis, raised him from the time he was two months old while she worked as a maid at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. As a child, Talley said that college students would throw stones at him as he walked through Duke’s campus to buy copies of Vogue. He also said that he was sexually abused as a child. He used his obsession with the Kennedy family and France to escape everything that was going on around him.

The French culture was significant to him, that he majored in French Studies while at North Carolina Central University. He also received a master’s degree from Brown University, where he wrote his thesis on the influence of Black women in the writing of Baudelaire and Flaubert. A chance meeting with Vogue’s editor Carrie Donovan would convince Talley that he had to move to New York. In 1974, he volunteered to help Diana Vreeland at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

Talley was instrumental to Vogue’s vision and direction in the 1980s and 1990s when he eventually worked his way up to become Vogue’s news director, where he helmed from 1983 to 1987. After his time as news director, he moved up again to become creative director in 1988. Talley held his job as creative director for about seven years.

Eventually, he would become Vogue’s editor until 2013, when he officially split from Vogue. Even after his official departure, Talley continued to contribute to Vogue in numerous ways, including podcast appearances. People will remember André Leon Talley for his flair and style and as an innovator in the fashion world. Talley pushed to include more people of color on the runway, specifically Black models.

People will also remember Talley for his consulting work. During Barack Obama’s presidency, he was a stylist for the Obamas and served as a judge on “America’s Next Top Model.” He also made a cameo on “Sex and the City.” Talley worked side by side with Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor in chief, for decades, although the two had a falling out with recent years. Andre Leon Talley is considered one of the first mainstream African-American tastemakers in the United States and an LGBTQ icon. Talley never specifically said he was gay but more fluid than anything in his sexuality.

Fashion lovers worldwide will remember André Leon Talley for his stylish flair and deep fashion knowledge. They will also remember him for his push to get more Black models on the runway when there were few and far between. Above all else, people will remember André Leon Talley for his larger-than-life personality that captured the hearts of everyone he met.