PROVIDENCE — When André Leon Talley visited Brown University in the Spring of 2019 to talk about his documentary, “The Gospel According to André,” he made a splash — as he always did.
He wore his signature muumuu in brown with a red collared shirt underneath, perhaps a nod to the school colors of his alma mater. He spoke directly to the audience.
“He took over the stage,” Sasha Pinto, a Brown graduate and then member of the Ivy Film Festival, said about the 2019 event. “He commanded the room.”
Talley picked students out of the crowd and asked them to talk about themselves. He even invited some of them to his annual NYC fashion week party, where Naomi Campbell and Marc Jacobs were also guests.
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Talley earned a Masters from Brown, and was earning his doctorate in French when he left the school to start a career in fashion journalism in New York City. There, he rose through the ranks to become an editor-at-large at Vogue — the first Black man to make it that far up on the masthead of a major fashion publication.
Talley died this week at the age of 73. But Brown students are continuing to remember him, inspired by his career and recent appearances on College Hill.
Jack Nelson, a recent Brown graduate, attended the 2019 film event but wasn’t called up to the stage that day. Instead, Talley beckoned him over after a Q&A to say that he liked Nelson’s bag, which had colorful faces and was designed by one of Nelson’s friends. Talley invited him and about 15 other students to a combined runway show/dance party celebrating personal expression and queer identities through fashion, Nelson said.
Talley coordinated the event, connecting students with transportation and designers to dress them for the party.
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Nelson wore a flowing robe by RISD designer Desiree Scarborough to the party. Nelson said he’d never forget the moment Talley asked him to twirl in it for him that night.
“I’ve never felt more fabulous in my entire life,” Nelson said. “And since then, I’ve kind of chased those feelings.”
The party was a turning point for Nelson, who had doubted that a career in art was really possible before hearing Talley speak. The event gave Nelson the confidence to pursue art history, and he now works in New York for Christie’s, the art auctioneer.
If he could take away one lesson from Talley’s life, Nelson said, it’s that “almost everyone you meet will, at one point in time, underestimate you, and it’s your responsibility to prove them wrong.”
Pinto, who helped organize the film event with Talley, stayed in touch with the fashion icon after the festival and the party. She later invited him to events for another group she was involved with, Fashion@Brown.
They corresponded frequently, Talley calling Pinto “fashion girl,” and Pinto always signing off with “your go to girl at Brown.” For Christmas last year, she even sent him some fudge, but thought it was odd that he hadn’t reached back out. She was sad to hear the news Wednesday morning that he’d died.
An avid Vogue reader from an early age, Pinto had long admired Talley, and as someone who would like to pursue a career in fashion, she thought he was a clear example of someone who never gave up.
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“He knew he was the only black man in the front row, and he knew he was facing discrimination,” Pinto said. “But he didn’t allow that to stop him.”
Sydney Taub, a senior at Brown, interviewed Talley for a virtual fashion week event hosted by Fashion@Brown in Spring 2020 and focused their conversation on power, privilege, racism, and love — themes that ran through his life from his upbringing in the Jim Crow South to his fight through the mostly white fashion industry.
“I really wanted to take that opportunity to learn from him as somebody who has changed the way that the fashion industry looks, but also as somebody who has paved the way for BIPOC creatives into the present,” she said.
Taub first became familiar with Talley growing up and watching him judge “America’s Next Top Model.”
“He always had this very larger-than-life presence about him. He seems very regal,” she said. “He was very confident and authoritative in the way that he spoke, and he kind of just lit up a room.”
Taub’s perceptions were confirmed when she hopped on her first call with him to go over technical logistics ahead their conversation. Taub remembers that Talley was warm, reassuring, and asked that they wait until their live conversation to discuss her questions so that he could be as authentic as possible in his responses.
Before they joined the livestream, Talley had one piece of advice for her: “Be yourself, and I will be very warm and enthusiastic and genuine in response.”
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“André is somebody who is very powerful, very passionate about what he does,” Taub said, explaining that there is so much to learn for him. “But he’s genuine, and he’s very true to his roots.”
Colleen Cronin can be reached at colleen.cronin@globe.com.