Legend of the fashion industry and long-time Vogue journalist Andre Leon Talley has died at the age of 73.

Talley, who had already been admitted to hospital for a pre-existing illness, reportedly died of a heart attack according to a spokesperson for Graydon Carter, the founder of Air Mail which was the first to report the news.

So far, the cause of Talley’s initial hospitalisation has not been released.

A trailblazing figure who, during the ’80s and ’90s, spearheaded the success of American Vogue alongside editor Anna Wintour, Talley has been one of the most prominent names in the fashion industry.

An endless source of inspiration whose background was in fact literary rather than couture (he had achieved a Masters in French Literature from Brown University)  his career saw him working with some of the most iconic editors, artists and stylists in the world including Diana Vreeland, Andy Warhol and of course Ms Wintour and Grace Coddington.

His life was just a varied and colourful as the fashion that he loved, the wardrobe he had cultivated as an extension of his own persona and artistic ideology.

A one-time Paris editor for Women’s Wear Daily, he also spent decades building the Vogue brand across the world. First as creative director then as editor-at-large.

News of Talley’s death has seen tributes from the fashion world’s biggest names.

Diane Von Furstenberg shared a photo of Talley, saying “no one saw the world in a more elegant and glamorous way than you did.”

Zac Posen wrote “Thank you for the wisdom, the support over many years of friendship.”

Talley was also instrumental in the push for a more inclusive industry, fighting to have more people of colour involved in runways, shoots but also supporting are more diverse catalogue of designers.

When his best-selling book The Chiffon Trenches hit the shelves, it opened up the pain and drama occurred within the hallowed halls of Condé Nast and in particular, the fallout of his friendship with fashion’s empress Anna Wintour.

The world is a lot less with his passing.