Fashion & Lifestyle

Tracee Ellis Ross says Andre Leon Talley and Thierry Mugler were “very impactful” to her sense of style.

The ‘Black-ish’ star lamented on the “heartbreaking” loss of her two friends – who both recently died at aged 73 – explaining that the creative director and the fashion designer led her to “be courageous” with her sartorial choices.

The 49-year-old actress told InStyle magazine: “Andre and Thierry Mugler were very impactful in my life and my willingness to be courageous in my own style and taste. I think it’s heartbreaking. I really do. There’s an era that is leaving us. An era of craftsmanship and expertise and longstanding experience.”

Tracee labeled Andre – whose career spans many fashion bibles including Interview, Women’s Wear Daily and Vogue – as a “treasure”.

She said: “He made a mark in a world and in an industry where they weren’t looking for him to make a mark. The way he occupied space as a Black person in a world that hunts Black men — he just was a treasure.”

The former ‘Girlfriends’ star – who is the daughter of the Supremes icon Diana Ross – gushed about her love of clothes came from her 78-year-old mother.

Tracee said: “I just really like clothes, okay? I’ve always been like this. I was the girl that was picking up the beads that came off of my mom’s dress on stage, and I would keep them in little film canisters just to look at them.”

Despite her mother’s superstar status, Tracee revealed that she “was extremely present”, saying that the ‘Upside Down’ hitmaker would do things like “waking us up for school, sitting for dinner with us and giving us a genuine, anchored, real family life and home life. The most important thing to my mother was not fame, it was her children.”