A man as influential as the size of his headpieces, André Leon Talley is editor-at-large at Vogue and former judge on America's Next Top Model.

The grandson of a sharecropper, Talley was raised in Durham, N.C. by his grandmother. André moved north to attend grad school at Brown; after earning his master's in French literature, he settled in New York and worked briefly for Andy Warhol. In 1983, he joined Vogue as fashion news director, and following Anna Wintour's arrival as editor-in-chief in 1988, he was named creative director. In 1995 he went to Paris as bureau chief for W, returning to Vogue in 1998 to assume the role of editor-at-large. His memoir, A.L.T., was published in 2003, and in 2009 he began his gig on the judging panel of ANTM for several cycles. ALT remains one of Wintour's closest confidantes and writes a regular column for the mag in addition to styling Hollywood's best dressed ladies.

Known for his attention-grabbing wardrobe of Napoleon hats and Fendi furs, Talley has always been a clotheshorse: He says he bounced checks during his younger years to keep himself in posh threads. These days, of course, he has no trouble affording his closet full of size 13 Manolo Blahniks to wear in his salon. [Image via Getty]