Not all heroes wear capes. But André Leon Talley did. His signature look, one he adopted early in his life while growing up in Jim Crow-era North Carolina, was reflective of the glamour the former Vogue editor-at-large, who died on Tuesday, saw in his everyday life. Granted, later on, his days were anything but mundane, jet-setting from New York to Paris with the world’s most elite designers, models, editors, and socialites for publications like Women’s Wear Daily, Ebony, and Vogue. But even in his final years, sitting on the porch of his house in White Plains, New York, Talley wore his cape to proclaim just how powerful fashion can be when used as a tool for self-expression.