Singapore - Last month, two things marked the passing of an era in the world of fashion.

In the first, International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes captured the zeitgeist in her piece, The Circus Of Fashion, which lamented the fashion parade bloggers put up for the cameras at fashion weeks. To her, it marked a sour and cynical twist in an industry that used to be characterised by originality and some measure of integrity, but which is now dictated by designers stumbling over themselves to ply bloggers with free clothes to be photographed in.

She wrote: "There is a genuine difference between the stylish and the show-offs - and that is the current dilemma. If fashion is for everyone, is it fashion?"

In the same month, it was also announced that Mr Andre Leon Talley, editor-at-large of American Vogue for 25 years, would be leaving the publication to join Numero Russia, also as editor-at-large.

He will also be developing a late-night talk show which he described as blending Dick Cavett - a legendary American talk show host - with "unparalleled access into my international fashion lifestyle".

Mr Talley, 63, has also done stints as a fashion correspondent for Entertainment Tonight and a judge on America's Next Top Model from 2009 to 2011.

These TV aspirations allegedly led to his departure from Vogue, even though he will still be contributing to the magazine.

For as long as I can remember, Mr Talley, or ALT as he is popularly called in shorthand, has been an inextricable part of Vogue. So I received the news of his departure with mixed feelings.

While his columns were on-the-money in the heady days of the 1980s and 1990s, they have sometimes had difficulty gelling with the evolving times. The big disconnect was obvious in The September Issue, the 2009 documentary about what happened behind the scenes of putting together the September 2007 issue.

In it, editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and fashion director Grace Coddington were seen doing their jobs, while ALT was depicted playing tennis - to lose weight, under decree by Ms Wintour - sporting a vintage diamond-encrusted Piaget watch and with a Louis Vuitton drinks cooler, tennis racket cover and towel in tow.

This is the man who, in a recent interview with Women's Wear Daily, described screen icon Elizabeth Taylor as having "gaudy taste".

ALT explained in the movie: "I have to get up and approach life with my own aesthetics about style."

Those aesthetics, of course, are driven not only by couture, but also by cash. ln a revealing profile by writer Hilton Als in a 1994 issue of The New Yorker, ALT was quoted as saying: "Magazines are not a Diderot moment of oeuvreness. They are monthly ventures that should amuse and earn money by showing how kind money can be."

Cash, however, is in short supply in many Western households these days and Vogue's "kindness" came across as somewhat ill-conceived when it ran its Hurricane Sandy fashion spread last year featuring models together with firefighters and rescue workers. Never mind that the magazine, together with the Council of Fashion Designers of America, also raised more than US$1.7 million (S$2.1 million) for Sandy relief efforts.

It is no surprise, therefore, that ALT is decamping to Russia which, in some ways, is like New York in the 1980s, with its lavish parties, diamonds, furs and decadence.

It is easy, perhaps, to bid adieu to him by lumping him together with the preening peacocks Menkes wrote about. But that would do a great disservice to ALT's achievements.

He has launched the careers of many young designers, most recently that of Jason Wu, whose clothes ALT had introduced to the First Lady, Mrs Michelle Obama.

He was also a trailblazer in his day, having risen to the top of his profession, almost against the odds.

Ms Daniela Morera, former correspondent for Italian Vogue, said in the 1994 New Yorker article: "He was successful because he wasn't a threat. He'll never be an editor-in-chief. How could America have that dictating what the women of America will wear? Or representing them? No matter that Andre's been the greatest crossover act in the industry for quite some time. Like forever."

America now has a black president, but it will be a while more before it gets its first black male editor of an American women's magazine. If ever.

Would someone like ALT make it if he were starting out in the fashion world today? Chances are he would be lost amid an ever-growing flock of gaily coloured blogging birds, indiscernible in their plumage.

By some bittersweet irony, however, he will still be contributing to Vogue's online edition, which ostensibly makes him now a blogger - albeit one who has definitely earned his stripes. And furs.

Chances are that he will, to borrow a pet term of his, still be having his "moments", for better or for worse. BryanBoy, move over.

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