Linda Fargo, Bergdorf Goodman Senior Vice President & Store Presentation Director

"Today, I wanted to paint a shadow of Bill in that specific posture of his, cradling his ever-ready camera with his trusty bike close by, onto our corner here at 57th and Fifth Avenue. It's his corner as much as it's Bergdorf's. We got to know each other slowly and respectfully over 20 years of sharing the same sidewalk and watching the world go by. He was the most enthusiastic supporter of our creative efforts in the windows, and that kept us going. As we all know, Bill had the highest standards for originality, and respect for DIY's and self-mades, and only said what he meant. He didn't have a false bone in that toughened, frail frame of his. Getting him to smile in approval with that childlike glee meant the absolute world to us. That shadow will have to be painted very, very long across all the sidewalks of all the fashionable cities in the world..."

Eric Wilson, InStyle Fashion News Director

“One of the great joys of covering fashion with Bill was just being around someone who remained so enthusiastic about the job, year after year, come what may. In an industry where everyone complains about everything, ­a bad collection, a snotty designer, a perceived slight or, more often than not, a real one,­ he was always grinning delightedly, asking what’s next. The first question he would ask at the start of each season was who was new on the calendar, the weirder, the better. He loved great fashion shows and terrible fashion shows, and relished a good fight, especially when Cathy [Horyn] pricked a designer’s ego with a bad review. 'You tell 'em, Madame Horyn,' he’d say in the car between shows, with his dukes up.

“He is also the only person I have ever known to be happiest during Fashion Week when there was rain or snow in the forecast, simply because it meant people would be dressing differently and eventually jumping over slush puddles (one of his favourite subjects for pictures). But I think the biggest source of his success was his independence, and, as is well known, he seemed to take an almost perverse pleasure in refusing any amenity offered by the designers who were so eager to please him because he cared that much about the integrity of the work. In Paris, while we complained that travel budgets had been slashed so much that a hotel room with a stand-up shower was considered a luxury, he would head off each night for the 50-euro-a-night Hotel Tiquetonne and a cup of soup from a Chinese takeout, and he couldn’t have been happier.

“It’s an example for young journalists that can’t be stressed enough: In his words, as he told me once at a party when he saw me taking an hors d’oeuvre, ‘Beware, child, of falling into the trappings of the rich.’”

Carolina Herrera

“I personally mourn the death of the unique New Yorker, Bill Cunningham. He was a great photographer, artist, and a faithful friend to the fashion world. The city won’t be the same without him.”