Few have as many enemies, or incite such a sense of dread, as Anna Wintour.
The undoubted ruler of the fashion world, her nicknames range from the ‘Evil Genius of Vogue‘, to ‘Nuclear Wintour’ She’s the inspiration for the villain in her former assistant Lauren Weisberger’s book The Devil Wears Prada, and the mastermind behind the images that have given rise to unrealistic concepts of ‘the perfect body’.
Still, for all the ire directed at her, Wintour’s work as editor-in-chief at American Vogue has been nothing short of revolutionary. In the twilight of print publications, the magazine is standing strong, and Wintour’s understanding of what her reader’s want is the main reason why.
A NEW ERA
Anna Wintour was born in a time of change.
“Growing up in London in the ’60s, you’d have to have had Irving Penn’s sack over your head not to know something extraordinary was happening in fashion.”
It was this kind of insight that lead Wintour’s father Charles, then editor of London’s Evening Standard, to constantly tap her for advice on how to appeal to the youth market. While at the time, Wintour considered fashion little more than an interest, Charles saw shades of greatness in his daughter’s understanding of the industry. He arranged for her to begin working at the prestigious Biba boutique at the age of 15.
The following year, she dropped out of school to begin a training program at Harrods, and take fashion classes at a nearby school (which she quickly gave up).
TRANSITION INTO JOURNALISM
Not long after, Wintour joined the newly established Harper’s & Queen, and immediately distinguished herself as a power-hungry perfectionist. She abhorred indecision and ignorance, with her public displays of disappointment leading to heated arguments with colleagues.
Eventually, she quit, and moved to New York.
Her former boss, Min Hogg, later said: “She had a degree of ambition that must have eaten away at her heart. Fashion was her absolute world, and she did know more about it than me. So she just didn’t know how to deal with having someone like me over her.”
By 1975, she had become a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazzar, but the clashes continued. After nine months, she was fired for ignoring the magazine’s traditional style of fashion shoots in order to take a more innovative approach. Though it lead to Wintour taking an extended break from working, she would later look back on it as a major step forward in her career. Speaking at an industry event, she advised: “I recommend that you all get fired. It’s a great learning experience”.
IN VOGUE
1981 marked a massive change for Wintour. She was hired as an editor for New York, where lead editor Edward Kosner would break many well-established rules in order to allow her creative freedom. It was during this time, after an issue featuring actress Rachel Ward, that she saw the value of celebrity covers. Thanks to Wintour, this would later become an industry norm.
Industry interest in Wintour began to swell. When she was first interviewed by Vogue, where she had wanted to work since becoming a journalist, she was unsuccessful (Wintour told the lead editor interviewing her that she wanted her job).
However, following an intense bidding war between New York and Condé Nast, the publisher’s of Vogue, Wintour became the magazine’s first creative director in 1983.
Based at the British headquarters, the next four years saw Wintour make dramatic changes in a period that those who managed to keep their jobs referred to as ‘the Wintour of our discontent’. Not only did she cut staff, but she decided to take the magazine in a completely different direction in order to align it with its U.S. counterpart. Many of her changes were made without approval, resulting in the kind of friction she had created at Harper’s.
Eventually, Wintour returned to New York, and after a brief stint as editor of House & Garden (which she almost ran into the ground due to the fashion content subscribers were surprised to find suddenly featured within), Wintour became editor-in-chief of American Vogue.
TREND SETTING
Wintour came into the position at a time when the magazine was in heavy competition with the recently introduced American version of Elle.
Her first cover would mark the start of Vogue‘s return to dominance. Featuring an unknown model wearing $50 jeans and a $10,000 jacket, pictured with her eyes half-closed, it looked so unusual that the printers called the magazine to make sure there hadn’t been a mistake.
Wintour later admitted that the shoot had not been planned for the cover, but explained her decision to feature the image: “(The cover) broke all the rules. Michaela wasn’t looking at you, and worse, she had her eyes almost closed. Her hair was blowing across her face. It looked easy, casual, a moment that had been snapped on the street, which it had been, and which was the whole point. Afterwards, in the way that these things can happen, people applied all sorts of interpretations: It was about mixing high and low, Michaela was pregnant, it was a religious statement. But none of these things was true. I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change. And you can’t ask for more from a cover image than that.”
It was just one of the many innovations Wintour would bring to not just Vogue, but the industry as a whole. Her knowledge of the magazine’s readership, and trust in those who followed her creative vision, were just some of the aspects of Wintour’s leadership that became vital in those who followed in her wake.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
NO APOLOGIES
She’d established herself as one of the most commercially-focused editors in fashion, but while the magazine enjoyed unprecedented success, Wintour still found herself at odds with those around her.
It wasn’t long before the staff of Vogue’s competition – Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Mirabella – were filled with exciting, young editors who had left Vogue solely with the intent of escaping Wintour’s personality.
The public too started to turn on Wintour. A love of wearing furs saw her targeted by PETA, while heavy use of Photoshopped images caused outrage from groups campaigning for realistic body images to be portrayed in the media. Famously, Wintour even admitted to ordering Oprah Winfrey to lose weight before she’d be allowed to pose for the magazine.
Wintour was unapologetic, but her reasoning did not sit well with many sections of her readership.
In 2008, controversy seemed to be all Wintour knew. The magazine was denounced as racist, her gown for the Met’s Costume Institute Gala was declared the worst fashion faux pas of the year, and two of her three Vogue spin-off magazines were shut down.
It seemed like Wintour was set to retire. Many in the industry were excited by the rumour, but Wintour had other plans. In an interview with 60 Minutes, she declared:“To me this is a really interesting time to be in this position and I think it would be in a way irresponsible not to put my best foot forward and lead us into a different time.”
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And, for all her elitism and perceived cruelness, she has done exactly that.
Vogue’s subscriber base stands at approximately 1.3 million, an impressive figure at a time where print publications are dying out.
In 2013, Wintour took on the role of artistic director for Condé Nast. In this position she simultaneously championed emerging talent, and turned her attention outside of the industry by launching charity events that have raised over $10 million for AIDS research.
At age 66, Wintour remains the most powerful figure in the fashion world. Love her or hate her, there’s no denying her impact on fashion will resonate just as long as the weapon of mass destruction after which she is nicknamed.