How Anna Wintour’s Vogue front covers made a statement to the end | Anna Wintour

Throughout her 37-year tenure as editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour has presided over greater than 400 covers. December 2025’s, on newsstands this week, will show her final earlier than she steps away to concentrate on roles as Vogue’s international editorial director and chief content material officer at Condé Nast.The quilt is actually memorable: a picture of the actor Timothée Chalamet photographed by Wintour’s long-term collaborator Annie Leibovitz in a Celine white polo neck, lengthy cream coat and embroidered denims, standing on a “planet” with a backdrop of a star-filled nebula offered by Nasa.It has had one thing of a unfavourable reception on-line. On Vogue’s Instagram, feedback below the put up embody “I’m simply horrified. It’s offensive with the budgets you have got”, and “if you ask ChatGPT to do your cowl”.“It’s bizarre,” says Jeremy Leslie, the founding father of journal retailer magCulture. “It’s so bizarre that after your preliminary ick, you begin pondering, ‘properly, however possibly she is aware of one thing that I don’t know’, however God assist me, I don’t know what that’s.”There’s an argument that the Chalamet picture sits within the lineage of Wintour’s Vogue covers – with Leibovitz behind the lens and creative references.A part of the shoot options the actor in entrance of Metropolis, a land paintings by Michael Heizer within the Nevada desert, and the quilt – to these acquainted – wittily posits Chalamet, the prince of Hollywood, as The Little Prince, paying homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s traditional illustration of a boy on the moon, for the quilt of the 1943 e-book.Timothée Chalamet on the quilt of Anna Wintour’s final Vogue difficulty for December 2025. {Photograph}: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue/Conde NastIt has actually bought individuals speaking – and that has been a constant thread throughout Wintour’s covers. Her first for US Vogue paired Guess denims with a Christian Lacroix sweater, a mixture of high-low that was radical – and controversial – for a mainstream luxurious trend journal in 1988. This was adopted by photos that outlined their period: a post-scandal Madonna a yr later, supermodels in 1992, a teenage Britney Spears with an American flag in 2001, Michelle Obama as a brand new first woman in 2009, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian on the eve of their marriage ceremony in 2014 and Beyoncé in a flower crown in 2018.There have been additionally moments that have been criticised. The 2008 cowl with LeBron James and Gisele Bündchen was seen as putting James in a racist King Kong trope with Bündchen because the defenceless white girl. The 2010 function and shoot with Asma al-Assad, the spouse of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, was thought to be a misjudged puff piece. The Beyoncé cowl in 2018 was lengthy overdue in being the primary within the journal’s historical past to be taken by a Black photographer, 23-year-old Tyler Mitchell. In the meantime, the latest Lauren Sánchez Bezos cowl was seen as a tone-deaf celebration of the mega wealthy.“General, Anna has performed it very secure,” says Amy Odell, the writer of Anna: The Biography and author behind the Again Row substack. “However she’s poked the bear strategically and well. She has mentioned you possibly can’t do a controversial loopy cowl each single month, however on occasion you should do it to maintain individuals on their toes.”With Chloe Malle now chargeable for covers as the top of editorial content material at Vogue – there isn’t any longer an editor-in-chief place – it’s her process to discover what turns into a speaking level in 2026. Leslie believes Chalamet is a tough act to comply with.skip previous publication promotionSign as much as Style StatementStyle, with substance: what’s actually trending this week, a roundup of one of the best trend journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solvedPrivacy Discover: Newsletters might include details about charities, on-line adverts, and content material funded by exterior events. In case you wouldn’t have an account, we are going to create a visitor account for you on theguardian.com to ship you this text. You possibly can full full registration at any time. For extra details about how we use your information see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.after publication promotion“I can’t assist feeling that this cowl is a big assertion,” he says. “Anna chucking her gloves on the ground and saying, ‘Go on then’, as a result of it’s a rare cowl, and it’s in contrast to every other Vogue cowl.”Odell says Malle can have the problem of who suits Vogue’s concept of wealth and aspiration now. “[It used to be] you may {photograph} the heirs to a frozen meals fortune on their yacht someplace and be like, ‘they’ve such wonderful model’. Now it’s nepo infants, it’s Lauren Sánchez, and other people don’t discover it tasteful any extra … once they’re seen because the American oligarchy, it offends individuals in a method that I don’t suppose it did for many of [Wintour’s] tenure.”The brand new period might, nonetheless, imply much less Wintour-style speaking level covers full cease. “Occasions have modified,” says Leslie. “Condé Nast used to relish having these star editors … they’re extra employee bees 1763183763. So in that respect, maybe Chloe’s not going to look to make an announcement.”Wintour’s personal focus might now flip to Vogue World. The collection of Vogue-branded trend reveals, which started in 2022, have totally different themes throughout totally different cities. The most recent – Vogue Hollywood – featured stars similar to Kendall Jenner and Nicole Kidman in an occasion elevating cash for the victims of the LA wildfires. Subsequent up is Milan, with Vogue World specializing in craftsmanship, happening within the Italian metropolis in September 2026.