The Vogue editor’s legacy, and who might replace her

Steven McIntoshEntertainment reporterReutersDame Anna has stepped down as Vogue’s editor-in-chief, however will nonetheless oversee the journal’s contentDame Anna Wintour had simply despatched off her first version of US Vogue in October 1988 when the journal obtained a telephone name from the printers. They’d seen the difficulty’s entrance cowl, and had one query: “Has there been a mistake?”The quilt, Dame Anna’s first as editor-in-chief, featured a lesser-known mannequin, Michaela Bercu, smiling on the digital camera in a classy Christian Lacroix couture jacket.However two issues have been notably completely different from ordinary: the mannequin was standing outdoors, on the street, and sporting a pair of denims. The printers half-assumed there had been some sort of error. “I could not blame them,” Dame Anna later recalled. “It was so in contrast to the studied and stylish close-ups that have been typical of Vogue’s covers again then, with tons of make-up and main jewelry. This one broke all the foundations.”The denims had, the truth is, been a last-minute addition, after the skirt which Bercu was speculated to put on did not match correctly. However the supposed message was clear: the duvet star was an everyday, on a regular basis lady – and this was a brand new period for Vogue.Condé NastDame Anna stated the duvet “appeared simple, informal, a second that had been snapped on the road, which it had been, and which was the entire level”Dame Anna’s arrival, and need to defy conference, “signalled a revolution” on the journal, based on CNN Type’s Oscar Holland, who praised her debut concern as “heat and easygoing”. After two years in command of British Vogue, Dame Anna had been employed for the US version exactly to shake issues up. She was tasked with ensuring the journal did not lose its edge because it headed in the direction of the Nineties. Within the a long time since, Dame Anna has “steered the title from shiny print editions that includes first supermodels then grunge, by way of Noughties superstar tradition and actuality TV stars, into an internet period of social media and digital publishing,” famous the Occasions’ trend editor Harriet Walker.However this week, Dame Anna introduced she can be stepping again as Vogue’s editor-in-chief after 37 years. She’s going to stay writer Condé Nast’s chief content material officer, a task she was appointed to in 2020, which suggests she’s going to nonetheless oversee Vogue’s content material, together with the corporate’s different titles corresponding to GQ, Wired and Tatler. However whereas she could also be staying with the corporate, her departure as editor-in-chief marks the top of a unprecedented period for the journal, which helped to outline popular culture.Getty ImagesDame Anna, pictured in 1990, was recognized for her sun shades and bobbed haircut from early in her careerDame Anna will probably be remembered for “the higher sense of informality that she dropped at her early Vogue covers” and the tone they set, says Dr Kate Strasdin, senior lecturer on the Falmouth College’s Style and Textile Institute.”She additionally pioneered the superstar cowl picture, positioning standard tradition beneath the well-known Vogue banner.”In her first 12 months as editor-in-chief, Dame Anna put Madonna on the duvet, the primary superstar to have featured, as a part of her wider mission to merge the phrases of trend and leisure.”She was the primary to make trend a worldwide, cultural business,” Marian Kwei, a stylist and contributor to Vogue, instructed BBC Radio 4’s At this time. However, she provides, Dame Anna “additionally confirmed that trend could possibly be extra approachable”. “She took away the elitism that was in trend, and introduced a democratisation, and made trend this celebration that everyone else was invited to.”It hasn’t at all times been clean crusing, nonetheless. In 1993, animal rights group Peta occupied her workplace in protest over Dame Anna’s choice to put on fur, one thing she now not does.There have been arguably occasional cultural missteps, too. The LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen cowl in April 2008 sparked a debate about whether or not it bolstered previous stereotypes of race and energy.Extra just lately, Dame Anna confronted a way more existential problem – easy methods to transfer Vogue into the digital age with vastly elevated competitors.In 2018, designer Philip Plein in contrast the variety of Vogue’s readers with the variety of Instagram followers Kim Kardashian had.”So what’s extra necessary these days for a model?” he requested. “That is an attention-grabbing query.”Former British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman stated Dame Anna has a “enormous job” as Conde Nast’s chief content material officerIn a fast-moving media panorama, some business watchers might wonder if Dame Anna was quietly requested to step down by Conde Nast to make manner for contemporary blood.However Alexandra Shulman, former editor of British Vogue, stated she doubted this, telling BBC Information: “I do not assume there’s any view {that a} new imaginative and prescient is required. “Anna’s made it completely clear that she’s remaining in management at American Vogue… so I believe she’s going to nonetheless have the ultimate say.”Shulman added that it was probably Dame Anna herself would select her successor at Vogue.’The excessive priestess of our time’Dame Anna is as recognized for her personal picture as a lot because the aesthetic she has created in her magazines. Her trademark sun shades and bobbed haircut are partly what helped her turn into such an immediately recognisable determine. She instructed the BBC’s Katie Razzall final 12 months, considerably cryptically, that her sun shades “assist me see and so they assist me not see… they assist me be seen and never be seen”.The editor has at all times been one thing of an enigma, and will probably be properly conscious that the dialog and hypothesis that surrounds her simply fuels the curiosity additional.However she performed down the give attention to her picture, saying: “I do not actually give it some thought. What I am actually eager about is the inventive facet of my job.”Her status as an editor has, in fact, been broadly debated, Dr Strasdin notes. “The style business has historically been an area the place egos and creativity can conflict spectacularly,” she says, including that documeantries corresponding to The September Situation and First Monday in Could “provide some perception into the strangeness of that world”.Getty ImagesDame Anna (pictured with Vanessa Williams and Sir Elton John) attended The Satan Wears Prada’s gala evening final yearOver time, Dame Anna step by step grew to become a major determine not simply in trend, however western tradition. She is usually referenced in hip-hop lyrics, with Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and Ye (previously Kanye West) among the many artists who’ve name-checked her.”I consider what she has achieved,” mirrored Kwei, “is carved an area in trend, tradition, time, historical past that we are going to by no means have the ability to outdo”.Dame Anna was the free inspiration for Miranda Priestly, the demon journal editor in The Satan Wears Prada, portrayed on display by Meryl Streep.The editor has appeared to get pleasure from often leaning in to the comparability, and final 12 months attended the gala evening for the stage adaptation.However requested if she thought folks have been fearful of her in actual life, Dame Anna replied: “I hope not.”Dame Anna’s affect might be seen in all types of how, together with, for instance, at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wedding ceremony to Lauren Sánchez in Venice this weekend.”She created that second, and nearly created that model,” the previous Solar editor David Yelland instructed the BBC. “It was when she put Lauren Sancehz on the entrance of Vogue in 2023, that the Bezos/Sanchez model began. “She did the identical with Kim Kardashian and she or he did the identical with the Trumps. When she put Ivana on the entrance in 1990 it was extremely controversial, folks referred to as it cheesy, however that was the start of the Trump model within the increased finish of worldwide society. So she’s not simply an editor, she’s the excessive priestess of our time.”Who may change Anna Wintour?Getty ImagesEva Chen, pictured on the Met Gala this 12 months, is taken into account one of many frontrunners for the roleThe query of Dame Anna’s successor is sophisticated. “This can be a difficult period for print media,” explains Dr Strasdin. “Vogue’s social media platforms are regularly underneath hearth for the seemingly relentless superstar content material which critics decry as diluting the mission of Vogue. “However a robust digital presence is important. Eva Chen, as director of trend partnerships for Instagram, brings that experience. She has lengthy been a Met Gala common and needs to be on the longlist I ought to assume.””Chioma Nnadi should even be within the working,” she continues. “She hails from London, and has spent the final two years heading up editorial content material at British Vogue. She is Wintour’s protege and it does really feel as if she has been ready within the wings.”Different doable candidates, based on the Every day Mail’s trend editor Margaret Abrams, embody former head of Teen Vogue Amy Astley, who nonetheless works for Condé Nast modifying one other journal. Vogue’s senior editor Chloe Schama, her namesake Chloe Malle, editor of Vogue’s web site, and even Dame Anna’s personal daughter, movie producer Bee Shaffer Carrozzini, may be within the body.”As ever trend is thought to be each superficial and economically precious,” says Dr Strasdin. “Anna Wintour has needed to tread the tightrope of sustaining relevance so far as type is worried at the exact same time that trend has needed to endure re-evaluation in relation to sustainability, plagiarism and labour situations. “I believe these are the very actual issues that her successor must navigate.”