Anna Wintour | |
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 Wintour in 2025 | |
| Born | (1949-11-03)3 November 1949 (age 76) London, England |
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| Years active | 1975–present |
| Employer | Condé Nast |
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| Predecessor | Grace Mirabella |
| Successor | Chloe Malle |
| Board member of | Metropolitan Museum of Art |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
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| Signature | |
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Dame Anna Wintour (/ˈwɪntər/; born 3 November 1949[1]) is a British and American[2][3] media executive who served aseditor-in-chief ofVogue from 1988 to 2025. Currently, Wintour serves as global chief content officer and artist director atCondé Nast.[4] Known for her trademarkpageboybob haircut and dark sunglasses, Wintour is regarded as the most powerful woman in publishing, and has become an important figure in the fashion world, serving as the leadchairperson of the annualhaute coutureMet Gala global fashion spectacle inManhattan since the 1990s. Wintour is praised for her skill in identifying emerging fashion trends, but has been criticised for her reportedly aloof and demanding personality.
Her father,Charles Wintour, who was editor of the London-basedEvening Standard from 1959 to 1976, consulted with her on how to make the newspaper relevant to the youth of the era. She became interested in fashion as a teenager and her career infashion journalism began at two British magazines. Later, she moved to the United States, with stints atNew York andHouse & Garden. She returned to London and was the editor ofBritishVogue between 1985 and 1987. A year later, she assumed control of the franchise's magazine in New York, reviving what many saw as a stagnating publication. Her use of the magazine to shape thefashion industry has been the subject of debate within it.Animal rights activists have attacked her for promoting fur, while other critics have charged her with using the magazine to promote elitist and unattainable views of femininity and beauty.
A former personal assistant of Wintour,Lauren Weisberger, wrote the bestselling 2003roman à clefThe Devil Wears Prada, which was adapted into a2006 film starringMeryl Streep asMiranda Priestly, a fashion editor, believed to be based on Wintour. In 2009, Wintour's editorship ofVogue was the original focus of a documentary film,R. J. Cutler'sThe September Issue. The film's focus switched to the creative teams and more senior fashion editors as filming progressed.[5]
Anna Wintour was born inHampstead, London, toCharles Wintour (1917–1999), editor of theEvening Standard, and Eleanor "Nonie" Trego Baker (1917–1995).[6] Her parents were married in 1940 and divorced in 1979.[7] Wintour was named after her maternal grandmother, Anna Baker (née Gilkyson), a merchant's daughter fromPennsylvania.[8] Audrey Slaughter, a magazine editor who founded publications includingHoney andPetticoat, was her stepmother.[9][10]
Wintour's paternal grandfather was Major-GeneralFitzgerald Wintour, a British military officer and descendant ofGeorge Grenville, who served asPrime Minister of the United Kingdom. Through her paternal grandmother, Alice Jane Blanche Foster, Wintour is a great-great-great-granddaughter of the late-18th-century novelistLady Elizabeth Foster, who was later theDuchess of Devonshire, and her first husband, theIrish politicianJohn Thomas Foster. Her great-great-great-great-grandfather wasFrederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, who served as the AnglicanBishop of Derry.Sir Augustus Vere Foster, 4th Baronet, the last Baronet of that name, was a granduncle of Wintour's.[11] She is a niece ofCordelia James, Baroness James of Rusholme, the daughter of Fitzgerald Wintour.[12]
Wintour had four siblings. Her older brother, Gerald, died in a traffic accident as a child.[13] One of her younger brothers,Patrick, is also a journalist, currently diplomatic editor ofThe Guardian.[14][15]
Wintour attendedNorth London Collegiate School, where she rebelled against thedress code by taking up thehemlines of her skirts.[16] At the age of 14, she began wearing her hair in abob.[17] She developed an interest in fashion as a regular viewer ofCathy McGowan onReady Steady Go!,[18] and from readingSeventeen, which her grandmother sent from the United States.[19] "Growing up inLondon in the '60s, you'd have to have hadIrving Penn's sack over your head not to know something extraordinary was happening in fashion", she recalled.[20] Her father regularly consulted her when he was considering ideas for increasing readership in the youth market.[18]
"I think my father really decided for me that I should work in fashion", she recalled inThe September Issue.[19] He arranged for his daughter's first job, at the influentialBiba boutique, when she was 15.[21] The next year, she left North London Collegiate and began a training program atHarrods. At her parents' behest, she took fashion classes at a nearby school, but soon gave them up, saying, "You either know fashion or you don't."[22] An older boyfriend,Richard Neville, gave her her first experience of magazine production atOz.[23]
In 1970, whenHarper's Bazaar UK merged withQueen to becomeHarper's & Queen, Wintour was hired as one of its first editorial assistants, beginning her career infashion journalism.[24] She told her co-workers that she wanted to editVogue.[25] While there, she discovered model Annabel Hodin, a former North London classmate. Her connections helped her secure locations for shoots byHelmut Newton,Jim Lee[26] and other fashion photographers.[27] One recreated the works ofRenoir andManet using models ingo-go boots.[28] After chronic disagreements with her rival,Min Hogg,[29] she quit and moved to New York with her boyfriend, freelance journalistJon Bradshaw.[30]
In New York City, she became a junior fashion editor atHarper's Bazaar in 1975.[28] Wintour's innovative shoots led editor Tony Mazzola to fire her after nine months.[31] A few months later, Bradshaw helped her get her first position as a fashion editor, atViva, a women's adult magazine started byKathy Keeton, then the wife ofPenthouse publisherBob Guccione, which she has rarely discussed.[32] This was the first job at which she was able to hire a personal assistant, marking the start her reputation as a demanding boss.[33]
In late 1978, Guccione shut down the unprofitable magazine, and Wintour decided to take some time off from work. She broke up with Bradshaw and began a relationship with French record producerMichel Esteban, for two years dividing her time with him between Paris and New York.[34] She returned to work in 1980, succeedingElsa Klensch as fashion editor for a new women's magazine namedSavvy.[35] It sought to appeal to career-conscious professional women who spent their own money,[36] the readers Wintour would later target atVogue.[37]
The following year, she became fashion editor ofNew York.[28] There, the fashion spreads and photo shoots she had been putting together for years finally began attracting attention. Editor Edward Kosner sometimes bent very strict rules for her and let her work on other sections of the magazine. She learned through her work on a cover involvingRachel Ward how effectively celebrity covers sold copies.[38] "Anna saw the celebrity thing coming before everyone else did", Grace Coddington said three decades later.[39] A former colleague arranged for an interview withVogue editorGrace Mirabella that ended when Wintour told Mirabella she wanted her job.[40][41]
She went to work atVogue when Alex Liberman, then the editorial director forCondé Nast and publisher ofVogue, talked to Wintour about a position there in 1983. She accepted after a bidding war that doubled her salary, becoming the magazine's first creative director, a position with vaguely defined responsibilities.[42] Her changes to the magazine were often made without Mirabella's knowledge, causing friction among the staff.[43] She began dating child psychiatristDavid Shaffer, an older acquaintance from London.[44] They married in 1984.[45]
In 1985, Wintour attained her first editorship, taking over theUK edition of Vogue afterBeatrix Miller retired.[46] Once in charge, she replaced many of the staff and exerted far more control over the magazine than previous editors, earning the nickname "Nuclear Wintour" in the process.[47] Those editors who were retained called the period "The Wintour of Our Discontent".[48] Her changes moved the magazine from its traditional eccentricity to a direction more in line with the American magazine. "There's a new kind of woman out there", she told theEvening Standard. "She's interested in business and money. She doesn't have time to shop anymore. She wants to know what and why and where and how."[35]
In 1987, Wintour returned to New York City to take overHouse & Garden. Its circulation had long lagged behind rivalArchitectural Digest,[49] and Condé Nast hoped she could improve it. Again, she made radical changes to staff and look, canceling $2 million worth of photo spreads and articles in her first week.[50] She put so much fashion in photo spreads that it became known as "House & Garment", and enough celebrities that it was referred to as "Vanity Chair" within the industry.[37] These changes worsened the magazine's problems. When the title was shortened to justHG, many longtime subscribers thought they were getting a new magazine and put it aside for the real thing to arrive.[49] Most of those subscriptions were eventually canceled and, while some fashion advertisers came over, most of the magazine's traditional advertisers pulled out.[51]
Ten months later, she became editor of U.S.Vogue. Industry insiders worried that under Mirabella, the magazine was losing ground to the recently introduced American edition ofElle.[35][37] Prior to her appointment as editor ofVogue,Eve Pollard had offered Wintour the position of editor-in-chief atElle.[52]
After making sweeping changes in staff, Wintour changed the style of the cover pictures. Mirabella had preferred tighthead shots of well-known models in studios; Wintour's covers showed more of the body and were taken outside, like thoseDiana Vreeland had done years earlier.[35] She used less well-known models, and mixed inexpensive clothes with high fashion: the first issue she was in charge of, November 1988, featured aPeter Lindbergh photograph of 19-year-oldMichaela Bercu in a $50 pair of faded jeans and a bejeweled T-shirt byChristian Lacroix worth $10,000. It was the first time aVogue cover model had worn jeans,[37] swapped in at the last minute since the skirt Bercu was originally to wear did not fit properly.[53] When the printer saw it, they called the magazine's offices, thinking it was the wrong image.[54]
In 2012, Wintour reflected on the cover:
It was so unlike the studied and elegant close-ups that were typical of Vogue's covers back then, with tons of makeup and major jewelry. This one 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.[55]
Years later, Wintour admitted the photo had never been planned as the cover shot. In 2011, whenVogue put its entire archive online, Wintour was quoted as saying, "I just said, 'Well, let's just try this.'"[56] In 2015, she said if she had to pick a favorite of her covers, it would be that one. "[I]t was a leap of faith and it was certainly a big change forVogue."[57]
"Wintour's approach hit a nerve—this was the way real women put clothes together (with the likely exception of wearing multi-thousand-dollar T-shirts)", one reviewer said. On the June 1989 cover, model Estelle Lefebure was shown in wet hair, with just a bathrobe and no apparent makeup.[37] Photographers, makeup artists, and hairstylists got credited along with the models.[35] In August 2014,Gigi Hadid paid tribute to Wintour's first cover.[54]
She is said to have exerted a great deal of control over the magazine's visual content. BiographerJerry Oppenheimer states that since her first days as editor, she has required that photographers not begin until she has approvedPolaroids of the setup and clothing. Afterwards, they must submit all their work to the magazine, not just their personal choices.[58]
Her control over the text is less certain. Her staff claim she reads everything written for publication,[59][60] but former editor Richard Story has claimed she rarely, if ever, reads any ofVogue's arts coverage or book reviews.[61] Earlier in her career, she often left writing of the text that accompanied her layouts to others; former coworkers claim she has minimal skills in that area.[62] Today, she writes little for the magazine save the monthly editor's letter. She reportedly has three full-time assistants, but sometimes surprises callers by answering the phone herself.[63]
Under her editorship, the magazine renewed its focus on fashion and returned to the prominence it had held under Vreeland.Vogue held its position as market leader against three contenders:Elle;Harper's Bazaar, which had lured awayLiz Tilberis, Wintour's most prominent deputy, andMirabella, a magazineRupert Murdoch created for Wintour's fired predecessor. Her most serious competitor was within the company:Tina Brown, editor ofVanity Fair and laterThe New Yorker.[64]
At the end of the decade, another of Wintour's inner circle left to runHarper's Bazaar.Kate Betts, seen as Wintour's likely successor, had broadened the magazine's reach by commissioning stories with a more hard-news edge, about women in politics, street culture, and the financial difficulties of some major designers. She had also added the "Index" section, a few pages of tips meant to be torn out of the magazine. At staff meetings, she earned Wintour's respect as the only person who publicly challenged her.[65]
The two began to disagree about the magazine's direction. Betts feltVogue's fashion coverage was getting too limited. Wintour in turn thought that the stories with popular culture angles Betts was assigning were beneath readers, and began pairing Betts withPlum Sykes, whom Betts reportedly detested as a "pretentious airhead". Eventually, she left, complaining toThe New York Times that Wintour had not even sent her a baby gift. Wintour wrote an editor's letter that complimented Betts and wished her well.[66]
Betts was one of several longtime editors to leaveVogue around the new millennium. A year later, Sykes, another putative successor, left to concentrate on her best-selling novels set in the city's upper classes and a screenplay. A number of other editors also left to assume the top jobs at other publications. While some of their replacements did not last, a new group of core editors formed.[59]
The September 2004 issue was 832 pages, the largest issue of a monthly magazine ever published at that time, since exceeded by the September 2007 issue covered in Cutler's documentary.[37] Wintour oversaw the introduction of three spinoffs:Teen Vogue,Vogue Living andMen's Vogue.Teen Vogue has published more ad pages and earned more advertiser revenue than eitherElle Girl andCosmo Girl, and the 164 ad pages in the début issue ofMen's Vogue were the most for a first issue in Condé Nast history.[67]AdAge named her "Editor of the Year" for this brand expansion.[68]
Wintour was appointedOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2008 Birthday Honours.[69][70] However, 2008 was a particularly difficult year forVogue, partially as a result of theGreat Recession, but also related to several controversies. The April issue's cover image ofLeBron James andGisele Bündchen brought criticism for its evocation ofracial stereotypes.[71] The next month, a lavishKarl Lagerfeld gown she wore to the Met's Costume Institute Gala was called "the worst fashionfaux pas of 2008". In the fall,Vogue Living was suspended indefinitely, andMen's Vogue cut back to two issues a year as anoutsert or supplement to the women's magazine. At the end of the year, December's cover highlighted a disparaging commentJennifer Aniston made aboutAngelina Jolie, to the former's displeasure; media observers began speculating that Wintour had lost her touch.[72]
In 2008, rumours arose that she would retire, and be replaced by FrenchVogue editorCarine Roitfeld.[73] An editor at RussianGQ reportedly introduced RussianVogue editorAliona Doletskaya as the next editor of AmericanVogue.[74] Condé Nast responded by taking out a two-page ad inThe New York Times defending Wintour's record. In that same publication,Cathy Horyn later wrote that while Wintour had not lost her touch, the magazine had become "stale and predictable", as a reader had recently complained. "To readVogue in recent years is to wonder about the peculiar fascination for the 'villa inTuscany' story", Horyn added. The magazine also dealt awkwardly with therecession, she commented.[73]
In 2009, Wintour began making more media appearances. On a60 Minutes profile, she said she would not retire. "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."[75] A documentary film,The September Issue, byThe War Room producerR.J. Cutler, about the production of the September 2007 issue, was released in September. It focused on the sometimes-difficult relationship between Wintour and creative directorGrace Coddington.[76][77] Wintour appeared on theLate Show with David Letterman to promote it,[78] defending the relevance of fashion in a tough economy.[79] TheAmerican Society of Magazine Editors elected her to its Hall of Fame in 2010.[80]
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In 2013,Condé Nast announced she would be taking on the position of artistic director for the company's magazines while remaining atVogue. She assumed some of the responsibilities ofSi Newhouse, the company's longtime chairman, who, in his mid-80s at the time, was retreating from his role at Condé Nast to oversee managingAdvance Publications, its parent company. A company spokesman toldThe New York Times the position was created to keep Wintour. She described it as "an extension of what I am doing, but on a broader scale."[81]
In January 2014, theMetropolitan Museum of Artnamed its Costume Institute complex after Wintour;[82] First LadyMichelle Obama opened it in May of that year.[83] Wintour starred inThe Fashion Fund, which aired onOvation TV that year as well;[84] she was named the 39th most powerful woman in the world byForbes.[85]
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary ofThe Devil Wears Prada's release, in 2016,The Ringer noted how Wintour's personal image had evolved since that film's depiction of Miranda Priestley. "A decade ago this summer, Wintour became a living, breathing avatar for a certain kind of boss—the terrible kind, with 'great' a halfhearted asterisk", wrote Alison Herman. "The Devil Wears Prada transformed Wintour's image from that of a mere public figure into that of a cultural icon."[86]
But since then, "Wintour isn't just redeemed. She's openly admired, Arctic chill and all." The grievances reflected in the novel and film "[seem] like an increasingly petty complaint when held up against a readership that remains well into the seven figures and the undisputed edge in ad sales that comes with it. Wintour is seemingly the only person on earth who knows how to run a steady print operation in 2016 ... At 10 years old, Miranda Priestley is iconic but ever-so-slightly out of date. Anna Wintour is still the boss..."[86]
Wintour was appointedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the2017 New Year Honours for services to fashion and journalism and invested byQueen Elizabeth II in May 2017 atBuckingham Palace.[87] According to a January 2017 report inThe Nation, an American news magazine, it was rumored that Wintour would have become theUnited States Ambassador to the United Kingdom hadHillary Clinton been elected President of the United States the previous November.[88]
In May 2020, former editor-at-largeAndré Leon Talley released his second memoir,The Chiffon Trenches, which exposed Talley and Wintour's personal falling-out in 2018 after he was discontinued asVogue'sMet Gala red carpet reporter.[89]
In 2020, Condé Nast promoted Wintour to the role of worldwide chief content officer, as part of a company restructuring. In addition, she will be working as global editorial director ofVogue.[90]
In 2023, Wintour suggested the creation of an event similar to theMet Gala in London to raise funds for the local arts scene, which has struggled to recover in the aftermath of COVID.[91]
Wintour was appointedMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the2023 Birthday Honours for services to fashion.[92] In January 2025, she was awarded with thePresidential Medal of Freedom.[93] Wintour stepped down as editor-in-chief ofVogue that June.[94] On 1 September, the magazine announced she would be replaced byChloe Malle, who was promoted from editor ofvogue.com,[95] though Wintour remains global chief content officer ofVogue internationally.[94]
Through the years, she has come to be regarded as one of the most powerful people in fashion, setting trends and anointing new designers. Industry publicists often heard "Do you want me to go to Anna with this?" when they had differences with her subordinates.[96]The Guardian has called her the "unofficial mayoress" of New York City.[97] She encouraged fashion houses such asChristian Dior to hire younger, fresher designers such asJohn Galliano. Her influence extended outside fashion. She persuadedDonald Trump to letMarc Jacobs use a ballroom at thePlaza Hotel for a show when Jacobs and his partner were short of cash. In 2006, she persuadedBrooks Brothers to hire the relatively unknownThom Browne.[96] A protégée atVogue,Plum Sykes,[65] became a successful novelist, drawing her settings from New York's fashionable élite.[98]
Her salary was reported to be $2 million a year in 2005.[99] In addition, she receives several perks, such as a chauffeuredMercedes-Benz S-Class (both in New York and abroad), a $200,000 shopping allowance,[75] and the Coco Chanel Suite at theHotel Ritz Paris while attending European fashion shows.[42] Condé Nast presidentSamuel Irving Newhouse Jr. had the company make her an interest-free $1.6 million loan to purchase her townhouse inGreenwich Village.[100]
Wintour serves as a trustee of theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York,[28] where she has organised benefits that have raised $50 million for the museum'sCostume Institute.[75] She began theCFDA/Vogue Fund in order to encourage, support and mentor unknown fashion designers. She has also raised over $10 million forAIDS charities since 1990, by organising various high-profile benefits.[28]
Wintour has been described as perfectionist,[37] emotionally distant,[101] and hard to approach.[75][102] She agrees she can "get quite angry".[103]
Wintour began dating well-connected older men during her teens. She was briefly involved with novelistPiers Paul Read when she was 15 and he was 24.[104] In her later teens, she dated gossip columnistNigel Dempster and the two became a fixture on the London club circuit.[105]
Wintour married child psychiatristDavid Shaffer in 1984, and they had a son named Charles (born 1985) and a daughter named Katherine (born 1987) before divorcing in 1999. Charles is a graduate of theUniversity of Oxford andColumbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.[106] Katherine wrote occasional columns forThe Daily Telegraph in 2006 and graduated fromColumbia University in 2009,[107][108] and is a New York-based producer withAmbassador Theatre Group. Katherine married Italian filmmakerFrancesco Carrozzini, son ofVogue Italia editor-in-chiefFranca Sozzani, in 2018.[109]
Newspapers andgossip columnists alleged that Wintour's affair with investorShelby Bryan ended her marriage to Shaffer.[110] She declined to comment.[111][112] A former colleague quoted in theObserver said that Bryan "mellowed her" and that she "smiles now and has been seen to laugh".[113]
Wintour lives in New York City'sGreenwich Village.[114]
Wintour says she wakes up at 5:30 a.m., plays tennis, gets her hair and makeup done, and then arrives at theVogue offices at 7:30 a.m. She always turns up at fashion shows well before their scheduled start, stating, "I use the waiting time to make phone calls and notes; I get some of my best ideas at the shows."[107] According to theBBC documentary seriesBoss Woman, she rarely stays at parties for more than 20 minutes at a time and usually goes to bed by 10:15 p.m. at the latest.[115] She turns off her mobile phone so as not to be disturbed while eating her lunch,[116] which is most often a steak or a hamburger without the bun.[111] High-protein meals have been a habit of hers for a long time. A co-worker atHarpers & Queen said that she would eat "smoked salmon and scrambled eggs" every single day and that "she would eat nothing else".[27]
Because of her position, Wintour's wardrobe is often closely scrutinised and imitated. Earlier in her career, she mixed fashionable t-shirts and vests withdesigner jeans. When she started atVogue as creative director, she switched toChanel suits with miniskirts.[42] She continued to wear them during both pregnancies,[113] opening the skirts slightly in back and keeping her jacket on to cover up.[117] Wintour was listed as "one of the 50 best-dressed over 50s" byThe Guardian in March 2013. Aside from sporting Chanel suits with midiskirts, she has also been seen wearing kitten heels and printed midi-dresses.[118]
According to biographerJerry Oppenheimer, her ubiquitous sunglasses are actually corrective lenses, since she has deteriorating vision as her father did. A former colleague he interviewed recalls trying on herWayfarers in her absence and getting dizzy.[119] "I think at this point they've become, you know, really armour", Wintour herself told60 Minutes correspondentMorley Safer, explaining that they allow her to keep her reactions to a show private.[120] As she rebounded from the end of her marriage and the turnover in the magazine's editorial staff, a fellow editor and friend noted that "she's not hiding behind her glasses anymore. Now she's having fun again."[40]
Wintour has supported theDemocratic Party sinceHillary Clinton's 2000 Senate run andJohn Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. She also served as a "bundler" of contributions duringBarack Obama's presidential campaigns in2008 and2012. She co-hosted fundraisers for Obama's campaigns withSarah Jessica Parker, with one being a 50-person, $40,000-per-person dinner at Parker'sWest Village town house withMeryl Streep,Michael Kors, and advertising executive Trey Laird among the attendees. She also teamed withCalvin Klein andHarvey Weinstein on fundraisers during Obama's first term, withDonna Karan among the attendees.[121]
In 2013, whenVogue's former director of communications stepped down, Wintour was rumoured to be looking to hire someone with a political background. Soon after, she hiredHildy Kuryk, who worked as a fundraiser for theDemocratic National Committee and Obama's 2008 campaign.[122][123] She supported Hillary Clinton's2016 presidential campaign, forming part of Clinton's long list of wealthy donors and served as Clinton's consultant on wardrobe choices for key moments of the campaign.[124] Wintour endorsedJoe Biden for the2020 United States presidential election.[125] She has written in favour of fur inVogue, and has used fur in photo spreads.[126] Her changes toVogue have been described as advancing the status of women.[35] She has defended the democratisation of what were once exclusive luxury brands, stating that it is good that "more people are going to get better fashion".[127] An investigation inThe New York Times indicated that black women had been sidelined atVogue during her time there.[128] Wintour apologized to staff for the magazine's complicity in racism.[129]
Lauren Weisberger, a former Wintour assistant[130] who leftVogue forDepartures along with Richard Story, wrote the novelThe Devil Wears Prada after a writing workshop he suggested she take.[131] It was eagerly anticipated for its supposed insider portrait of Wintour prior to its publication.[132] Wintour toldThe New York Times, "I always enjoy a great piece of fiction. I haven't decided whether I am going to read it or not."[133] While it has been suggested that the fashion magazine setting andMiranda Priestly character were based onVogue and Wintour, Weisberger claims she drew not only from her own experiences but those of her friends as well.[134] Wintour herself makes a cameo appearance near the end of the book,[135] where it is said she and Miranda dislike each other.[136]
In the novel, Priestly has many similarities to Wintour—among them, she is British, has two children,[137] and is described as a major contributor to theMet.[138] Priestly is a tyrant who makes impossible demands of her subordinates, gives them almost none of the information or time necessary to comply and then berates them for their failures to do so.[139]
Kate Betts, who had been fired by Harper's after two years during which staffers said she tried too hard to emulate Wintour,[140] reviewed it harshly inThe New York Times Book Review:
Having worked at Vogue myself for eight years and having been mentored by Anna Wintour, I have to say Weisberger could have learned a few things in the year she sold her soul to the devil of fashion for $32,500. She had a ringside seat at one of the great editorial franchises in a business that exerts an enormous influence over women, but she seems to have understood almost nothing about the isolation and pressure of the job her boss was doing, or what it might cost a person like Miranda Priestly to become a character like Miranda Priestly.[132]
Priestly has some positive qualities. Andrea Sachs, the novel's main character, notes that she makes all the magazine's key editorial decisions by herself[141] and that she has genuine class and style.[142]
During the production ofThe Devil Wears Prada in 2005, Wintour was reportedly threatening prominent fashion personalities, particularly designers, thatVogue would not cover them if they made cameo appearances in the film as themselves.[143] She denied it through a spokesperson who said she was interested in anything that "supports fashion". Many designers are mentioned in the film. Only one,Valentino Garavani, appeared as himself.[143]
The film was released in 2006 to great commercial success.[144] Wintour attended the première wearingPrada. In the film, actressMeryl Streep plays Priestly different enough from the book to receive critical praise as an entirely original (and more sympathetic) character.[145][146] Streep's office in the film was similar enough to Wintour's that Wintour reportedly had hers redecorated.[147]
Wintour reportedly said the film would probably go straight-to-DVD.[116] It made over $300 million in worldwide box-office receipts. Later in 2006, in an interview withBarbara Walters that aired the day of the DVD's release, Wintour said she found the film "really entertaining" and praised it for making fashion "entertaining and glamorous and interesting ... I was 100 percent behind it."[148]
That opinion of the film has not yet led her to forgive Weisberger.[149] When it was reported that the novelist's editor told her to start her third novel over, Wintour's spokesman suggested she "should get a job as someone else's assistant."[150]
Oppenheimer suggestsThe Devil Wears Prada may have done Wintour a favour by increasing her name recognition. "Besides giving Weisberger herfifteen minutes", he says, "[it] ... place[d] Anna squarely in the mainstream celebrity pantheon. [She] was now known and talked about over Big Macs and french fries under the Golden Arches by youngfashionistas in Wal-Mart denim inDavenport andDubuque."[149]
WhenThe September Issue was released three years later, critics compared it with the earlier, fictional film. "For the past year or so, she's been on the media warpath to win back her image", said Paul Schrodt inSlant Magazine.[151] Many considered the question of how similar she was to Streep's Priestly, and praised the film for showing the real person.Manohla Dargis atThe New York Times said that Priestly had helped humanise Wintour, and "the documentary continues this".[152] "The movie offers insights that lift it beyond a realist version ofThe Devil Wears Prada", agreed Mary Pols inTime.[153]
The film version of the Weisberger novel (screenplay penned by Aline Brosh McKenna) has not been the only film to have a character borrowing some aspects of Wintour.Edna Mode's similar hairstyle inThe Incredibles (2004) has been noted.[77][101]Johnny Depp said he partially based the demeanour ofWilly Wonka inCharlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) on Wintour.[154]Fey Sommers inUgly Betty (2006–2010) was also likened to Wintour, from the trademark bob and sunglasses, to Wintour's last name homophonous with 'Winter', while ' Sommers' is homophonous with 'Summer'.[155]
...[F]or example a newish magazine is often identified with a particular editor; an example is the association of Audrey Slaughter in the 1960s and 70s with a succession of young women's publications —Honey,Petticoat, andOver 21.
Mr Wintour, who is brother of Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue ...
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)AndMen's Vogue, with 164 pages, was the most ad-laden launch in Condé Nast history
Condé Nast Publications Inc. will fold Men's Vogue into the larger women's Vogue magazine [...] because of faltering advertising sales. Men's Vogue will be published twice a year, the closely held New York-based publisher said today in an e-mail.
It's embarrassing to see how Vogue deals with the recession. For the December issue, it sent a writer off to discover the 'charms' of WalMart and Target. A similar obtuseness permeates a fashion spread in the January issue, where a model and a child are portrayed on a weekend outing with a Superman figure. Is a '50s suburban frock emblematic of the mortgage meltdown?
She became more perfunctory when Dave asked the two questions that probably most interest the non-fashionista. First, what happens to high fashion in a down economy, and second, does anyone wear the really bizarre stuff you see at fashion shows? Wintour's reply to the first question was that fashion is available at all prices, and that's probably true.
Sykes, who is 34, moved to New York from her native Britain in 1996, and has been charting the lives of Manhattan's upper classes, its Park Avenue Princesses, or PAPs, to use Sykes's phrase, ever since.
Lauren's first job after returning to the U.S. and moving to Manhattan was the Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, Anna Wintour.
It's hard to get past the onslaught ofPage Six gossip and film-rights buzz that has precededThe Devil Wears Prada,Lauren Weisberger's thinly veiledroman à clef about her thankless year sidetracked in the trenches of a fashion magazine.
Some of the stories aren't so far away from the tasks either I or my friends in various industries—whether fashion or magazines or PR or advertising—went through our first few years out of college. I imagine that assistants everywhere will recognize some of their own experiences in Andrea's life.
[She] adopted every Anna Wintourism under the sun, down to mannerisms, posture, [a] way of carrying herself in the office, a certain way of crossing her legs, leaning on her elbow at a certain way at her desk. It was eerie, at times, how similar she acted to Anna—always sequestered in her corner office, with her two assistants perched there like little lion guard dogs.
No longer simply the incarnation of evil, she is now a vision of aristocratic, purposeful and surprisingly human grace ... And the movie, while noting that she can be sadistic, inconsiderate and manipulative, is unmistakably on Miranda's side
[Streep] may just have given us a classic here
... after seeing the film, Wintour apparently decided to redecorate her office because the film set was almost an exact replica.
Family love steels her against what she has to face on her job at Mode magazine, which lost its Anna Wintour-like leader Fey Sommers in a car accident.
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| Preceded by | Editor of BritishVogue 1985–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Editor of AmericanVogue 1988–2025 | Succeeded by |
