Anna Wintour's legacy and who might replace her as Vogue editor

 

Dame Anna has stepped down as Vogue's editor-in-chief, but will still oversee the magazine's content

 In October 1988, Dame Anna Wintour had just sent off her first issue of US Vogue when the magazine got a call from the printers. They had seen the issue's front cover, and had one question: "Has there been a mistake?"

 Michaela Bercu, a less-known model, graced the cover, which was Dame Anna's first as editor-in-chief. She was wearing a chic Christian Lacroix couture jacket, and she was smiling at the camera. However, two things stood out from the norm: the model was standing in the street and was wearing jeans. Half of the printers thought there had been a mistake. "I couldn't blame them," Dame Anna later recalled.  "It was so dissimilar to the meticulous and sophisticated close-ups that were typical of Vogue's covers at the time, complete with a lot of makeup and significant jewelry. This one broke all the rules."

 After the skirt Bercu was supposed to wear didn't fit right, the jeans had actually been added at the last minute. However, the intention was clear: the cover girl was a normal, everyday girl, and this was a new Vogue era. Condé Nast Anna Wintour's first Vogue cover in November 1988, showing Michaela Bercu, smiling at the camera in a Christian Lacroix couture jacket and pair of jeansCondé Nast

 "Looked easy, casual, a moment that had been snapped on the street, which it had been, and which was the whole point," Dame Anna said of the cover. Oscar Holland of CNN Style said that Dame Anna's arrival and desire to defy convention "signalled a revolution" at the magazine. He said that her first issue was "warm and easygoing." Dame Anna had been hired to shake things up for the US edition of British Vogue after two years in charge. She was given the responsibility of ensuring that the magazine did not lose its edge as it moved into the 1990s. According to the fashion editor of the Times, Harriet Walker, Dame Anna has "steered the title from glossy print editions featuring first supermodels then grunge, via Noughties celebrity culture and reality TV stars, into an online era of social media and digital publishing" since then. Dame Anna, however, announced this week that she would be leaving her position as editor-in-chief of Vogue after 37 years. She will continue to be chief content officer of publisher Condé Nast, a position she was given in 2020. 

This means that she will still be in charge of Vogue's content as well as that of the company's other publications like GQ, Wired, and Tatler. But while she may be staying with the company, her departure as editor-in-chief marks the end of an extraordinary era for the magazine, which helped to define pop culture.

 Getty Images Anna Wintour at a luncheon at Double's Restaurant in New York City to celebrate the release of Nancy Holmes' new book "Nobody's Fault." From the beginning of her career, Dame Anna, shown in 1990, was well-known for her sunglasses and bobbed haircut. According to Dr. Kate Strasdin, a senior lecturer at the Fashion and Textile Institute at Falmouth University, Dame Anna will be remembered for "the greater sense of informality that she brought to her early Vogue covers" and the tone they set. "She also pioneered the celebrity cover image, positioning popular culture beneath the famous Vogue banner."

 In her first year as editor-in-chief, Dame Anna put Madonna on the cover, the first celebrity to have featured, as part of her wider mission to merge the words of fashion and entertainment.

 "She was the first to make fashion a global, cultural industry," Marian Kwei, a stylist and contributor to Vogue, told BBC Radio 4's Today.  But, she adds, Dame Anna "also showed that fashion could be more approachable".

 "She took away the elitism that was in fashion, brought democracy, and made fashion a party to which everyone was invited," However, things have not always gone according to plan. Peta, an organization that advocates for the rights of animals, occupied her office in 1993 in response to Dame Anna's decision to wear fur, which she no longer does. It's possible that there were also occasional cultural blunders. Dr. Strasdin recalls a debate regarding whether or not the April 2008 cover featuring Gisele Bundchen and LeBron James perpetuated outdated notions of power and race. More recently, Dame Anna faced a much more existential challenge - how to move Vogue into the digital age with hugely increased competition.

 In 2018, designer Philip Plein compared the number of Vogue's readers with the number of Instagram followers Kim Kardashian had.

 "So what is more important nowadays for a brand?"  he asked.  "This is a fascinating query." Photograph of Alexandra Shulman taken in 2016 at the Radio 2 studios Former British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman said Dame Anna has a "huge job" as Conde Nast's chief content officer

 In a fast-moving media landscape, some industry watchers may wonder whether Dame Anna was quietly asked to step down by Conde Nast to make way for fresh blood.

 However, former British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman expressed doubt about this, telling BBC News, "I don't think there's any view that a new vision is needed." "I think Anna will still have the final say because she's made it perfectly clear that she's still in control at American Vogue," says the author. Shulman went on to say that Dame Anna would probably choose her replacement at Vogue. "Our time's high priestess" Dame Anna is as known for her own image as much as the aesthetic she has created in her magazines.  Her trademark sunglasses and bobbed haircut are partly what helped her become such an instantly recognisable figure.

 She told the BBC's Katie Razzall last year, somewhat cryptically, that her sunglasses "help me see and they help me not see... they help me be seen and not be seen".

 The editor has always been something of an enigma, and will be well aware that the conversation and speculation that surrounds her just fuels the interest further.

 But she played down the focus on her image, saying: "I don't really think about it.  What I'm really interested in is the creative aspect of my job."

 Her reputation as an editor has, of course, been widely debated, Dr Strasdin notes.

 "The fashion industry has traditionally been a space where egos and creativity can clash spectacularly," she says, adding that documentaries such as The September Issue and First Monday in May "offer some insight into the strangeness of that world".

 Getty Images Vanessa Williams, Sir Elton John, and Dame Anna Wintour attend the charity gala night for "The Devil Wears Prada Musical" on December 1, 2024, at The Dominion Theatre in London, England, to benefit the Elton John Aids Foundation. Last year, Dame Anna attended The Devil Wears Prada's gala night with Vanessa Williams and Sir Elton John. Over time, Dame Anna gradually became a significant figure not just in fashion, but western culture.  Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, and Ye (formerly Kanye West) are among the artists who have named-checked her in hip-hop lyrics frequently. Kwei remarked, "I believe what she has done is carved a space in fashion, culture, time, and history that we will never be able to outdo," and he agreed. Dame Anna was the loose inspiration for Miranda Priestly, the demon magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada, portrayed on screen by Meryl Streep.

 The editor has appeared to enjoy occasionally leaning in to the comparison, and last year attended the gala night for the stage adaptation.

 Dame Anna, however, replied, "I hope not," when asked if she was afraid of real people. Dame Anna's impact can be seen in all kinds of ways, including, for example, at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wedding to Lauren Sánchez in Venice this weekend.

 "She created that moment, and almost created that brand," the former Sun editor David Yelland told the BBC.  "It was when she put Lauren Sancehz on the front of Vogue in 2023, that the Bezos/Sanchez brand started.

 She did the same thing with Kim Kardashian as well as the Trumps. People thought it was tacky when she put Ivana on the front in 1990; however, that was the beginning of the Trump brand in the upper echelons of global society. Therefore, she is more than just an editor; she is the pharaoh of our time." Who might take Anna Wintour's place? Getty Images Eva Chen at the 2024 Met Gala: "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2024 in New York CityGetty Images

 Eva Chen, pictured at the Met Gala this year, is considered one of the frontrunners for the role

 It's hard to say who will succeed Dame Anna. According to Dr. Strasdin, "this is a challenging era for print media." "The social media platforms of Vogue are frequently criticized for the seemingly incessant celebrity content, which critics claim weakens Vogue's mission. "But a strong digital presence is vital.  That knowledge is brought to the table by Eva Chen, Instagram's director of fashion partnerships. She's been going to the Met Gala for a long time, so I think she should be on the long list." "Chioma Nnadi must also be in the running," she continues.  "She hails from London, and has spent the last two years heading up editorial content at British Vogue.  It does feel as though she has been waiting in the wings because she is Wintour's protégée. Margaret Abrams, fashion editor for the Daily Mail, said that Amy Astley, the former head of Teen Vogue who still edits another magazine for Condé Nast, is one of the other potential candidates. Chloe Malle, Vogue's website editor and senior editor, Chloe Schama, or even Dame Anna's daughter, film producer Bee Shaffer Carrozzini, could also be in the picture. Dr. Strasdin asserts, "As always fashion is regarded as both superficial and economically valuable." "At the same time that fashion has had to undergo reevaluation in relation to sustainability, plagiarism, and labor conditions, Anna Wintour has had to walk the tightrope of maintaining relevance in terms of style.

"I think these are the very real issues that her successor will have to deal with," the author asserts.