Anna
Wintour is best known as the influential editor-in-chief of Vogue
magazine, and for her iconic pageboy haircut and large sunglasses.
Synopsis
Fashion
icon Anna Wintour was born in London, England, on November 3, 1949. She
is the eldest daughter of Charles Wintour, the editor of the London
Evening Standard newspaper. Wintour landed the editorship of American Vogue
in 1988. She revived the publication and became one of the most
influential figures in the fashion industry, known widely for her iconic
pageboy haircut and chilly demeanor.
Early Life
Born
on November 3, 1949, in London, England, to newspaper editor Charles
Wintour and philanthropist Elinor Wintour, magazine editor Anna Wintour
has become an international fashion icon in her role as editor-in-chief
of the highly influential Vogue magazine. She is known for her oversized dark glasses, high heels, sharp bob hairstyle and icy demeanor.
Born
into a family with considerable wealth, Wintour demonstrated a tendency
to do things her own way at an early age. As a teenager, she made the
decision to forgo academics, dropping out of her fancy finishing school
and opting instead for a life that revolved around the tony London life
of the 1960s that she so clearly adored. With her signature
hairstyle—she first went to the bob at the age of 15 and has changed it
very little since then—Wintour frequented the same London clubs of pop
culture's biggest stars, including members of the Beatles and Rolling
Stones.
The management style and drive that Wintour would later
show as a magazine editor was in part inspired by her late father, a
decorated World War II veteran who'd earned a tough, stern, and talented
reputation as editor of the London Evening Standard. Wintour
never shied away from the similarities she shared with the man known as
"Chilly Charlie." "People respond well to people who are sure of what
they want," Wintour told 60 Minutes in May 2009.
Early Editorial Career
Long before Vogue, however, Anna Wintour started out in the fashion department of Harper's & Queen
in London. Over the years, she rose up the editorial ladder and bounced
from publication to publication between New York and London. In 1976,
she moved to New York and took over as fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar. Still in her 20s and still in New York, Wintour left Harper's for a job at Viva, a publication owned by the same outfit that managed Penthouse.
There, Wintour essentially became the magazine's fashion department,
cutting her teeth as a high-end editor and manager. Wintour spent
generously on photographers and shoots, arranging for expensive trips to
places like the Caribbean and Japan.
Following a brief stop at Savvy, where she served again as the magazine's fashion editor, Wintour took a job with New York
magazine in 1981. From the start, Wintour displayed her own sense of
style and direction, even going so far as to bring her own desk to her
new office. It's look: "A contemporary Formica-topped affair on two
metal sawhorses as legs...along with a high-tech chrome-framed chair
with a seat and back made of bungee cords," wrote Jerry Oppenheimer, in
his 2005 unauthorized biography of Wintour, Front Row.
Rise to the Top
In
1986, two years after she married South African psychiatrist David
Shaffer, Wintour returned to London as chief editor of the Condé
Nast-owned British Vogue. Not surprisingly, Wintour had her own ideas about the magazine and where it needed to go.
"I want Vogue
to be pacy, sharp, and sexy, I'm not interested in the super-rich or
infinitely leisured. I want our readers to be energetic, executive
women, with money of their own and a wide range of interests," she told
the London Daily Telegraph. "There is a new kind of woman out
there. 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."
Wintour's
sharp critiques and lack of patience soon earned a few memorable
nicknames: "Nuclear Wintour" and "Wintour of Our Discontent." The
editor, though, relished it. "I'm the Condé Nast hit man," she told a
friend. "I love coming in and changing magazines."
Her next big makeover came in 1987 with another Condé Nast publication, Home and Garden, where she summarily changed the publication's title to HG and managed to reject nearly $2 million of already-paid-for photos and articles.
Grumblings
about Wintour's changes were quick to appear, but her bosses at Condé
Nast were clearly behind her, doling out a salary of more than $200,000
to its demanding editor, and allowing a $25,000 annual allowance for
clothes and other amenities. In addition, the magazine's owners arranged
for Concorde flights between New York and London so Wintour and her
husband could be together.
Taking Charge at Vogue
Wintour's stay at HG didn't last long. In 1988 she was named editor-in-chief of Vogue,
allowing for her return to New York. The move by Condé Nast came at a
time when its signature fashion publication was at a crossroads. A
magazine that had been at the forefront of the fashion world since the
early 1960s, Vogue suddenly found itself losing ground to a three-year-old upstart, Elle, which had already reached a paid circulation of 850,000. Vogue's subscriber base meanwhile, was a stagnant 1.2 million.
Fearing
that the magazine had become complacent or worse, boring, Wintour was
placed atop the editorial masthead with all the freedom, not to mention
financial backing, that she needed to revitalize the publication. In her
more than two-decade reign at the magazine, Wintour more than
accomplished her mission, restoring Vogue,'s preeminence while
producing some truly mammoth magazines. The September 2004 edition, for
example, clocked in at 832 pages, the most ever for a monthly magazine.
Along
the way, Wintour demonstrated fearlessness about forging new ground.
She decisively called an end to the supermodel era, showcasing a
preference for celebrities rather than models on her covers. Wintour was
also the first to truly mix low-end fashion items with more expensive
pieces in her photo shoots. Her debut cover in November 1988 included a
19-year-old Israeli model outfitted in a pair of $50 jeans and a $10,000
jewel-encrusted t-shirt.
Fashion Powerhouse
Despite
her claims to the contrary, Wintour became a force in the fashion
world, not only through her decisions about what to feature in her
magazine, but also by breaking in newer designers and celebrating their
styles. She helped make the careers of such designers as Marc Jacobs and
Alexander McQueen. In recent years, her work has made her a power
broker between designers and retailers. In 2006, she initiated a deal
between men's designer Thom Browne and Brooks Brothers, which resulted
Brown's work appearing in 90 of the retailer's stores.
Over the
years Wintour also demonstrated an ability to speak her mind. As gentle
as she could be about the matter, the editor informed Oprah that she'd
need to lose 20 pounds before she would put her on the cover of her
magazine. And early in 2008, when Hillary Clinton snubbed Vogue
out of fears that appearing too feminine might undermine her
presidential ambitions, Wintour fired back at the Clinton camp with a
letter in the February issue of her magazine.
"The notion that a
contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a
seeker of power is frankly dismaying," she wrote. "This is America, not
Saudi Arabia. It's also 2008: Margaret Thatcher may have looked
terrific in a blue power suit, but that was 20 years ago. I do think
Americans have moved on from the power-suit mentality." 
Of
course, with that power and influence comes a well-documented ego.
Through the years, Wintour developed a reputation for being aloof and
cold. It has been said that she is difficult to work for, and insists
that her staff always look fashion-forward and rail-thin. Wintour, a
mother of two who famously wore Chanel micro-mini skirts throughout her
pregnancies, doesn't exactly deny she can be a demanding person for
which to work. "I'm very driven by what I do," Wintour has said. "I am
certainly very competitive. I like people who represent the best at what
they do, and if that turns you into a perfectionist then maybe I am."
Criticism
One of Wintour's former assistants, Lauren Weisberger, wrote The Devil Wears Prada (2003), a fictionalized account of her days at Vogue.
Her main character, played by Meryl Streep, was a demanding boss not
unlike Wintour. The book was made into a film in 2006, and Wintour
turned heads when she arrived at the film's premiere dressed in Prada.
This move showed critics and fans alike that Wintour was not without a
sense of humor.
"The thing about Lauren's book and this film is
that I do not think fiction could surpass the reality," a UK fashion
editor told a reporter around the time of the movie's release. "You only
have to see Anna's requests for seats at the New York shows to get an
inkling of how art in this instance is only a poor imitation of life.
Most of us just ask for seats in the first or second row. She has her
people request a seat from which she will not have to see or be seen by
specific rival editors. We spend our working lives telling people which
it-bag to carry but Anna is so above the rest of us she does not even
have a handbag. She has a limo. And she has her walkers [Vogue staff
members] Andre Leon Talley and Hamish Bowles, whose main job is to carry
her bits around for her."
In 2006, plans were announced to allow a documentary film to be made about the work done behind the scenes on Vogue's
September 2007 issue. Weighing nearly five pounds, the issue of the
magazine was the largest ever to be published. The movie, entitled The September Issue, was released in August 2009. The movie showed, for the first time, the exacting work required to produce an issue of Vogue. Touted as "the real Devil Wears Prada,"
the movie received wide critical acclaim. However, Wintour came across
as much subdued than the Meryl Streep imitation of her. One critic
described the famous editor as possessing "regal confidence."
Charity and Personal Life
In
general, Wintour appears unfazed by comments about her in the media.
But what doesn't seem to get much mention is her charitable work.
Wintour helped raise money for the Twin Towers fund after the September
11th terror attacks. With the Council of Fashion Designers of America,
she also helped create a new fund to encourage and support up-and-coming
designers. Each year, she also organizes a fundraiser for the
Metropolitan Museum of Art's costume department, which over the years
has brought in some $50 million.
Starting in 2009, Wintour launched her New York City economic stimulus project with the Vogue-sponsored
Fashion's Night Out. The annual event, held in different stores across
the city in September, lets the general public shop and mingle with some
of the elite personalities of the fashion world, including Oscar de la
Renta, Tommy Hilfiger and Wintour herself. Stars, such as Halle Berry
and Sarah Jessica Parker, have also turned out for this fashion
celebration.
Wintour has also thrown herself into politics. In
February 2012, she co-hosted a fundraising event for President Barack
Obama with actress Scarlett Johansson. This "Runway to Win" soiree
offered up Obama-themed fashions and accessories from such designers as
Diane Von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs and Tory Burch. “The runway is no
longer just a runway, it’s now a force for change in politics,” Wintour
told The New York Times.
She and husband David Shaffer
divorced in 1999. The couple has two children together: Charles and
Katherine. She lives in New York City with her longtime boyfriend,
investor Shelby Bryan.
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