Vogue Magazine
Anna Wintour is the Editor-in-Chief of the U.S. edition of Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. A native of London, England, of English and American parentage, she became interested in fashion as a teenager and advised her father Charles, editor of the Evening Standard, on how to better make the newspaper appealing to the youth of mid-1960s Britain. After dropping out of school at 16, she forsook college to start a career in journalism on both sides of the Atlantic that stopped at New York and Home & Garden before she took over at British Vogue and finally the flagship magazine in New York. She succeeded in turning around a faltering product and has been widely recognized in the publishing industry for her success.Like her predecessor Diana Vreeland, she has become a fashion icon in her own right. Her bob haircut and sunglasses have become a common sight in the front row of the most exclusive fashion shows.She has become as much of an institution in the fashion world as the magazine she edits. Universally hailed for her keen eye for fashion trends and support for younger designers, her aloof and demanding persona has earned her the nickname "Nuclear Wintour". A former personal assistant of hers, Lauren Weisberger, wrote the 2003 bestselling roman á clef The Devil Wears Prada, later made into a successful film starring Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, a fashion editor widely believed to be based on Wintour. She has also drawn both praise and criticism for her willingness to use the magazine and its cachet to shape the industry as a whole. Animal rights activists have also singled her out for her continued promotion of fur.While her success at turning Vogue around and her support of the fashion industry and charity work are universally acknowledged, that has not immunized her from criticism.In 2003, one of her former assistants, Lauren Weisberger, published the bestselling roman à clef The Devil Wears Prada. Its antagonist, Miranda Priestly, editor of the fictional Runway, was widely believed to be based on Wintour.Two years later, Wintour was the subject of an unauthorized biography by Jerry Oppenheimer, Front Row: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor In Chief, that drew on many unnamed sources, often with grudges, to paint a similar portrait of the real woman. According to Oppenheimer, Wintour not only declined his requests for an interview but directed others not to cooperate.[32] This is consistent with reports that she goes to great lengths to manage her public image. When she took over as American Vogue editor, gossip columnist Liz Smith reported rumors that she had gotten the job by having an affair with Condé Nast Publications chairman Si Newhouse. Wintour was reportedly furious and made her anger the subject of one of her first staff meetings.[14]There have also been accusations that she has imposed an elitist aesthetic on the magazine, promoting celebrities over fashion personalities and making demands that even prominent subjects change their image before being featured in its pages.
