After the rumors about his departure, Wintour celebrates these days his 30 years at the head of the ‘Vogue’ american. At this time, has become to the magazine (and itself) in a global brand,
His influence goes beyond that: it promotes careers of designers, condemn others… and Cold controller, so it is the most powerful woman in the sector
New York, early in the year 2000. Vogue has gathered a dozen young promises for a story about the designers of the new millennium. There are Hedi Slimane, Nicolas Ghesquière, or Miguel Adrover. The article is titled “Changing the course of fashion”.
Anna Wintour (London, 1949), the all-powerful director of the u.s. magazine, organised a dinner in his honor. “We were the chosen ones,” remember Adrover on the phone from his native Majorca. “Even having dinner at their house, Anna is a character very prepared, acted, like in the movies where you could see to the Caesar or the pharaoh. It is a little mounting everything. Just to tell you that we served a soup with avocado cold in winter…”.
A broth as cold as the hostess -say those who have been treated, as converted into character pop. Set in the circle behind his sunglasses and bangs (apparently, the fruit of timidity), she is the woman who has sat at the very Elizabeth II on the front row of a parade. Distant, controlling, intimidating, hiperpuntual. Imperturbable in the face of criticism and attacks animalists (and on one occasion came to shoot a raccoon dead in a restaurant). Photographers the fear. Managed to piss off Giorgio Armani not to appear in their magazine or to Pierre Bergé (partner and companion of Yves Saint Laurent), not to applaud the teacher after their parade. She is the Icy queen (queen glacier), nuclear Wintour, the villain dressed in Prada… And like in the cliché.
class=”icon-foto_16_g”> First cover of Wintour (November 1988) and this month, with actress Claire Foy . LINDBERGH | SIMS
The difference in sales between the models and the famous was so pronounced that now they are always stars
The first issue of November 1988 was a statement of intent. For the first time a model wore jeans on the cover of Vogue. Yes, combined with a very expensive jacket couture of Christian Lacroix. Time after, Wintour would confess that it was improvised, because the girl he only used the skirt should be made. “It was a cover that is aligned with a new attitude to clothes, a mix of democratic of the elevated and the ordinary, along with a touch edgy and young but sophisticated. It was the quintessence of Anna”, summed up Grace Coddington in his aforementioned memoirs, in which he repeats a complaint to his boss: “magazines now are just trying to fashion that in part.”
“If it were not for Grace Coddington, American Vogue would not have photographic identity that it has,” says the photographer Vallhonrat. “Wintour marks the transition from the fashion magazines that focus on designers and photography and leads to a more universal. Is a woman of enterprise, a gigantic talent publishing company that has been able to turn Vogue in a popular magazine, and generate scopes aspirational, as the gala of the MET. But she, and her photography has little to do: the first thing he did when arriving at the magazine was to cancel the contract with Richard Avedon, the great monster of the photograph, in an exercise of power and editorial brand.”
The Oscars of the East Coast
The gala of the MET has been one of its major milestones. A local charity event that Wintour turned into the Oscars of the East Coast. She decides everything: who sits at each table, what the designer accompanies each famous… Even the linens and flowers. Last year, the big party raised $ 12 million for the Costume Institute (renamed in 2014 Anna Wintour Costume Center), the only department of the new york museum that should be self-financing.
Wintour is an expert in moving money in the industry. After the fall of Lehman Brothers, invented the Fashion’s Night Out to boost consumption. After the 11-S, devised a help for new designers to lift their collections: the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, with $ 400,000 to the winner. Among the fellows, Proenza Schouler or Alexander Wang.
Wintour and her daughter, this week on the 15th anniversary of the CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund. Astrid StawiarzGETTY
Anna could go to a designer and give your opinion about your collection before submission. He had an absolute power
“he Knows that to have your position as a great guru needs a stronger sector,” said Modesto Lomba, president of the Association of Fashion Creators of Spain (ACME). “In all your movements, your goal is to fashion american. It is clear that his power is because he has supported brands and designers, also to young people.”
Wintour exerts that power behind the scenes. Slide names, advises firms, manufacturers of fabrics, sponsors… Even the great pattern of luxury Bernard Arnault (“it leads Us to choices unexpected,” said the owner of the LVMH group the Wall Street Journal). Elections in the big brands that end up dictating what you, reader, you wear when shopping in the firms in low cost. “Anna had the power to go to a designer before they submit the collection and tell him what I thought. He controlled what was going to be a trend. He had an absolute power,” says Adrover. “Has lifted many designers and others have been ostracized,” agrees Urrea.
The hand of Wintour was after the landing of Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, or the return of Galliano after his fateful “I love Hitler”. In The September Issue, recommended to another of his proteges, Thakoon, when Mango will ask for names to hire an external consultant. Since the firm clarified that she was not to work for them. But only a year after the ward became a regular on the wardrobe of Michelle Obama, the cover of Vogueen two occasions.
“Anna has always looked the business. I knew very well when they needed fresh blood to keep the flame alive. To me, in my early supported me a lot. He saw in me something that New York had not passed: a new discourse based on the fusion of cultures, the recycling, the customization, the logos… I am not Really interested in the fashion, but the power of clothes. I think that this was what he saw in me: a new discourse that would fit in very well,” recalls Adrover, today dedicated to the plastic arts, which just received the National Prize of Fashion for the validity of those theses ground-breaking. “Always the [designers] rebbeldes are very welcome at the beginning. What she expects is that suit their interests and taste. I do not I followed your advice and simply left to report”.
Before, that yes, would come the arguments.
New York, end of the year 2000. The magazine is about to deliver its Vogue/VH1 Awards. Offices of Miguel Adrover receive a call: is candidate to the prize to the designer avant-garde. “I was in Egypt, going from Luxor to Aswan on a boat, and I told my public relations. Vogue had phoned: she had to be in New York in a day and a half to attend the delivery. But neither wanted to nor could I, I was in the middle of the Nile”. The next call you receive Adrover is from Anna Wintour.
– Miguel, do you know? You have to be here. I’ve always supported you. And, confidentially, you’ve won.
– Anna, sorry, I won’t be able.
Wintour hangs up. The award carries Ghesquière, today creative director of Louis Vuitton.
“it is Not a woman friendly”
“When he went to Anna Wintour, there was silence. The people were terrified,” recalls Ágatha Ruiz of the Prada. It happened in September of 2015, in the Museum of Costume in Madrid. Wintour came to Spain from the hand of the then ambassador, James Costs, as the great support of president Barack Obama in the campaign.
The editor had 17 years without a visit to our country, and Costs laid a hand of diplomacy. “I must admit that, to ensure their trip, I made a small mischief: I invited her personally during a dinner at the White House, opposite president Obama. I guess you will not let margin to decline,” recalls the former ambassador in his recent book, The american friend (Debate, 2018).
it Was a visit fleeting between the fashion week of Milan and Paris. A photo stolen by one of the guests shows to Wintour with her perfect hairstyle, a dress Gucci that was not yet on sale and sandals by Manolo Blahnik that fits for years. Photographs were forbidden, and also publish their agenda. Order of the team of Wintour.
“For your normal parameters of security and secrecy, Anna acted with incredible generosity”, justifies the Costs. The secret agenda included a talk before 150 elected, a breakfast with a dozen of Spanish designers, meetings with entrepreneurs and with the then minister of Industry, José Manuel Soria, and a gala dinner at the embassy. Among the guests at night, the president of Puig, Marc Puig; Carolina Adriana Herrera, the daughter of the designer; the then director of Vogue Spain, Yolanda Sacristan, the very Ruiz of the Prada, or the daughter of Isabel Preysler, Ana Boyer, and her then-boyfriend (now husband), tennis player Fernando Verdasco.
the people who treated her at that visit match in one word: distance. Woe to those who tried that as Spanish give two kisses… “Is a woman who creates a lot of distance. Is not a woman, sympathetic. It is very cold, I was not relaxed,” recalls Ruiz of the Prada. For Miguel Becer (designer ManéMané), the distance put over the myth that the Wintour: “As the anglo-saxon kept his distance, but he was not haughty. I think the barrier I have set myself. I was going with some trepidation because I was facing this icon, but at that moment it was all easy and close. He was serious and super correct, as if it were Beyoncé, who is never wrong.”
“she Seems aloof, but has an energy of wisdom, a guru, that makes you see that if he says something is right,” recalls Victor Alonso, Maria ke Fisherman.
Wintour was interested in the collections of the designers and gave them some tips, including the change of date for the madrid’s fashion week, which always coincided with other appointments more internationalized. Precisely, from this year, the former pasarela Cibeles has advanced their dates.
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