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Who Is Anna Wintour?

Fashion icon Anna Wintour 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 Condé Nast publication and became one of the most influential figures in the fashion industry, known widely for her iconic pageboy haircut and chilly demeanor. In 2013, Wintour added to her responsibilities at Condé Nast by becoming its artistic director.

Early Life

Wintour was born on November 3, 1949, in London, England, to newspaper editor Charles Wintour and philanthropist Elinor Wintour. 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, 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. Its 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.

From British ‘Vogue’ to American ‘Vogue’

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.

Revitalizing ‘Vogue’: Ending the Supermodel Era, Introducing High-Low Fashion

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 three-decade reign at the magazine, Wintour more than accomplished her mission, restoring Vogue‘s preeminence while producing some truly mammoth issues. 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 photoshoots. 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.

Prolific Fashion Influencer

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 like 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 in 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, Reputation and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’

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 Streep imitation of her. One critic described the famous editor as possessing “regal confidence.”

Met Gala, CFDA Charities and Politics

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. As a board member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she also organizes a fundraiser for the museum’s costume department, which over the years has brought in some $50 million. In October 2017, Wintour made headlines when she appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden, revealing she would never invite Donald Trump to the Met Gala again.

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 more than 800 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. Although the event had successfully expanded worldwide, it closed its doors in New York City after a four-year run, reportedly due to inefficient planning and organizing.

Wintour has also thrown herself into politics. In February 2012, she co-hosted a fundraising event for President Barack Obama with actress Scarlett Johansson. Her “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.

Personal Life

She and her husband David Shaffer divorced in 1999. The couple has two children together: Charles and Katherine. Wintour lives in New York City with her longtime boyfriend, investor Shelby Bryan.

QUICK FACTS

Name: Anna Wintour
Birth Year: 1949
Birth date: November 3, 1949
Birth City: London
Birth Country: United Kingdom
Gender: Female
Best Known For: Anna Wintour is best known as the influential editor-in-chief of ‘Vogue’ magazine and for her iconic pageboy haircut and large sunglasses.
Industries

Journalism and Nonfiction

Astrological Sign: Scorpio
Schools

North London Collegiate School

Fact Check

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CITATION INFORMATION

Article Title: Anna Wintour Biography
Author: Biography.com Editors
Website Name: The Biography.com website
Url: https://www.biography.com/celebrities/anna-wintour
Access Date:
Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
Last Updated: April 15, 2021
Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

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