Game, Set, Match

Thoughts on Anna Wintour's exit from American Vogue

Also in this issue:

• Jonathan Anderson’s Dior debut

• Former Dior Homme designer Kris Van Assche’s new art show

Anna Wintour at the Met Gala in 2022.

Anna Wintour does nothing—nothing—by chance. Everything is planned and executed with perfection. An issue of Vogue. The Met gala. Her hair. This is her forte. This is her hallmark.

Thus why she chose last Thursday, June 26, to announce her abdication as Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue.

As I clearly remember—maybe I’m the only writer still on the fashion beat who has been around long enough to remember—she secured that position during the last week of June, 1988. You know, when Ronald Reagan was still the U.S. president.

This is how it played out:

On June 28, New York Daily News gossip columnist Liz Smith reported on the “Live at Five” TV program that longtime Vogue Editor-in-Chief Grace Mirabella had been fired, and replaced by Wintour, who was then editor of House and Garden, another Condé Nast magazine.

I was working for Washington Post Fashion Editor Nina Hyde when the story broke—I had been on the fashion desk for all of two weeks by then—and I can tell you, it was earth-shattering news for the fashion business. Abrupt, and rather brutal, business moves like that just didn’t happen in fashion back then. My colleague Martha Sherrill was assigned the story. According to Sherrill, no one at Condé Nast told Mirabella in advance of the news report that she was out. She heard it from her husband.

From Sherrill’s piece:

“He got home ahead of me,” [Mirabella] remembers of June 28, “and somebody called and said, ‘Listen, have you heard Liz Smith?’” The gossipy “Live at Five” broadcast announced that Anna Wintour, the former editor of British Vogue who arrived in New York less than a year ago to revamp House and Garden, would be taking over Mirabella’s post, the most illustrious in the realm of fashion, Aug. 1.

Thinking at first it was simply another rumor—Seventh Avenue and the city papers had been utterly fascinated with the upheavals taking place at Conde' Nast—Mirabella, 58, called chairman S.I. Newhouse at home that night and was shocked to be told the story was true. In Newhouse's office the next morning she went over the details of her “resignation.”

If Smith broke the story on June 28, she likely heard it on June 27. Which means the deal with Wintour was likely struck on June 26.

Wintour reigned as Editor-in-Chief of American Vogue for 37 years—one year shy of the record, held by Edna Woolman Chase, who ran the glossy from 1914 to 1952.

And now, upon stepping down, Wintour has dissolved the job.

Anyone who follows Wintour knows she plays tennis every day, and is pals with Roger Federer. So allow me to have some fun here.

June 28 (or 26?), 1988: Game.

1988 to 2025: Set

June 26, 1988: Match

Not that she’s going anywhere. Wintour will remain Vogue’s global editorial director, looking after US and international editions of the magazine, as well as Condé Nast’s other glossies, such as GQ, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Bon Appetit, Allure, and Architectural Digest, where I am a regular contributor, at home and abroad. Only The New Yorker, edited by my former Washington Post colleague David Remnick, is not in Wintour’s purview.

A lot of fashion writers have weighed in on Wintour’s departure.

Bronwyn Cosgrave On Fashion

, who was an editor for British Vogue for years under Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Shulman, wrote:

Wintour’s Vogue was too much of a closed shop as fashion became entertainment and new media democratized the designer fashion system she championed. Back in the noughties, when I was covering the Oscars red carpet for BBC’s flagship news show, Breakfast, I scratched my head about why - as Hollywood’s red carpet became a must-watch fashion runway - not one A-list celebrity stylist was ever put on American Vogue’s masthead.

Amy Odell

, author of Anna: The Biography, wrote on her Substack newsletter, Back Row:

It marks the end of an era — and reminds us of the impossibility of having an editorial career like Anna’s ever again.

Rachel Tashjian at The Washington Post noted:

“The change may increase [Wintour’s] influence, as she’ll now have more time to dedicate to Wintourizing the company’s other magazine brands.”

But, Tashjian believes whoever takes over the American Vogue helm will not have even close to the same influence on culture or society, or fashion for that matter, that Wintour has had:

“Now, someone breaking into fashion can start their own Substack, offer commentary on TikTok or intern with a celebrity stylist — all of which feel like more direct routes to success and stability. Would-be editors have found ways to combine the authority of old-school magazine editing with the perks of influencing.”

She’s not wrong.

All I have to say is: Hats off to Anna. She knew what she wanted. She got it. She ran it as she pleased. And she has orchestrated a far more graceful exit than entrance, and is riding off into the sunset.

Onward.

Style Notes:

• Seems I’m not the only one not-falling-over-myself-gaga-in-love with Jonathan Anderson’s debut at Dior Menswear.