Anna Wintour on Fashion, Politics and Vogue
By Ray A. Smith
February 9, 2017
With New York Fashion Week kicking off Thursday, Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour wants to talk about a pressing challenge.
How can Vogue make women get excited about fancy dresses and chic handbags at a time when they are paying so much attention to politics and the fashion industry is struggling with lackluster sales?
“Designers don’t live in a vacuum, they are not blind to what’s going on,” Ms. Wintour said in an interview in her office early this week. “They too will be inspired by what they see and that will come out in their work. The next few years are going to be incredibly creative. [Vogue’s] mission is to recognize that and support that and bring that to our audiences.”
Vogue’s March 2017 issue, celebrating its 125th anniversary, makes a statement about women.
Vogue is kicking off fashion week by releasing images of its March issue cover on Vogue.com and social media. The cover blares “Women Rule!” with headlines such as “The Beauty Revolution,” where “no norm is the new norm.” Seven models of different ethnicities and body shapes, including the full-figured Ashley Graham, flank the cover, to emphasize inclusion.
The issue kicks off the magazine’s 125th anniversary, which Vogue will acknowledge in each of the other nine issues to come in 2017, with features on different women, Ms. Wintour said. The March issue highlights pioneering female fashion designers including Miuccia Prada, Tory Burch and Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior’s first female creative director in the house’s 69-year history, plus a diverse array of what it calls “the feistier members of the new generation of models.” It is the first time in Vogue’s history that the magazine features no socialites or celebrities, just women who work in the fashion industry. The goal is to celebrate 125 women by the end of the year.
The issue, which will arrive on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day, and nationally the following week, intends to insert itself, and fashion, into a national conversation. “I think women have been on everybody’s mind after recent results,” Ms. Wintour said, referring to the 2016 presidential election. “It seemed to us that it was time to celebrate and be positive and optimistic and say, “look at all these incredibly talented people we have working not only in fashion but in every possible walk of life.”
The magazine business wrestles with declining print advertising and newsstand sales as readers increasingly access media via the web. Vogue is also facing competition from fashion blogs, some of which have become more influential resources for younger women. Vogue’s parent, Condé Nast, the magazine arm of closely held Advance Publications Inc., has cut staff and shuttered magazines. In recent months it has been putting more effort into digital as marketers move their ad spending from print to online, mobile and video. Vogue published its largest issue in 2012—a 916-page September fall fashion issue with 658 ad pages.
Ms. Wintour is the seventh editor of Vogue and its second-longest serving, behind Edna Woolman Chase, who ran the magazine from 1914 to 1951. In recent years she’s been a prominent Democratic fundraiser. Another passion of hers is tennis, and she can often be spotted in the stands at Opens. Ms. Wintour’s father edited London’s Evening Standard newspaper, and she cut her teeth at print magazines in England and New York before becoming Vogue’s editor in 1988.
Total paid and verified print circulation for Vogue magazine was about 1.2 million for the six months ended Dec. 31, 2016, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. That compares with 1.7 million for InStyle, 1.1 million for Elle, and 761,819 for Harper’s Bazaar during the same period. When adding video-watchers and other digital users to its print circulation, Vogue is number one, according to the Association of Magazine Media.
Vogue was slower than some of its rivals to embrace the Web and social media but has been making up for lost time. It joined Snapchat last February and launched its mobile app last April. Vogue.com got a makeover in 2014. Vogue.com trails the sites of Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and InStyle in terms of monthly U.S. online audience numbers, according to comScore Inc.
“The vision was to capture the spirit of Vogue in digital form,” said Sally Singer, the magazine’s creative digital director. It is more “hour by hour, more oriented toward the user experience.” Vogue.com gained buzz for original videos, including a lively 73 Questions Q&A series with celebrities, a story and editorial on gun violence and its coverage of the Women’s March in January.
Vogue began as a weekly publication for high society New Yorkers on Dec. 17, 1892. It cost 10 cents and the first cover was an illustration. After going through periods of publishing biweekly then periodically monthly, the magazine went to 12 issues a year in January 1973, when Grace Mirabella was its editor. The magazine, which occupied a haloed space among fashion magazines, was known for its glamorous cover photos by renowned photographers, high-taste level and larger-than-life editors such as Diana Vreeland.
When Ms. Wintour took over, she shook things up by putting a model in bluejeans and a T-shirt decorated with a glittery cross on the cover of her first issue, November 1988. She further pushed the envelope by putting celebrities, rather than models on covers. In recent years, she has on occasion put more unconventional stars on the cover such as Lena Dunham and Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Ms. Wintour’s clout and celebrity have continued to rise as she has become the most important figure in fashion, immediately identifiable by her signature bob hairstyle and Chanel sunglasses, which she kept on during the recent interview.
In 2013, Ms. Wintour took on the additional role of artistic director of Condé Nast. Ms. Wintour, 67, said she had no plans to give up her Vogue job to concentrate on the other.
In an era of fashion blogs and social media, Vogue’s print magazine is no longer a necessity to keep up on the latest fashions. Ms. Wintour’s response: “When there is so much information coming to all of us from so many different directions, in a way we can help them edit and be a filter and be their friend.”
Last year, Vogue made its first presidential endorsement, supporting Hillary Clinton. “Obviously we felt it was a moment in history for women,” Ms. Wintour said of herself and her editorial team. At times like that you need to take a leadership position…. To me, it was in support of women.” Ms. Wintour, a strong supporter of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, said she doesn’t think Vogue lost subscribers because of the endorsement.
Michelle Obama appeared on three Vogue covers. First Lady Melania Trump, once appeared on the cover of Vogue in 2005. “We have a tradition of always covering whoever is the first lady at Vogue and I can’t imagine that this time would be any different,” Ms. Wintour said.
