Who Are The Best Vogue Editor-In-Chiefs of All Time?

[Bellesimo]

In your opinion,It's up to you.
the best means in term of pure ability and success of magazine

I want to know your opinion.

 

[Gonzalo]

Franca , Carine , Eugenia , Anna

 

[MON]

The incomparable Aliona Doletskaya. Will say this until my dying day - Vogue Russia died the moment Aliona left.

together with Anna Wintour, Carine Roitfeld, and the late Franca Sozzani.

Honorable mention: Angelica Cheung

 

[Bellesimo]

I will see Edward 7 years later from this thread and I want to know what he can do in British editions because I expect from him a lot 555.

 

[GERGIN]

This is my personal ranking

1. Diana Vreeland (US)
2. Grace Mirabella (US)
3. Francine Crescent (Paris)
4. Edna Woolman Chase (US)
5. Franca Sozzani (Italy)
6. Jessica Daves (US)
7. Emmanuel Alt (Paris)
8. Anna Wintour (US)
9. Edward Enninful (UK)
10. Joan Juliet Buck (Paris)

 

[conspicuousconsumer]

I like the last three of the Vogue US Editors for different reasons:
1. Diana Vreeland - it goes without saying really but she was so original and so unique, we will never see another one like her and that is mostly because someone like her couldn’t exist in the atmosphere of the business today. Could you imagine the uproar over Veruschka appearing in African tribal clothes today? Or the feature of the Oriental themed parties by I believe the Rothschilds today? Or even just the simple part of an editor saying to designers “think pink” this season, when you have babies like Raf who won’t let their clothes be photographed with any other designers or brands? To quote Dr. Seuss “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” I am so thankful Diana was able to perform for the world of fashion back then because her voice and vision would have been drowned or beaten down or worse watered down.
2. Anna Wintour - not necessarily the most creative but WAS a terrific business woman and she is the ultimate Star when you think of editors. That is why it is so difficult for me to want her to be removed from Vogue. I hate how she feels the need to be so PC now and try to remake her image. Her image was perfect for her job. Fashion is a tough business and it should be. It’s not for the faint hearted. Also I will add to that, tough surroundings and problems actually usually produce more creative, inspiring or supreme art. That’s why the fashion industry is suffering because it’s to much about trying to make people happy and comfortable. As Diana Vreeland once said to Polly Mellen, “Who needs friends! Get on with it.” That is just me rambling about stuff. Also the reason why I think it would be bad for Anna to leave Vogue is because there are no editors who can spark the attention that she does at this time. Before she became editor of Vogue she was talked about in newspapers, other magazines and television for years across both sides of the Atlantic. And part of her appeal and stardom is why Vogue is attractive and can still demand attention. The people at Condé Nast need to be working on developing or finding that next star editor because no matter what format, print or digital, Vogue remains, it is the editor that can steer more attention to the magazine/brand. Because without a great captain to grab attention/readership/likes all that appeal and mystique will disappear and Vogue will lose its spot as number one and eventually cease to exist. Once there is someone who can grab that attention then Anna needs to be let go. And I would also point out that Condé Nast needs to seriously reconsider letting editors keep their editor title while expanding their role in the company in general because Anna should never have been given any control outside the Vogue brand. Only because as great and powerful as she is, she is spread to thin.
3. Grace Mirabella - she was and is a great representative of American Fashion. And she brought more in-depth and intelligent articles to Vogue. And let’s also not forget she had to be a great business woman because under her leadership Vogue went from 400,000 to 1.2 million with great fluctuations of even higher numbers. Also she didn’t have to put in 300,000 free copies to appease to advertisers like Vogue does now. Also that’s where the September issues actually began to really grow into important issues and in general advertising went through the roof under Grace’s leadership (some October issues being bigger than September issues). Anna simply continued that for as long as she could.
4. Edna Woolman Chase - simply for defining the foundations of Vogue and the fashion industry as a whole. And for her ice-cold quips.
Outside of Vogue US:
1. Franca Sozzani - similar to Diana Vreeland.
2. Carine Roitfeld - it’s really a toss up between her and Emannuelle Alt. I really like Carine’s vision for Vogue Paris but I don’t necessarily want other Vogue editions to look like hers. What was so exciting about magazines 10-15 + years ago was they each represented Vogue but in different ways. American Vogue was the perfect glossy and consumerist magazine, the best of all worlds. British Vogue was just perfect for its English/British reflections. Italian Vogue for the artistic and provocative. And French Vogue for its sensuality, sexuality but then at the same time Haute/Snob appeal. Carine was perfect there. The problem with Carine is she is flighty in my opinion and can’t stick to something til the very end, but she doesn’t have to do that just because I think that Vogue was perfect with her. I’m sure the inner workings with the head honchos was not always pleasant but it made the magazine wonderful at that time. Carine also was close to achieving the star power that Anna possesses.
3. Emannuelle is a more tame version of Carine I think and is continuing in her pattern. But she could be replaced easily.
4. Alexandra Shulman - I know she is controversial but I liked British Vogue under her. However...
5. Liz Tilberis - she was great at British Vogue and wonderful at Harper’s Bazaar. So unfortunate she passed away so young because I think if she had been editor Bazaar may have been on equal footing in all aspects with Vogue once again.
I am still waiting to give final verdict on Edward at British Vogue. A few months I love him but most of them time, I don’t care for his direction.

Now of course these great women (and man) are nothing without their great supporting casts:
Vogue Editors who are or were fabulous and some with who I am lucky to have worked with in minor capacities or have met:
1. Grace Coddington
2. Polly Mellen
3. Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele
4. Carrie Donovan
5. Phyllis Posnick
6. Jade Hobson
7. Andre Leon Talley
8. Hamish Bowles
9. Tonne Goodman

I will give an honorable mention to Camilla Nickerson because her work in the past was superb but these last few years, I feel like she is just there because she is there.
All the other current “editors“ for the most part....who did you sleep with to get your job? Seriously? They have as much styling appeal as a block of concrete.
Also the art direction is absolutely horrible these days. I hate the over use of white space. You don’t need to give an Art Director a salary if all they can do is give you something so basic. As much as everyone wants to be modern sometimes tried and true styles of layouts from the past are best. Give me the great collages and layouts from the late 80s/early 90s. Although Vogue US had perfect art direction from roughly 2004-2010. After that downhill. Alright I think I’m done with going off topic.

 

[justaguy]

My list:

1. Diana Vreeland
2. Grace Coddington
3. Polly Mellen
4. Franca Sozzani
5. Grace Mirabella
6. Carlyle Cerf de Dudzeele
7. Emanuelle Alt
8. Jessica Daves
9. Liz Tilberis
10. Carrie Donovan/Babs Simpson
11. Phyllis Posnick
12. Carine Roitfeld
13. Jade Hobson
14. Tone Goodman
15. Edward Enninful

 

[GivenchyAddict]

Diana Vreeland, Liz Tilberis, Carine Roitfeld, Franca Sozzani and Anna Wintour.

Special mentions to Aliona Doletskaya and Grace Mirabella.

 

[FashionMuseDior]

Emanuel Farneti









I'm just kidding . Diana Vreeland will be the best Vogue Editor of all time for me. The pure creativity and magic she created during her ternure can't be compared. I wish her vogue would've been more diverse in terms of casting and staff but I have to keep in mind that those times were different.

 

[Bellesimo]

Emanuel Farneti









I'm just kidding . Diana Vreeland will be the best Vogue Editor of all time for me. The pure creativity and magic she created during her ternure can't be compared. I wish her vogue would've been more diverse in terms of casting and staff but I have to keep in mind that those times were different.

Why,Does he sucks?
I don't follow Vogue Italia that much but I know that Franca is the god of Vogue outside US.

 

[Bertrando3]

1. Franca Sozzani
2. Angelica Cheung
3. Anna Wintour
4. Tonne Goodman
5. Carine Roitfeld

Franca will remain the very best for me, Meisel and her together made me feel Fashion with a capital letter was a world apart from the real one we live in.

 

[MagFan]

None of them. No one was good from start to finish

Doletskaya name mentioned is such a joke. How many issues you hold in your hands, guys, or your opinion based only on covers and editorials posted here? Her first years were nice just because Anna Harvey was overseeing there. Then mess of reprints, other editions rejects, backstage photos as covers started. And in her last years they had good budget for eds but the rest of the magazine looked awful just because she keept that local (untalented) talent art director Alisa Melikova or what was her name
How god is EIC actually if change of art director completly changes covers or change of fashion director brings new team of photographers? Thats her case. Others were doing work she is praised for

 

[kasper!]

Carine Roitfeld, Franca Sozzani & Liz Tilberis.

 

[Lola701]

I don't feel like I need to mention Vreeland because she became the blueprint for editors.

- Anna Wintour: she became overtime the incarnation of an Editor for it best or it worst. More than her magazine per say, her contribution for young designers is really for me the thing that I respect the most in her career.

- Franca Sozzani: she was irreverent and made the most irreverent move an editor can make regarding her collaboration with Meisel. She created a real anticipation for a magazine that on paper can only reach it domestic market. And maybe what sets her apart from her contemporaries is her love for photography (more than fashion in a way)

- Carine Roitfeld: A total package. Cool is not a word I love but ultimately, her Vogue was just cool. Being in the industry during that rise of VP was kinda great. I don't think any other Vogue had such a frenzy over people of the industry. People loved the magazines, wanted to be in the magazine and wanted to be part of that team. Carine embodied perfectly her magazine and I will forever have a real affection for her plus she had a real influence on my personal style. While her Vogue was much more elitist in taste than Emmanuelle, I think it touched more people.

- Joan Juliet Buck: Her Vogue is kinda underrated but I think her Vogue was the precursor of what a lot of supplements are now. Her magazine was about culture more than it was about fashion, slightly intellectual but never pretentious and it has aged quite wonderfully.

- Francine Crescent: She was Franca before Franca. I can only imagine how tough it was to fight for Newton and Bourdin's ideas and she did it! She defined the identity of VP.


I would love to mention Liz or even Babeth (who made her mark at Vogue) but even if their time at Vogue was instrumental in their careers, they really shines through after Vogue.

 

[caioherrero]

I don't feel like I need to mention Vreeland because she became the blueprint for editors.

- Anna Wintour: she became overtime the incarnation of an Editor for it best or it worst. More than her magazine per say, her contribution for young designers is really for me the thing that I respect the most in her career.

- Franca Sozzani: she was irreverent and made the most irreverent move an editor can make regarding her collaboration with Meisel. She created a real anticipation for a magazine that on paper can only reach it domestic market. And maybe what sets her apart from her contemporaries is her love for photography (more than fashion in a way)

- Carine Roitfeld: A total package. Cool is not a word I love but ultimately, her Vogue was just cool. Being in the industry during that rise of VP was kinda great. I don't think any other Vogue had such a frenzy over people of the industry. People loved the magazines, wanted to be in the magazine and wanted to be part of that team. Carine embodied perfectly her magazine and I will forever have a real affection for her plus she had a real influence on my personal style. While her Vogue was much more elitist in taste than Emmanuelle, I think it touched more people.

- Joan Juliet Buck: Her Vogue is kinda underrated but I think her Vogue was the precursor of what a lot of supplements are now. Her magazine was about culture more than it was about fashion, slightly intellectual but never pretentious and it has aged quite wonderfully.

- Francine Crescent: She was Franca before Franca. I can only imagine how tough it was to fight for Newton and Bourdin's ideas and she did it! She defined the identity of VP.


I would love to mention Liz or even Babeth (who made her mark at Vogue) but even if their time at Vogue was instrumental in their careers, they really shines through after Vogue.

Babeth worked at Vogue?

 

[Lola701]

Babeth worked at Vogue?

Yes she started the hyper influential JILL in the 80’s and after it folded she became a stylist for Vogue but much like Carine, she mostly worked with her friends Lindbergh and Mondino. As she was the first to publish people like von Unwerth, she also worked with her.

But she did VP (Pringle’s era and maybe Buck I don’t remember), Vogue UK and of course Vogue Italia. She stopped when she started Numero.

 

[balmain1914]

Wintour: good at business but BAD at taste
Franca: exceptional taste, well recognized, but not successfully good in items of revenue
Carine: kinda between Wintour and Franca, she embraces US pop culture like putting Paris Hilton on a vogue cover, even her son is now a naturalized US citizen. She is making VP a truly sexual excitement with Parisian marks

 

[testinofan]

1. Carine Roitfeld
   
2. Grace Coddington
3. Polly Mellen
4. Franca Sozzani
5. Tone Goodman
   
6. Grace Mirabella
7. Carlyle Cerf de Dudzeele
8. Emanuelle Alt
9. Liz Tilberis
10. Phyllis Posnick
11. Sarajane Hoare
12. Anna Wintour

 

[Lola701]

Is this about Editors (EIC) or fashion editors?

 

[MON]

Is this about Editors (EIC) or fashion editors?

I was of the impression that it was EICs hence my answer, but upon reading the title, it kinda makes sense to include all editors even the non-EIC ones.