Anna Wintour Excited to Usher in ‘the Next Generation of Ideas’ as She Steps Aside at “Vogue”

NEED TO KNOW

• Anna Wintour is stepping back as American Vogue‘s editor-in-chief after 37 years and seeks to replace the role with head of editorial content

• Wintour will stay on as Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and global editorial director at Vogue

• In a statement to Vogue staff, Wintour said she aims to usher in the “next generation of impassioned editors”

Anna Wintour is ready for the next era of American Vogue.

On Thursday, June 26, the longtime editor-in-chief announced she would be stepping aside after 37 years in the role, making room for new leadership.

“Anybody in a creative field knows how essential it is never to stop growing in one’s work. When I became the editor of Vogue, I was eager to prove to all who might listen that there was a new, exciting way to imagine an American fashion magazine,” Wintour told Vogue staff in a meeting on Thursday.

She continued: “Now, I find that my greatest pleasure is helping the next generation of impassioned editors storm the field with their own ideas, supported by a new, exciting view of what a major media company can be. And that is exactly the kind of person we need to now look for to be HOEC for US Vogue.”

Wintour went on to explain that many of her responsibilities at Vogue would remain the same, “including paying very close attention to the fashion industry and to the creative cultural force that is our extraordinary Met Ball, and charting the course of future Vogue Worlds, and any other original fearless ideas we may come up with…and it goes without saying that I plan to remain Vogue’s tennis and theater editor in perpetuity.

“But how thrilling it will be,” she concluded, “to work alongside someone new who will challenge us, inspire us, and make us all think about Vogue in a myriad of original ways.”

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Wintour began her career at Vogue in 1988, taking the reins from former editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella. Wintour immediately started reshaping the magazine and one of her first major moves made history for the brand.

Her first cover (the November 1988 issue), featured model Michaela Bercu in a $50 pair of jeans (the first time denim was on the cover of Vogue) with a $10,000 Christian Lacroix sweater in a fun and relaxed shot photographed by Peter Lindbergh.

“It was so unlike the studied and elegant close-ups that were typical of Vogue’s covers back then, with tons of makeup and major jewelry. This one broke all the rules,” Wintour told Vogue in 2012. “Afterwards, in the way that these things can happen, people applied all sorts of interpretations: It was about mixing high and low, Michaela was pregnant, it was a religious statement. But none of these things was true. I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change. And you can’t ask for more from a cover image than that.”

“It was so unlike the studied and elegant close-ups that were typical of Vogue’s covers back then, with tons of makeup and major jewelry. This one broke all the rules,” Wintour told Vogue in 2012. “Afterwards, in the way that these things can happen, people applied all sorts of interpretations: It was about mixing high and low, Michaela was pregnant, it was a religious statement. But none of these things was true. I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change. And you can’t ask for more from a cover image than that.”

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That groundbreaking cover debut signaled another major magazine advancement that she would be credited for — putting celebrities on the cover. She ushered in a whole new era of magazine cover designs, which the rest of the industry followed.

In 2013, Wintour became the artistic director of Condé Nast and in 2019, earned her third job title when she was named global content advisor.

Wintour’s replacement has been not yet been named.

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