Sunday marked the twentieth year that Anna Wintour has been editing Vogue. Ex-staffer Robin Givhan sent up her former boss, reporting said the editrix was celebrating the milestone “by doing . . . nothing.”
Twenty years atop a magazine is an astonishing feat by itself; that Wintour, seen here in 1988 and 1989, has spent it running Vogue, the fashion bible, is even more impressive. And while she’s weathered more than one scandal, plenty of nasty gossip column items, and the refusal to acknowledge the word “blog,” there’s one thing that, in two decades, hasn’t changed. And the photo pictorial to prove it is below. CONTINUED »
At last night’s Fifi Awards: New York Rangers hockey player Sean Avery walked the red carpet with Vera Wang (who didn’t speak to reporters), but nobody seemed to recognize him except for me. I called him over to talk about his new internship at Vogue, which he just started last week. He claims he’s done his share of photocopies and is not intimidated by Anna Wintour.
At last night’s Costume Institute Gala – which is a cartoon version of Fashion Week, which itself is a cartoon version of reality – celebrities and Anna Wintour wore frilly costumes to The Met in keeping with the theme of “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy,” walking up the red carpeted steps in front of a throng of photographers.
Ms. Wintour was described in this way: “She seemed to be broadcasting a message of total earthly control.” She imagined herself as Storm, from X-Men. “I control the weather,” she said. (It was in the 50s with a few clouds in the sky.)
David and Victoria Beckham blessed the crowd, along with Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, Mary J. Blige, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Giorgio Armani.
Many guests were “unusually” prompt. Not all of them. The mayor showed up late, as did The Donald+Melania, fat people-adverse Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Janet Jackson, Donatella Versace, and Donna Karan.
Some women, like Iman, correctly wore her clothing. Others, like Mischa Barton and Anna Wintour, did not. CONTINUED »
Sean Avery, the New York Ranger who’s set to become a Vogue intern (!) this summer, was hospitalized last night after lacerating his spleen. As Jossip reported earlier, the totally-straight Avery secured the Vogue internship after writing a letter to Anna Wintour. We don’t know what was in the letter, but perhaps Avery and Wintour bonded over being “the most hated man in hockey” and the most-feared woman in fashion, respectively. Avery’s duties at Vogue will include the usual intern bitchwork of messengering gowns, getting coffee, and making photocopies. The AP says that Avery is in stable condition and will only need to be hospitalized for a few days, so it won’t interfere with his Starbucks and Hermès scarf runs. Maybe he should extend his hospital stay, though–he’s gonna have to lose some weight if he wants to fit into those sample sizes.
*we tried to make a hockey ice/icy Wintour pun, but it just wasn’t happening
If it weren’t for his proclivity to sleep with women, guys like hockey player Sean Avery might go by the label “gay.” Yep, the man loves clothes, and we love stereotypes. Though he’s “the most hated man in hockey,” he was likable enough for Anna Wintour, who agreed to hire him as a Vogue intern after he wrote in with the request. Though he’s earning $2 million with the New York Rangers, this summer he’ll be schlepping couture from messengers to the Vogue offices, perhaps even the Men’s Vogue offices, though that won’t do much for his tendency to style girlfriends.
Brooklyn brings out the best in Anna Wintour. We’ve never seen the Vogue editrix look as happy as she did with Marc Jacobs at the Brooklyn Museum’s launch of their Murakami retrospective. We can’t help but wonder what Wintour’s doing with her other hand. Something perverted, probably.
Yesterday we tried to explain, but did not excuse, Vogue’s “King Kong” cover, and assumed neither Anna Wintour nor Annie Leibovitz had any idea their LeBron James-Gisele Bundchen photo would cause so much controversy.
But maybe, in fact, they did. Or at least they should have.
Here’s a World War I enlistment poster (via) from 1917, famous from its era, that encouraged men to sign up with the army to fight the German enemy. (Interestingly, the Germans found it so convincing, they Nazis used the same concept for their own World War II poster.)
It’s hard to imagine Wintour or Leibovitz, or their staffs, in all their years studying photos and imagery, never came across this poster, or understood its racial ramifications with the ape carrying the helpless Lady Liberty. They understood it well enough to put Gisele in an eerily similar dress.
What is this impostor doing sitting front row at Lanvin?
Taking her seat, actually. Comedian Mademoiselle Agnès, made up to look like Vogue’s Anna Wintour, was entitled to her own high profile seating assignment. So why the garb? “It’s an homage, we are doing a story on it and every season we do an episode called See Anna. We talk about the life and work of Miss Wintour and I think it was funny to do this.”
But not everyone saw the comedic value. “I don’t find it humorous at all!,” said a distraught Gilles Bensimon. “She’s a good friend of mine! I like Anna and I don’t like when people falsely make fun of her.”
Then again, perhaps Gilles needs some new friends; he’s been eschewed from any involvement at Elle, where he’s supposedly the “international creative director,” and is biding his time shooting J.C. Penny campaigns.
New York’s turning French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld’s words against Anna Wintour – the article referred to Roitfeld as the “anti-Anna,” after all, but just as frail! – isn’t the only icy chill the Vogue editrix is facing.
Friend, editorial subject, and advertiser Giorgio Armani is also stirring Wintour’s pot.
At a press conference to promote the upcoming Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition “Superheroes,” which the twosome are co-chariing, Armani was slinging INSULTS at her, using slurs like “indifferent.” Indifferent! The, ahem, vitriol might be stemming from Wintour’s call for Italian designers to show their collections closer to each other, to save visiting U.S. editors some traveling expenses. Ms. Wintour’s towncar, after all, cannot ferry her to Milan as easily as it can $400 lunches right here in the city.
After dropping out of a Vogue photo shoot because it might, you know, play up her femininity, Hillary Clinton now faces Anna Wintour’s wrath. In her February editor’s letter, Wintour goes off on Hillary in the most lady-like way for bailing: “Imagine my amazement, then, when I learned that Hillary Clinton, our only female president hopeful, had decided to steer clear of our pages at this point in her campaign for fear of looking too feminine. The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying. […] 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, which served as a bridge for a generation of women to reach boardrooms filled with men. Political campaigns that do not recognize this are making a serious misjudgment.”
And all this after Bill cut Conde Nast cousin GQ off at the balls to keep Hillary looking good.
You know how whenever someone’s nervous about giving a speech or presentation, their quirky-but-unoriginal pal advises them to picture everyone in their underwear? Well, thanks to Starpulse, we now have an all too vivid mental pic of Anna Wintour in her brassiere to conjure up as needed.
Sure, there’s nary a wrinkle in sight, but it turns out she looks gangly and mean even when she’s not wearing a coat made up entirely of puppy-fur! And though we’re impressed to see that Anna still has the body of a much younger woman shiny ten year-old boy, we choose to take comfort in the knowledge that the even the digitalized version of the Stick Figure With No Soul has laugh lines.
Rumors are circulating right this very second that Anna Wintour and Christina Ricci are, in fact, the exact same person. And though we see the resemblance (bobbed haircut, gangly limbs, shared propensity for wearing fire engine red) we can’t help but wonder if the cherubic-faced Ricci’s a bit too upbeat to pass for the much-older maudlin Vogue editrix.
Our verdict? Sorry, Xtina, but unless that hint of a smile playing on your red-tinted lips is really the cruel smirk of a post-firing euphoria, we’re simply not convinced that you’re capable of eating your own offspring. That’s all.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Remember those rumors about what it’s like to interview with Anna Wintour, and how one of her questions is, “What TV star would be appropriate for the cover of Vogue?,” and the correct answer is, “No TV star is big enough for Vogue. Well, perhaps Katherine Heigl, because she’s a movie star, too.” Well, Conde Nast cousin Graydon Carter has made the call: Heigl is his January cover girl. [VF]
Although we can’t always shake the nasty habit of writing in the royal we, occasionally one of our editors decides to shake off the cloak of anonymity to write a short, pithy statement long, rambling diatribe about a topic of their choice. Today, Debbie Newman is that editor.
With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about last-minute costume ideas. And this year, instead of frantically hunting through the on-sale rack at Ricky’s for that elusive half-priced garment that says “Slutty, yet sophisticated,” why not be creative? There are plenty of do-it-yourself costumes* that require minimal effort on your part and are guaranteed to please potentially capable of suiting your needs.
Moderately intrigued? Read on, anyway! After the jump, a complete rundown of the scariest media personalities around with useful tips on how to capture their “essence” without breaking the bank or sacrificing your unique rebelliousness.
With the US Open and Fashion Week both over, what will happen to our favorite imaginary couple, Anna Wintour and Roger Federer?
Page Six doesn’t want the romance to die, and reports that “the comely cougar [Ed: gross] has also feted him with luxe fashions.”
According to an insider, Wintour sends Federer notes that say “This would look great on you.” For any other fashion editor, that would be normal, but for Wintour, that’s code for “I love you.”
The cover of the September Vogue that’ll likely clock in around five pounds? The bee-hived Amy Winehouse, as per the direct orders of Anna Wintour. The Bruce Weber photoshoot already went down in Miami. And lucky Amy, she didn’t have to lose any weight for the affair. [Mirror]
Update: Or not. The fact-checking types at Jezebel say Amy will appear in Fashion Rocks, not Vogue. Even though a separate source swears it’s so.
• Poor, innocent model made to look like Anna Wintour was presumably advised, “it’s less about furs, sunglasses and the bob-haircut, and more about acting like a ‘huge fucking bitch.’”
• Dow director quits out of pure, unadulterated hatred towards Rupert Murdoch.
• In addition to “accidentally” portraying the Queen of England as a tantrum-throwing diva, the BBC has also inadvertently sponsored some fake phone-in competitions. For which they’re truly sorry.
• FYI, The Economist’s readers are younger, smarter, more educated—and way more influential—than you.
• C-Span’s Brian Lamb gives such a fascinating interview (about his objections to living in a “celebrity culture”) that even MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman has trouble screwing it up.
• And speaking of the downsides of a celebrity culture, the “Hott 4 Hill” girl to shill for MSNBC.
As we already know, renegade WWD reporter/creepy faux-firefighter Peter Braunstein was recently convicted for torturing and sexually molesting a former co-worker, and for doing unspeakable things with a fireman’s pole.
As we also know, Braunstein harbored delusions of killing Vogue’s Anna Wintour, which&mto us, at least—seemed both humorous and disturbing, and sparked ingenious punchlines, such as “Braunstein admits to plotting death of Anna Wintour; jeopardizes basis for his insanity plea”*
And, as we learn today, Mr. Braunstein may not have been entirely responsible for his deviant sexual role-playing attack after all. Apparently, society’s to blame! Which, according to the New York Times means, this wasn’t a case of “Crazy Guy Tortures Virtual Stranger For No Reason” so much as it was the launching pad for “The Devil Wears Prada” defense.
Something strange happened in court during the Braunstein “fire fiend” trial. That was the moment when Anna Wintour’s name came up as someone Mr. Braunstein had fantasized about killing. It began to dawn on everyone, from spectators and reporters to, perhaps, the prosecution, that they were about to witness the first use in a high-profile criminal case of the “Devil Wears Prada” defense.
BONUS: Braunstein’s crazy, grammatically inept diary entries are suddenly heart-wrenching cries for help, his incompetent lawyers are now innovative geniuses and author Lauren Weisberger is currently a prescient literati rather than an embittered—and unimaginative—former slave!
And, evidently, the more irrelevant literary and cultural references, the better.
“Because I just feel like it” is the reason firefighting rapist and former WWD run-around-town-er Peter Braunstein scrawled in his journal for wanting to kill Anna Wintour. The revelation – shared by hundreds of fashion designing hopefuls whose dreams the Vogue chief ruins every hour – was revealed yesterday during his trial, where the full details of his plot weren’t unleashed, but his choice for what she would wear in hell (”tropical wear”) was. But why the hatred? Because Anna wouldn’t take his calls. To the journal!
When I was a media reporter, there were many high-profile editors, and God knows they had big egos, but you could still get them on the phone. … Remnick, Carter, Fuller, even Martha Stewart. But Wintour? She just never talked to peons like us.”
And from Post reporter Laura Italiano’s article: “Wintour did not return calls for comment yesterday.”
Better keep an eye on that Italiano.
• PETA is pissed at Anna Wintour for traumatizing innocent peacocks, not inviting PETA to her fancy costume gala.
• Judge disappoints pervy jurors, NYDN by refusing to allow details of Peter Braunstein’s “raunchy sex life” into evidence.
• Only eight legitimate protestors show up to the “Free Paris” rally; everyone else just shows up to laugh, awkwardly watch.
• According to Mayor Bloomberg’s new green plan, dogs are free to roam leash-less in city parks from 9pm to 9am. Which is great news for dog-owners, and horrible news for park-dwelling bums.
• All of New York’s 13,000 cabs to be outfitted with touch-screen computers. Drivers reportedly pissed at the additional expense, afraid Big brother will catch them not picking up black people.
Editorial Director
