'You can make a film in Hollywood without Steven Spielberg's blessing, and you can publish software without Bill Gates's blessing, but you can't succeed in fashion without Anna's blessing.'
BY MELISSA WHITWORTH | 25 MARCH 2011
Anna Wintour's cover for WSJ Magazine.
Anna Wintour has been the undisputed queen of the $350 billion fashion industry since taking over the editorship of American Vogue in 1988.
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She is the cover star - in a shoot by Mario Testino - of WSJ Magazine , the Wall Street Journal's glossy weekend magazine, which goes on sale tomorrow in the US. The accompanying story seeks to explain why Wintour, after all these years, is still the most powerful figure in fashion.
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R. J. Cutler, the producer of "The September Issue", tells the magazine: "You can make a film in Hollywood without Steven Spielberg's blessing, and you can publish software without Bill Gates's blessing, but you can't succeed in fashion without Anna's blessing."
Wintour transcends the boundaries of what a fashion magazine editor does. She has, for example, urged the French government to fund young designers; organised an annual night of shopping called "Fashion's Night Out" to help New York's struggling retailers through the recession; and vigorously promoted young talent - like Marc Jacobs - to the bosses of the luxury conglomerates. Jacobs took the reins at LVMH's Louis Vuitton in 1997 largely because of Wintour's tutelage.
Of finding new talent to feature in the magazine - Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and LeBron James, the basketball star, have been a few eyebrow-raising inclusions over the years - she says: "There are people who are like beacons, and I'm in the fortunate position that I can meet such people.
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"To be in Vogue means something. Not all of them become friends, but it's part of my job to get to know these people and try to understand who they are, what they are and what future they have. I won't pretend that I'm sitting here with a spreadsheet . . . 'Now it's time to reach out to LeBron James.' It's instinctive."
Jacobs says: "Her genius is picking people very astutely, whether in politics, movies, sports or fashion."
Harvey Weinstein has had a 15 year-long friendship with Wintour. "I'm a streak player, but Anna's there, good or bad," says Weinstein. "When I wasn't doing so well, Anna would throw a party and put me next to Bernard Arnault."
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When Baz Luhrmann was drowning in bad press before the release of "Moulin Rouge!" (which went on to win two Oscars) he sent Wintour an early, half-finished cut of the film. He says he "always listens" to what Wintour has to say.
Despite, or perhaps because of, her power, Wintour has endured years of derision and been called all sorts of unflattering nicknames - the most prevalent being "Nuclear Wintour" because of her so-called icy demeanour.
"She gets such a bad rap. She stands by the people she believes in, and if you're not one of those people, perhaps you take a different view," says Jacobs.
Once, Wintour told a press conference, "It's true, of course, that I beat all my assistants, lock them in a cupboard and don't pay them." She took the release of "The Devil Wears Prada" in her stride, showing up at the premiere of the film... wearing Prada, of course.
The storyline of "The Devil Wears Prada" centres around a failed attempt at a coup to overthrow the editor in chief, Miranda Priestley, played by Meryl Streep, and replace her with a rival French editor.
For years, there have been rumours that Wintour would be ousted at Vogue and replaced by Carine Roitfeld, the former editor of French Vogue.
S.I.Newhouse, her proprietor, tells WSJ Magazine that he never plans to replace her. "Never. I hope she's here 10 years from now, 20 years from now."
