There have been rumors about Anna Wintour’s imminent demise or dismissal from Vogue and Conde Nast for years now. They never really pan out. If anything, Wintour has amassed more power in the past five years or so – she’s arguably the most important editor at Conde Nast, especially with Graydon Carter’s exit from Vanity Fair. That being said, the rumors about Wintour getting pushed out have been especially persistent lately, especially with Graydon’s exit from VF. So what’s really happening? I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure Life & Style wouldn’t have the scoop, but what do I know?
Life & Style magazine is exclusively reporting that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is close to being cut by parent company Condé Nast. Anna, 68, has been the fashion bible’s EIC since 1988 and was made Condé Nast’s artistic director in 2013. Although the publishing company denied Anna is leaving, Edward Enninful, the editor of British Vogue, was recently spied in the NYC office, a bad sign for Anna. “Word is that Anna will be forced out before Memorial Day and Edward will get her job,” the insider tells Life & Style.
Many Condé magazines are struggling, the insider notes, and “Anna’s being blamed for a lot of the problems. Rumor has it that Brides is about to be closed after 84 years. Everyone is worried about other titles being shuttered once Edward takes over.”
“Everyone at Condé knows Anna’s days are numbered,” an insider says. “Top editors are just waiting for her to finally grab her Birkin bag and leave so they can stop pretending to care about what she says and thinks.”
After 35 years at Condé Nast, “Anna couldn’t keep up with the times anymore,” the insider explains to Life & Style.
If it does happen over Memorial Day weekend, it will make sense because one of the biggest items on Wintour’s calendar is the Met Gala, and now that’s done. But it doesn’t make sense because right now, Anna is putting together the September issue and that’s the biggest issue of the year. So who to believe? And I’m sorry, I don’t believe that Edward Enninful is suddenly Conde Nast’s rainmaker. He’s doing some interesting things as the new head of British Vogue, but he hasn’t even been THERE a year, right? Let’s give him some time before we start firing women and replacing them with men, maybe?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
This feels very The devil wears Prada.
MTE.
Between the Met gala and September issue, there would never be an ideal time to fire Anna, but she’s lost her magic and needs to go. I dropped my subscription years ago when Anna started courting Kardashians.
I dropped it years ago when they did a fawning profile of Assad’s wife. The magazine seemed to be saying, she’s beautiful, she’s glamourous, who cares if she’s married to a monster? Imagine a magazine doing a profile of Eva Braun in the 1940s. Up to then I had accepted Vogue for what it was…a magazine about fashion. But I snapped when the Assad profile came out because it was making the statement that beauty and clothes trumped morality. I now read Elle, which has a lot of great longread articles.
Goats,
I totally agree about the Kardashians. I started reading Vogue as a preteen and always found the women interviewed in it to be aspirational/elegant…. and then Kanye and Kim were on the cover. Ugh.
Love your name, by the way. I first saw Goats On The Roof when driving to a friend’s house at Lake Rabun.
I agree she tarnished the brand with Instamodel and Kardashian covers. She was trying to remain current, but so much of a magazine’s influence comes from its newsstand draw, and that comes with putting A-list celebs on your covers, not filler-faced 23 yr olds.
You could see it at the Met Gala this year. Too many Hailie Baldwins and not enough Rihannas.
I dropped my subscription fifteen years ago. The only issue I pick up at the newsstands is the September issue. I’m lucky to live in NYC where British Vogue is easy to find. I really like British Vogue and Spanish Vogue, but the Spanish edition is too damn expensive. It costs almost $25 per issue here.
Yeah it literally reads like L&S just pulled from the movie script for this story!
So I imagine if she’s not fired, their next story will claim that Wintour fought back by sharing a list of designers, photographers, editors, writers, models, all of whom were founded by her, nurtured by her and have promised they will follow her whenever and if ever she chooses to leave. 🙄
I feel she will “retire” after her daughter’s summer wedding to the son of Italian Vogue’s editor
Bye, bye, Fur Hag!
Anna was only editor of UK Vogue for less than two years before becoming US Vogue EIC so Edward taking over would not be too much of a stretch imo…
I have a hard time believing they’d ever do anything other than let her make it seem like it was her decision and do it during a slow time of year. She still has power and pull with certain brands that no one wants to mess with.
This isn’t Devil Wears Prada, brands don’t care about Wintour’s approval anymore. The fact is, print magazines have steeply declined in revenue in the last 10 years. It took a while to hit Vogue, but it finally has. Between a decline in ad pages/subs, and their mediocre web presence compared to other magazines’, Conde can’t justify her inflated salary (not to mention her clothing allowance that is the priciest in the industry).
I do agree that in the end, it will be “her decision” to leave. Likely, Conde will wait to see how her September issue performs ad-wise, then make the call.
That movie cracked me up. “He’s going to change his whole collection because she pursed her lips?”
I can just imagine the tell all book that Anna would write about her time at Vogue
She will not go quietly into retirement. Get your popcorn ready
I threw in the towel on Anna’s Vogue when she printed that fawning piece on Assad’s wife. Maybe we’ll go back to the great editorial pages with a new editor
How much were Vogue paid for that “Desert Rose” piece I wonder, because it was bought and paid for.
Yeah that was absolutely disgusting. Enough shit was already going down in Syria at the time for them to have known better. Ugh
It’s amazing to me how Anna has played the game over the last few years…and in essence, she’s devalued the brand…Miranda Priestly…WOULD NEVA!
There used to be a magnificent and mysterious inaccessibility regarding Vogue…an entrance into Kubla Khan so to speak…but with the way Anna has handled the presence of the internet and the instant, microwave stardom that comes with that aspect…how she has attached herself to the likes of the Kardashians and far too many right-wing fascists…and to me, has stepped away from the thing that makes…Vogue…Vogue…Fashion melded into art…
The “Devil Wears Prada” was the beginning of the end to me for Wintour’s run at Vogue…that mythology devoured the reality…
That magazine definitely needs a change. Not multicultural or even iconic anymore. The Georgina Chapman crap is unbelievable.I find Teen Vogue so much more interesting and thought provoking although I don’t pay attention to the fashion.
THIS!!!!!!!!!! Teen Vogue has been…OUTSTANDING!!!!
yeah so outstanding telling little girls how to have anal sex.
@ Andrea – you do realize the girls are having anal sex? Teaching them safety and protection is the only thing that makes sense at this point.
So thought provoking!! Telling girls how to have anal sex.
Perhaps, but Teen Vogue has also been educating them about real world issues. Their immigration stories are consistently accurate and thoughtful, which is a notable exception in the media.
And?
Maybe if they know and understand the mechanics of what anal sex entails, they can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to do it and, if so, how to do it correctly so their pleasure isn’t dependent on the patience of some dumbass boy who gets his sexual inspiration from p0rn.
Enninful becoming EIC at another magazine wouldn’t be odd in and of itself. My question is, why would he want to? What’s in it for him? American Vogue is a joke and has been so for well over a decade now. He’d be much better served to stay on at British Vogue.
Agreed! American Vogue at this point is a combination of Cosmo and Instagram:the magazine. It’s trash.
He’s nothing to fawn over, literally nothing revolutionary has happened at British Vogue.
As a journalist of many years myself, I’ve come to realize that it’s a platform that makes someone ‘powerful’. Anna knows that many brands and fashion houses won’t value her the way they used to if she lives Vogue. Vogue has made Anna powerful but no matter how powerful you think she is, that power starts declining immediately she loses the platform. She has turned Vogue into a magazine for reality stars, Instagram models, c-list actors and actresses etc. Mind you, she doesn’t mind having mediocre reality stars( Kim Kardashian) and nepotism models ( Kendall Jenner) on the cover of Vogue as long as you’re white. But if you’re black, you have to be excpetional to be considered worthy of a Vogue cover. All the black women that have been on Vogue are exceptional but Anna prefers promoting mediocre whites for reasons best known to her. For instance, If Kim Kardashian can be on Vogue cover, why not NeNe Leaks who is a black equivalent of Kim? Why can’t we see Taraji, Gabrielle, Tiffany, Viola, Normani, Vanessa Williams, Kelly Rowland, and other beautiful black women on Vogue cover? Are the Bella sisters, and the Kardashians whom she always promotes better?
I agree except that Nene Leaks is the black equivalent of Kim, wasn’t Nene the one that told someone in her audience that she hoped she was raped?
I don’t agree that NEne is the equivalent of Kim K, they are just both reality stars. But I agree with the rest of your comment, a black woman has to win an Oscar or be Beyonce to be on Vogue but Blake Lively can get on the cover promoting a failed business venture. Disgusting!
Nell, thank you so much for writing this. When I saw that Lena Dunham had made the cover of U.S. Vogue, I was even more “done” than I already was. She can get the cover, but someone like Viola or Taraji can’t? Alrighty then.
American Vogue is crap, but lets be honest British Vogue ain’t much better.
As for Anna I think “the end” is coming, but I’ll believe it when I see it, I’ve got a felling she’s got some tricks up her sleeve!
Agree, British Vogue is not much better and Edward isn’t that great of an improvement.
Yep.
I truly hope they don’t hire Edward. He can be bought as much as Anna, it seems.
Do we believe Life & Style as a credible source tho?
Life & Style is not a credible source for anything.
They should fire her for having the same haircut for the past 35 years…
No no and no. She retires and is given a big a send-off. (And she won’t have to workin the Freedom Tower anymore.)
How about we fire awful women and replace them with other, less awful women?
Just the three references to The Devil Wears Prada on this thread. I thought there’d more.
She’s done great things in her time but I cancelled my subscription the day a Kardashian was on the cover.
I wrote and said, “You have the right to do whatever you want, but doing this shows me you no longer care about being the preeminent magazine devoted to fashion and style. And that’s what I looked for when I subscribed.”