For years, Anna Wintour has consolidated power at Conde Nast. Even though she stepped down from running the daily operations at Vogue, she still wields considerable power across all Vogue titles and across Conde Nast’s publications. Whenever the tabloids titter about “this is really the end for Nuclear Wintour,” she just grows stronger. That being said, this John Galliano debacle has been fascinating and I absolutely believe that Wintour is “in trouble.” Specifically, I think the higher-ups at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Costume Institute are all furious with the way Wintour has handled the Galliano crisis. Wintour misjudged this from start to finish, and she had big-name donors and executives going over her head to threaten the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even when Galliano stepped down from the planned exhibition and Met Gala theme, Wintour still came across as defiant and tone-deaf.

Calls for Anna Wintour to take a break — or to release her ironclad grip on Vogue altogether — have hit fever pitch amid John Galliano’s announcement that he was removing himself as this year’s Met Gala theme.

Sources tell Page Six all roads lead back to Wintour’s zest to rehab her pal, when it comes to her latest scandal to rock Condé Nast since being named the company’s global chief content officer and artist director.

“Anna singlehandedly thought she could willfully get [Galliano] back in [fashion]. She’s been at it a long time, and she really misjudged it, and she made him vulnerable while doing that,” an industry insider told us.

“She’s not reading the f–king room … She really overplayed her hand. They really need to take a beat, take a year off, because people don’t have time for this s–t right now,” our source fumed.

In July, Wintour announced “John Galliano: Horizons” as the theme for the 2027 Met Gala. A source close to Wintour insisted the decision wasn’t all based on her influence.

“People seem to think she’s the sole person [making the decision about Met theme],” they said. “It’s a huge amount of people on the Met board that signed off on this. She’s a piece of that.”

“It wasn’t her decision alone, by any stretch of the imagination. His exhibition … people have been speaking about it for at least a couple of years. It was a big group decision. It’s a team effort. Not just her,” they added.

[From Page Six]

This is crazy: “People seem to think she’s the sole person [making the decision about Met theme]…” Yeah, while other people had to sign off on it, Wintour is absolutely the decision-maker here. As I said, she’s consolidated her power over decades, and she’s single-handedly transformed the Met Gala and Costume Institute. Everyone knows that Wintour is the one masterminding everything, so it’s crazy to now say “oh, she’s only a cog in the larger machinery” when sh-t hits the fan.

For what it’s worth, Rob Shuter had a similar exclusive on his Substack, with sources telling him: “People expect a retirement announcement. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon. Anna has had an extraordinary reign, but increasingly people believe we are watching its final chapter. This feels like a mutiny, People who wouldn’t have dared question Anna five years ago are questioning her now. Something fundamental has changed.” I actually agree? This does feel different.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.