After 37 years in command, the heavyweight of the fashion industry, Anna Wintour, leaves her position as editor in chief of the American Vogue magazine.
However, it is not a retirement, since Wintour will maintain a leadership position in the Global Fashion and Lifestyle Editorial Condé Nast (owner of Vogue and other publications, such as Vanity Fair and Glamor).
However, Wintour’s departure from the American edition of the magazine is a great moment for the fashion industry, an industry that she has changed forever.
Fashion magazines fever
Fashion magazines, as we know them today, were formalized for the first time in the nineteenth century. They contributed to establishing the fashion drip theory, according to which the trends were traditionally dictated by certain elites of the industry, including the main magazine editors.
In Australia, getting a monthly number meant having an unusual exhibition to the latest trends in European or American fashion.
Vogue was founded in New York in 1892 by businessman Arthur Baldwin Turnure. The magazine was heading to the elite of the city, initially covering various aspects of the life of high society. In 1909, Vogue was acquired by Condé Nast. From then on, the magazine was consolidated as a fundamental pillar of the fashion publication.
The period after World War especially opened the doors to the massive consumerism of fashion and an expanding culture of fashion magazines.
Wintour became an editor of Vogue in 1988, at which time the magazine became less conservative and more culturally significant.
Without fear of breaking the mold
The fashion editorial industry changed thanks to the bold editorial decisions of Wintour, especially with regard to the covers. Their decisions reflected and dictated the changes in the fashion culture.
The first cover of Wintour in Vogue, published in 1988, combined haute couture garments (Christian Lacroix) with conventional marks (guess jeans washed to the stone), something unpublished. It was also the first time that a vogue cover included jeans, which laid the foundations for a long career that drove the magazine towards new areas.
Wintour was also a pioneer to give prominence to celebrities (instead of only models) in fashion speech. And while he took advantage of big names such as Beyoncé, Madonna, Nicole Kidman, Kate Moss, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, he also presented emerging stars as cover models, often contributing to boost their careers.
Wintour’s legacy in Vogue consisted of raising the fashion of a frivolous catwalk to a powerful industry, which does not fear left. Anywhere else, this is more true than at the MET gala, which is celebrated every year to celebrate the inauguration of a new fashion exhibition at the Institute of the Metropolitan Art Museum.
The event began as a simple fund collection for MET in 1948, before linking to a fashion exhibition for the first time in 1974.
Wintour took care of his organization in 1995. His approach in getting exclusive famous guests helped to boost it until he became the prestigious event that is today.
The theme of this year’s event was “Superfino: black style tailoring.” At a time when the United States faces great political instability, Wintour was recognized for his contribution to the dissemination of black history through the event.
Not without controversy
However, although its cultural influence cannot doubt, Wintour’s legacy in the American Vogue magazine is not exempt from defects.
It should be noted that its constant dispute with the organization of rights of PETA animals (due to its unwavering support for skins) has remained in the background since the days of glory of the anti-Pieles movement.
Wintour has been a direct target of antipic activists, both physically (it was beaten with a Tofu cream cake in 2005 while leaving a chloe parade) and through numerous protests.
This problem was never solved. Vogue has continued displaying and presenting leather clothes, even when the social license to wear animal materials begins to run out.
Fashion becomes more and more political. It remains to be seen how magazines like Vogue will address this change.
The rise of fashion blogs in recent decades has resulted in a wave of fashion influencers, with a multitude of followers, who are challenging the unidirectional structure of “drip” of the fashion industry.
Today, social networks have overcome the influence of traditional media, both inside and outside the fashion world. And with this, the power of fashion editors like Wintour is decreasing significantly.
There will be many things on the march of Wintour as editorial chief, but none as as those that supervised in command of the world’s largest fashion magazine.
This article was originally published by The Conversation.
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