Anna Wintour is rarely caught without her iconic black glasses.
From Claudia Winkleman’s Fagin-inspired gloves to Zendaya’s go-to heels, never underestimate the power of a style signature
If eyes are the window to the soul, Anna Wintour rarely draws the curtains. The editor-in-chief of American Vogue is scarcely seen without her signature, oversized sunglasses, the reasons for which have been much speculated. This week, Wintour finally revealed why she is almost permanently bespectacled — and no, it has nothing to do with light sensitivity.
“[My sunglasses] help me see and they help me not see,” said Wintour, in an interview with the BBC. “They help me be seen and not be seen. They are a prop, I would say.”
Wintour’s shades function as a shield, placing distance between her and whoever is in her presence, be it designers seeking her approval, press trying to discern her reaction to a fashion show, or indeed, the general public. After all, the publishing doyenne became even more famous after the release of the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, having inspired one of its main characters, Miranda Priestly.
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“I think her sunglasses are something to hide behind,” says celebrity stylist Emily Evans. “If you’re wearing dark sunglasses, the other person can’t tell if you’ve seen them or not. I’ve been at [fashion] shows myself where I’ve seen people bombard [Wintour]. If you don’t need to make eye contact with somebody, then you can be a bit more aloof.”
Wintour makes no exceptions; she kept her sunglasses firmly in place while chatting to Queen Elizabeth II during Richard Quinn’s London Fashion Week show in 2018, and refused to take them off during filming for Disney+’s documentary series In Vogue: The 90s. Reportedly, she also remained steadfastly sunglassed while laying off staff at Pitchfork, early this year.
The editor wears sunglasses from multiple brands (Chanel and Prada included) but they are practically indistinguishable, always all-black, “squoval” in shape and at precisely the right height to meet her trademark fringe. They are as integral to her personal brand as her razor-sharp bob.
Wintour is not alone in relying on a particular adornment as both shield and signature. From hat-wearing actors to politicians who are partial to a zany sock, I’ve taken a closer look at celebrities and their emotional-support accessories.
Pharrell Williams is no stranger to an eccentric accessory, namely a vintage 1982 Vivienne Westwood hat that he wore for years before auctioning it for charity, and custom-made, 25-carat diamond sunglasses by Tiffany & Co, which drew controversy after fashion watchdog group Diet Prada flagged their resemblance to a pair of antique Mughal spectacles. Pharrell has since retired them for a pair of Louis Vuitton orange-lensed shades, his latest fixation.
A prescription is reason enough for face furniture, but it also helps if they are impossibly chic. Designer Jenna Lyons started wearing the heavy-rimmed glasses that have become a key part of her signature look when she worked for J Crew. She has also said that the frames obscure scarring above her left eye.
A playful sock or tie lends exactly the right measure of mischief to an otherwise conservative suit; just ask King Charles, who sported a dinosaur-printed tie earlier in this year, purportedly a tongue-in-cheek reference to his “C-Rex” nickname.
Journalists and presenters Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Jon Snow’s neckwear is louder still; Guru-Murthy famously wore a tie featuring gun-wielding cherubs by Gresham Blake, and Snow has been collecting Victoria Richards’ brightly painted designs for 25 years.
Meanwhile, notable statement-sock wearers include George HW Bush and Justin Trudeau, whose ankles have been adorned with everything from books to Chewbacca (Trudeau is a Star Wars fan).
For oft-photographed celebrities, a hat can be a disguise or a distinguishing feature. Diane Keaton’s love of hats is well-documented, notably in the 1977 film Annie Hall but also on the actor’s Instagram feed, where she once appeared completely eclipsed by a gigantic straw number.
And then there are the emotional-support hats, those that become so familiar you can hardly imagine the person without it. A case in point is Leonardo DiCaprio and his signature flat cap, which he has worn consistently since 2012, and Renée Zellweger, whose Texas Longhorns baseball cap is a nod to her native state.
“She’s always worn them, that’s always been her thing,” says stylist Sinead McKeefry of her client Claudia Winkleman’s famous fingerless gloves. McKeefry sources knitted styles from Brora and Johnstons of Elgin.
If the presenter’s trademark gloves call to mind a certain Dickens character, it’s because it’s intentional. Oliver Twist’s Fagin was one of the references on the styling moodboard for the first series of Channel 4′s The Traitors, McKeefry tells me.
One cannot talk about fingerless gloves without mentioning Michael Jackson, who wore a single white glove on his right hand (reportedly to conceal vitiligo) and Karl Lagerfeld, who, incidentally, has inspired many of Winkleman’s outfits. The late Chanel creative director wore leather gloves without fingers so he could sketch freely. “It also makes the arm longer,” he said in an interview with M Magazine, in 2012. “And you know what it means in French to have a long arm? It means you are influential.”
Zendaya’s choice to exclusively wear Christian Louboutin’s So Kate shoes is particularly impressive; these 120mm heels are notoriously hard to walk in. The star’s stylist Law Roach told The Cutting Room Floor podcast that it all started in the summer, when Louboutin supplied no fewer than 40 pairs of So Kate pumps for the Challengers press tour.
Zendaya was relieved when she could kick them off after day one, but Roach insisted she persist. Practice does make perfect: “She can wear ‘em all day, she could dance in ‘em, she could kick her legs up, she can run downstairs,” said Roach.
It seems fitting then that Louboutin is planning to launch a new shoe called Miss Z next spring.
It has nothing to do with passion.