Anna Wintour ends 37-year reign as Vogue US editor

British editor quits fashion bible after 37 years as taste-maker-in-chief.

Trends come and go in fashion, but one thing has remained constant: Dame Anna Wintour.

The British editor, famous for her signature bob and sunglasses, has strode atop the fashion world for decades thanks to her role running American Vogue.

But now the 75-year-old’s role as the taste-maker-in-chief may finally be coming to an end. After 37 years in charge, Wintour is relinquishing her title of editor-in-chief of American Vogue. Staff were told of the shock decision on Thursday.

Wintour, who has been at the helm of the American magazine since 1988, will remain in her role as global chief content officer of parent company Condé Nast and will remain global editorial director of Vogue, which publishes editions around the world.

However, it marks the first time she will not be directly in charge of the monthly American fashion bible in almost four decades. Wintour is credited with turning the magazine into a global powerhouse that helped launch the careers of designers including John Galliano, Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen.

Her exit comes in the middle of Paris Fashion Week as the industry descends on the French capital for six days of shows and designer presentations.

It also comes at a time of intense upheaval for the magazine industry, which is grappling with the rise of artificial intelligence and declining sales. Wintour has helped Vogue US weather the storm, keeping a steady monthly circulation of 1.2m over the last decade.

Vogue is hiring a head of editorial content to oversee its US magazine rather than a new editor-in-chief. A source close to the company said the change reflected Wintour’s “expanded global remit” at Condé Nast, where she also oversees magazines including Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour and Tatler.

During her time as editor of Vogue she has been lauded for bringing notable figures from outside of the fashion and modelling industry to the front cover of the magazine, including Hilary Clinton.

Addressing her taste, Wintour told the Financial Times in 2023: “God is in the details. But I am not a creative person. I can’t draw, I can’t sketch, I can’t make anything. I just have to make sure things are being done right.”

Beyond Vogue, Wintour’s influence can be seen in her role running the Met Gala fundraiser in New York, which has become an annual fashion pageant for celebrities that makes headlines around the world.

The British editor was the inspiration for the character of Miranda Priestly in the 2006 movie The Devil Wears Prada, an ice queen who gave short shrift to designs and designers that she didn’t like.

Speaking to The Telegraph in 2015, Wintour rejected this image of herself.

“If for some reason there are people that are offended by things that I’ve done or things that they’ve read that may or may not be true, I cannot spend time,” she said. “You can’t be everything to everybody, and there are things that get into the public world that were never grounded in reality.”

The British editor has previously told the BBC that her ubiquitous sunglasses are a “prop” and “help me be seen and not be seen”.

The doyenne of fashion was made a dame in 2017 by Elizabeth II, who honoured the editor for her contribution to fashion and journalism.

Wintour was this year made a Companion of Honour by the King for her services to fashion. She said she told the King that she will not stop working, saying she was “even more convinced that I have so much more to achieve”.

Born in London in 1949, Eleanor Trego Baker, Wintour’s mother, was a film critic, while her father was Charles Wintour, the editor-in-chief of the London Evening Standard in the 1960s.

“He was a brilliant editor, he cared passionately about his work,” Wintour told The Telegraph in 2015. “I think, because he worked quickly and was decisive and he was sure about what he wanted, he got a nickname. Chilly Charlie. He was the least chilly person that I or that anyone at home knew, but it stuck.”

Wintour began her career in fashion journalism in 1970 when she was hired at the magazine Harpers & Queen as an editorial assistant. She moved to New York in 1975 to take up a role as junior fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1983 she was appointed as Vogue’s first creative director before being named editor of the British edition of Vogue in 1985.

Condé Nast group was contacted for comment.