Vogue boss Anna Wintour on her public persona and being instructed ‘no’

Anna Wintour arrives at our interview together with her trademark darkish sun shades firmly on.

I'll meet the editor-in-chief of Vogue journal since 1988 at VOGUE: Inventing the Runway, Wintour's present in regards to the historical past of the catwalk.

Our assembly is in a big underground area and we’re surrounded by three large screens. The inside is sort of darkish, however the sun shades stay in place throughout our dialog.

I tentatively ask what they’re for. Are they a defend or one thing extra prosaic, maybe myopia?

“They assist me see and so they assist me not see,” Wintour tells me, considerably enigmatically. “They assist me to be seen and to not be seen. “They’re a pillar, I’d say.”

Lightroom in London makes use of digital projection and audio expertise in a high-walled area to create an immersive expertise for guests.

It beforehand hosted a success David Hockney present and Tom Hanks' exhibition on the historical past of area journey.

Now the exhibition area presents the general public a front-row seat to a number of the most spectacular trend exhibits in historical past, drawing on Vogue's archive and community of contributors.

Wintour admits that “for somebody who goes to so many exhibits, you get a bit drained, you don't get drained, however you get used to the expertise.”

Since most guests to the exhibition won’t have had the chance to attend such occasions, he says they had been eager to ensure it regarded like they had been actually there.

Because the reigning queen of the style world, Wintour has had a veritable front-row seat for many years, typically in a fragile gold chair, the form of furnishings that’s ubiquitous on high-profile catwalks, the place her invitation is at all times sure.

Within the exhibition blurb, Wintour writes that she “most likely spent a yr of my life ready for the famously late trend exhibits to begin.”

She tells me that the American designer Marc Jacobs as soon as held a present an hour and a half late, however “all of us yelled at him a lot after that, that the subsequent season he not solely began the present on time, he even began in any respect.” 5 minutes earlier than.”

Italian designer Gianni Versace, nonetheless, “at all times arrived on time.”

“It didn't matter who wasn't there, it might have been the Pope, he didn't care.”

That might have suited Wintour, who’s “horribly punctual and often early.”

Arrive early for our interview. Luckily, I had been warned that it was a personality trait and we had been prepared.

The Vogue present presents the general public a sequence of vibrant episodes, narrated by Cate Blanchett, that inform the historical past of trend and the catwalks.

“It's fairly nostalgic to sit down in that area and take a look at the unbelievable modifications which have occurred in trend,” Wintour tells me.

We’re handled to a sequence of journal covers from the early days, black and white pictures from the primary catwalk exhibits and pictures from the high fashion salons of the early 20th century.

Vogue then was “very elitist: you needed to be invited and it was a really small, small world,” says Wintour.

Distinction that with musician and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams' debut present for Louis Vuitton in 2023. A popular culture occasion held on the Pont Neuf in Paris, attended by the likes of Beyoncé, Rihanna and, after all, Wintour, and garnered 1 billion views on-line.

The democratization of trend means, as Wintour says, “now everybody can come to the social gathering, which is the way it must be.”

The exhibition additionally takes us again to 2017, when Karl Lagerfeld dreamed up an area station-inspired touchdown strip, full with a rocket taking off whereas fashions stood by him wearing Chanel. Wintour instructed me it was “extraordinary… and also you couldn't wait to see what he got here up with subsequent.”

Lagerfeld had type. Ten years earlier, for Fendi, he had damaged new floor, utilizing the Nice Wall of China as a catwalk and his fashions parading on the stone. Vogue designers of his stature clearly don't do issues by halves.

To insiders, Wintour has been considered one of trend's greatest gamers for the higher a part of 40 years: a career-maker, a champion of trend's energy to merge with leisure's A-list.

She is the driving pressure behind the annual Met Gala in New York, the place the worlds of trend and fame collide and go viral in a spectacle of extravagant outfits and movie star appearances on the primary Monday of each Might.

Outsiders usually tend to marvel how a lot Wintour resembles Miranda Priestly, the tyrannical fictional journal boss from the movie The Satan Wears Prada, whose portrayal of Meryl Streep is etched in followers' recollections.

“Is there a motive my espresso isn't right here? Has he died or one thing? Priestly asks disdainfully about his assistant.

“The small print of your incompetence don't curiosity me,” he tells her later.

On Wintour's journey to London, she leaned into the comparability, attending the gala presentation of the brand new musical model of the movie. There, he instructed the BBC that it was “as much as the viewers and the individuals I work with to determine if there are any similarities between Miranda Priestly and me.”

Once we spoke, I needed to know if she considers Anna Wintour's public persona—the quick, sharp hair, the meticulous fits, the glasses—to be a job she feels she ought to play.

“I don't actually give it some thought,” he says. “What actually pursuits me is the artistic facet of my work.”

Wintour tells me she solely introduced one or two suitcases to London and gained't inform me if she attire casually when she's dwelling in the USA. “It's actually about respect in the best way you current your self.”

A couple of particular person has instructed me that nobody ever says 'no' to Wintour. Donatella Versace says the identical factor within the current Disney documentary, In Vogue: The 90s.

Wintour seems modest. “That’s completely false. Many occasions they are saying no, however that's a great factor. “Isn’t great phrase.”

Do you assume persons are afraid of you? I ask him. “I hope not,” she replies.

Beneath her management, by way of expertise, pressure of persona and one eye on what sells, Wintour has tried to future-proof Vogue, turning it into a world model. She can also be a world content material advisor for Condé Nast, the journal's writer.

Within the trendy period, when influencers can take images of trend moments and publish them instantly, Wintour has efficiently positioned Vogue as an arbiter of style and elegance.

Vogue and promoting are intertwined in Vogue's content material, however Wintour doesn’t settle for my premise that trend journalism may be sycophantic.

“That's simply not true and I believe typically we discover it irritating working in trend, that there’s an exterior notion that trend is frivolous and superficial.

“It's really an enormous enterprise. We make use of tens of millions of individuals world wide.”

I take that reply to imply that Wintour, the daughter of a former editor of the Night Customary newspaper, considers herself extra of a trend ambassador than a journalist.

However after all he's additionally a journalist, arguably some of the well-known journalistic faces on the planet, and one with no apparent successor.

I ask him, at 75 years outdated, how for much longer he plans to stay in his place.

“I’ve no plans to go away my job,” he says, including, “Presently.”

VOGUE: Inventing the Runway can be at Lightroom, London till April 2025.