Anna Wintour stepping down as U.S. Vogue editor-in-chief after 37 years. Here are some of her iconic moments

Hamilton Spectator

a day ago

Fashion icon Anna Wintour is making room for a new head of editorial content at American Vogue after reigning as its editor-in-chief for 37 years, the publication told the Star.
'Anna will still be overseeing Vogue globally, but a new Head of Editorial Content will be added at Vogue U.S.,' spokesperson Cydney Gasthalter said over email. 'She is still very much staying at Conde/Vogue, despite misleading headlines floating around.'
This new head of U.S. content will report to Wintour, who will retain her role as global editorial director of Vogue — the publication has a total 28 international issues, including American Vogue.
The 75-year-old Wintour will also continue on as the chief content officer of parent company Condé Nast, where she will oversee each of the company's brands — including American Vogue, Wired, Vanity Fair and more — with the exception of the New Yorker.
'Anybody in a creative field knows how essential it is never to stop growing in one's work. When I became the editor of Vogue, I was eager to prove to all who might listen that there was a new, exciting way to imagine an American fashion magazine,'
Wintour told Vogue staff Thursday
.
'Now, I find that my greatest pleasure is helping the next generation of impassioned editors storm the field with their own ideas, supported by a new, exciting view of what a major media company can be.'
Over the last four years, Wintour's roles within the company expanded to encompass its global operations as well as day-to-day editing at American Vogue. The new position for head of U.S content will allow Wintour to focus more on her other two roles, according to a statement from the publication.
After joining Vogue U.S. as its editor-in-chief nearly 40 years ago, Wintour has cemented herself as one of the world's most influential fashion icons. Her image has been carved into the pop culture landscape in films including 'The Devil Wears Prada' in 2006 and documentaries like 'The September Issue' in 2009.
Take a look back on some of her most memorable moments.
After bouncing around as fashion editor for a number of New York magazines, a brief stint as editor-in-chief at British Vogue and a controversial tenure at House & Garden, Wintour was 38 when she took charge of American Vogue in 1988.
It was a critical juncture for the magazine's future. Industry insiders worried Vogue had become complacent under former editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella, and was losing ground to upstart competitor Elle.
Wintour was a breath of fresh air for the stagnant magazine. Aside from making sweeping staffing and editorial changes, Wintour gave Vogue's cover photos a facelift. Gone were Mirabella's bland headshots of mostly blond models, replaced by shots that showed more of the subject's body, bathed in natural light instead of a carefully curated studio setting.
Wintour also favoured lesser-known models, and
was among the first
to mix relatively inexpensive clothes with high-end fashions — a shift that mirrored how real women dressed.
This was evidenced by her now-famous debut issue in November, 1988. The cover featured 19-year-old Israeli model Michaela Bercu, dressed in a bejeweled, $10,000 Christian Lacroix jacket and a $50 pair of jeans.
'It was so unlike the studied and elegant close-ups typical of Vogue's covers back then, with tons of makeup and major jewellery,'
Wintour said
. 'This one broke all the rules.'
It was such a big switch-up that the magazine's printers, upon seeing the image,
called to ask whether there had been a mistake
.
In its May 1989 issue, Wintour turned heads by featuring Madonna as the first non-model to grace its cover page — a move that attracted criticism but sold out newsstands.
Wintour was reportedly inspired by a man
she spoke with during a flight; after learning what she did for a living, he said: 'That's the most incredible publication; it's so chic, it's so elegant, it represents everything I think of as being very classic and beautiful. It's Katharine Hepburn, it's Audrey Hepburn, it's Grace Kelly — it would never be Madonna.'
Wintour took it as a challenge: 'The fact that that very nice man that I sat next to on the plane thought that it would be completely wrong to put Madonna on the cover, and completely out of keeping with the tradition of Vogue being this very classically correct publication, pushed me to break the rules and had people talk about us in a way that was culturally relevant, important and controversial, all of which you need to do from time to time,' Wintour would later say.
The following years would see numerous celebrities featured on Vogue's covers, from Oprah Winfrey to Cindy Crawford, helping to popularize the casting of Hollywood personalities and pop stars as models in the fashion industry.
The Vogue chief was also known for spotlighting diverse models, famously featuring Naomi Campbell as the cover star of its September 1989 edition — making her the first Black woman to grace the cover of the magazine's biggest and most important edition of the year.
Wintour has become synonymous with fashion's biggest and most glamorous event, and not without reason. After becoming the chairwoman of the Met Gala in 1995, Wintour turned the event from a relatively niche fundraiser into the star-studded zenith of fashion.
Since taking the helm, Wintour has lined the gala with a hand-picked, star-studded guest list that has included famous names across the spheres of entertainment, sport, business and politics.
As the calibre of its guests rose, so too did the gala's price tag. The annual fundraiser for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art went from charging $50 (U.S) to $75,000 per guest at last month's 2025 Met Gala — and that's only after the guest list wins Wintour's personal approval.
Despite stepping back from some of her duties at Vogue, Wintour hasn't indicated any intentions of vacating her seat as the main organizer and co-chair of the Met Gala.
The fashion executive is also responsible for what some have coined the 'messiest night in fashion.'
Announced in 2009, Fashion's Night Out — scheduled for the first night of New York Fashion Week — was what Wintour called a 'global fashion stimulus package' to kick-start the flailing U.S. retail sector after the 2008 financial crisis.
It was a glorious mess
, spread across 800 events throughout New York City. Madison and Fifth avenues were transformed into fraternity rows. The Olsen twins slung drinks at Bergdorf Goodman, and were such a big draw the famed restaurant's doors were torn off their hinges. Celebrities mingled with frantic fans on the cocktail-stained New York streets.
But for all its promises of stimulating sales, store owners woke up the next morning with a hangover and little-to-no sales.
The following years would see Fashion's Night Out expand to 500 cities nationwide and 30 cities internationally by 2012. But it would be discontinued in 2013; while no reason was given for its cancellation, sources suggest it may have become too big to handle,
according to the New York Times
.