Anna Wintour names her successor at Vogue — however she stays in cost

NEW YORK (AP) — Anna Wintour ended weeks of fashion-world hypothesis Tuesday when she named Chloe Malle her successor as head of editorial content material at Vogue — however probably the most highly effective particular person within the enterprise isn’t going wherever.

Wintour, 75, stays chief content material officer for Condé Nast and international editorial director of American Vogue and its 27 editions across the globe. Malle, editor of Vogue.com, could also be moving into Wintour’s low-heeled slingbacks however she’ll report back to the unique wearer whereas taking on day-to-day operations on the U.S. version. And gone is the storied “editor-in-chief” title that Wintour held for practically 40 years.

Malle, 39, is the daughter of actor Candice Bergen and the late French director Louis Malle. She joined Vogue as social editor in 2011, moved on to contributing editor in 2016 and has held her present place since 2023. She steered all digital content material for Vogue. In June, Malle interviewed the then-Lauren Sánchez forward of her wedding ceremony to Jeff Bezos.

“Vogue has already shaped who I am, now I’m excited at the prospect of shaping Vogue,” Malle mentioned within the announcement.

Malle had emerged as a front-runner

Since late June, when Wintour advised employees that she was giving up her title, a handful of names to succeed her had been tossed round. Among them had been Eva Chen, vice chairman of style partnerships at Meta; Nicole Phelps, international director of Vogue Runway and Vogue Business; and Sara Moonves, editor-in-chief of W journal.

Other names that floated about quickly after the job went up for grabs are Vogue’s style information director Mark Holgate, British Vogue’s head of editorial content material Chioma Nnadi and Vogue.com’s digital model director Leah Faye Cooper. Malle and Nnadi co-host the Vogue podcast, “The Run-Through.”

The information that Malle bought the job comes forward of the newest spherical of reveals at New York Fashion Week, beginning subsequent week, and amid the Venice Film Festival, which features a new documentary about her father. Her appointment is efficient instantly.

Malle, a Brown graduate and mom of two younger youngsters, has been outspoken about her liberal-leaning politics, simply as Wintour has.

“I actually love working with Anna, because I love someone telling me exactly what needs to be done and exactly what she thinks about something,” Malle mentioned in a latest profile by the Independent. “There’s no indecision. There’s no ambiguity.”

Vogue’s previous, and future

Vogue was based as a society journal 134 years in the past. After Condé Nast acquired it in 1909, it grew to become a standard business mainstay with fashions on the quilt, static close-up images completed in studios and a concentrate on excessive style and heavy make-up.

Wintour, a risk-taker who took over the title in 1988, noticed the mass enchantment in a broader strategy. She expanded worldwide editions, elevated style’s connections to popular culture and started placing celebrities, athletes, music stars and politicians on the covers. Wintour went for a high-low strategy to style and favored storytelling in photograph shoots completed outdoor.

She embraced then-emerging designers, together with Marc Jacobs, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, via initiatives just like the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. And she remodeled the Met Gala from a small, personal fundraiser to a worldwide occasion and style’s most essential evening.

Considered the style bible, American Vogue has had a number of notable editors all through its historical past. Preceding Wintour had been Diana Vreeland (1963 to 1971) and Grace Mirabella (1971 to 1988), amongst others.

“Chloe has proven often that she can find the balance between American Vogue’s long, singular history and its future on the front lines of the new,” Wintour mentioned within the assertion on Malle’s appointment. Under Malle’s management, direct visitors to Vogue.com doubled, and the positioning noticed double-digit progress throughout all key metrics, in line with the assertion on her new job. Site visitors now persistently reaches 14.5 million distinctive guests month-to-month.

The retirement of the editor-in-chief title brings Vogue in keeping with adjustments all through the Condé Nast universe. When Radhika Jones stepped down as Vanity Fair’s editor-in-chief earlier this yr, her position was changed by a “global editorial director,” present in Mark Guiducci. (Guiducci himself was tapped from Vogue, the place he served most lately as inventive editorial director.) American Vogue joins most each market the place Condé Nast operates within the change to a head of editorial content material, who experiences to a worldwide editorial director.

Though Vogue has editions spanning the world, from Britain and France to China and India, Malle’s focus might be on American Vogue.

Anna Wintour’s personal future

As Condé Nast’s chief content material officer, Wintour will proceed to supervise each model, together with Vogue, Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, AD, Condé Nast Traveler, Glamour, Bon Appétit, Tatler, World of Interiors, Allure and extra, except The New Yorker, the place editor David Remnick retains management.

Wintour herself does have a boss. She experiences to Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast.

“In effect, the addition of a new editorial lead for Vogue US will allow Wintour greater time and flexibility to support the other global markets that Condé Nast serves,” mentioned a Vogue assertion in June.

“And it goes without saying,” Wintour joked again then, “that I plan to remain Vogue’s tennis and theater editor in perpetuity.”

She’ll stay on the helm of the annual Met Gala, a significant fundraiser for the style wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And she’ll keep concerned in Vogue World, a touring style and cultural occasion the journal started in 2022.

Wintour defined the editor-in-chief shift this fashion:

“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,” she advised employees.

“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,” she mentioned.