Anna Wintour Give Up Role As Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief After 37 Years

After 37 years, the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, or “fashion bible,” Anna Wintour, 75, is stepping down from her role.

Confirmed by WWD and Business of Fashion. Wintour announced the news during a staff meeting on Thursday, June 26.

The long-time editor kicked off her career at Vogue in 1988, immediately after the former editor Grace Mirabella stepped down. That was when Wintour completely reshaped the magazine. Her first cover debuted in November of 1988, featuring Michaela Bercu wearing $50 jeans and a $10,000 Christian Lacroix sweater.

In a 2012 interview, Wintour told Vogue that this cover broke many rules.

“It was so unlike the studied and elegant close-ups that were typical of Vogue’s covers back then, with tons of makeup and major jewelry,” She continued, “Afterwards, in the way that these things can happen, People applied all sorts of interpretations: it was about mixing high and low, Michaela was pregnant, it was a religious statement. But none of these things are true. I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change. And you can’t ask more from a cover image than that.”

The 1988 cover started a trend at Vogue: putting celebrities on the cover. Things went even deeper when the September 2009 issue featured the day-to-day tasks of Wintour, making it the magazine’s biggest September issue to date.

Despite stepping down from her role, Wintour will still be involved in the company as Conde Nast’s global chief content officer and global editorial director at Vogue.

Vogue is seeking a new head of editorial content who will report to Wintour. In the meantime, Wintour will continue as the global chief content officer and global editorial director, overseeing every brand globally, including Vanity Fair, AD, GQ, and more.

“Anybody in a creative field knows how essential it is to never 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 is a new, exciting way to imagine an American fashion magazine,” Wintour said in the meeting.

She then continued saying, “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. And that is exactly the kind of person we need to now look for to be HOEC for US Vogue.”

In her speech, she mentioned that responsibilities for Vogue will stay the same, “including paying very close attention to the fashion industry and to the creative cultural force that is our extraordinary Met Ball, and charting the course of future Vogue Worlds, and any other fearless ideas we may come up with. And it goes without saying that I plan to remain Vogue’s tennis and theatre editor perpetuity.”

She spoke about how thrilling it would be, “to work alongside someone new who will challenge us, inspire us and make us all think about Vogue in a myriad of original ways.”

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