First off, let’s stipulate that editors-in-chief do not run their own photos on the covers of their publications.
Let’s further stipulate that Dame Anna Wintour stepped down as the editor-in-chief of Vogue months ago, replaced by Chloe Malle, daughter of Candice Bergen and director Louis Malle.
But Malle is not Vogue’s editor-in-chief, either. She’s got the mouthful title Head of Editorial Content. And Wintour’s two titles trump Malle’s one. The Dame didn’t step down — she stepped up to Global Chief Content Officer and Global Editorial Director of Vogue. So, whether it was Malle or Wintour who decided to put the latter on the May issue cover of fashion’s flagship magazine, can we also agree who is clearly running the show?
Why this, why now? Some speculate it’s Wintour’s way of reminding the world she’s still in charge.
But more likely, it’s a reflection of the sorry state of magazines and fashion magazines in general — and of Vogue in particular.
The May cover is, really, a promotion piece. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s touting AARP, as photographer Annie Leibovitz, 76, shot Wintour, 76, and Meryl Streep, 76, both of them styled in Prada by another aging fashion eminence, Grace Coddington, who turns a sprightly 85 later this month. HBD, Grace! All of them are still working, so bravo for that.
Rather, it’s first a promotion for the Met Gala, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual fundraiser for what was once called its Costume Institute, to be held May 4. Now, it’s called the Anna Wintour Costume Center, where she also holds the titles of chairman of the gala and a Trustee of the museum. Damn, Dame, you’ve got a lot of titles.
Oops, add one more: Devil. Vogue’s cover is also selling “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” as Streep stars as Miranda Priestly, the Wintour stand-in from the novel by Lauren Weisberger, the first film and, now, its sequel, which opens three days before the gala.
But the cover also promotes Wintour as a power broker even though, just this week, New York Magazine, where Wintour was fashion editor before moving to Vogue, described the fashion bible as “waning” — doubling down by quoting a fashion PR saying, “Vogue matters less and less.”
It all calls to mind the late 1970s, when the celebrity magazine People was the most powerful new publication on newsstands, selling 3 million copies a week, with advertising revenue that inspired awe and envy.
It also inspired talk of a People Magazine Curse. Though an appearance on its cover could boost the fortunes of a book, movie, celebrity or politician, there were frequent weeks when those covers preceded a flop, a divorce, a rehab stint or even death.
Decades later, the Curse continues: consider the beloved comic actress Betty White, who died two days after a People cover celebrating her 100th birthday in 2021.
The Curse so appealed to the schadenfreude-inclined that it inspired versions for Sports Illustrated (for athletic injuries), Time (for reputational downfalls) and, yes, Vogue (for celebrity couples — Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, Cindy Crawford and Richard Gere — who broke up after appearing in its pages).
It’s the rare sequel that lives up to an original. So it’s possible, with Wintour and Streep on the cover, that the Curse will hold and “Devil 2” will bomb. Or the Met Gala, with this year’s “Costume Art” theme and “Fashion Is Art” dress code, will turn out to be another ludicrous celebrity costume party. Or Vogue will continue to wane, growing ever-thinner.
Dinosaurs — global fashion conglomerates, Hollywood movie studios, superstar editors, self-important celebs — still walk the earth, their momentum defying inevitable extinction. But one global phenomenon is sure to survive. Cross-platform product promotion is today’s highest art form. And damn if that Dame isn’t its Queen.
Michael Gross is the author of “Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women” and “Focus: The Secret, Sexy, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion Photographers.” His latest, “Treasured Island: The Story of St. Barth . . . and Its Barbarians, Billionaires, and Beauties,” is out in June.
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