Anna Wintour The history of Fashion

The fact that you get up every morning whether you are wearing Target or Badgley Mischka you should know the impact Anna Wintour has on that garment. Born November 3, 1949) is the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, a position she has held since 1988. With her trademark pageboy bob haircut and sunglasses, Wintour has become an institution throughout the fashion world, widely praised for her eye for fashion trends and her support for younger designers. Her reportedly aloof and demanding personality has earned her the nickname "Nuclear Wintour". Hence the movie entitled "The Devil Wears Prada"written by a former personal assistant, Lauren Weisberger, in the 2003 bestselling roman à clef The Devil Wears Prada, later made into a successful film starring Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, a fashion editor widely believed to be based on Wintour. In 2009 she was the focus of another film, R.J. Cutler's documentary The September Issue.She is the eldest daughter of Charles Wintour, editor of the London Evening Standard, and his American first wife. Anna became interested in fashion as a teenager. Her father consulted her on how to make the newspaper relevant to the youth of the era. Her career in fashion journalism began at two British magazines. Later she moved to the United States, with stints at New York and House & Garden. She returned home for a year to turn around British Vogue, and later assumed control of the franchise's magazine in New York, reviving what many saw as a stagnating publication. Her use of the magazine to shape the fashion industry has been the subject of debate within it."I think my father really decided for me that I should work in fashion", she recalled in The September Issue.He arranged for his daughter's first job, at the influential Biba boutique, when she was 15. The next year, she left North London Collegiate and began a training program at Harrods a department store in London which is of the same calibre of Saks, Bendal's, and Bergdorf's in the US. At her parents' behest, she also took fashion classes at a nearby school. Soon she gave them up, saying, "You either know fashion or you don't." Another older boyfriend, Richard Neville, gave her her first experience of magazine production at his popular and controversial Oz. n 1970, when Harper's Bazaar UK merged with Queen to become Harper's & Queen, Wintour was hired as one of its first editorial assistants, beginning her career in fashion journalism. She told her co-workers that she wanted to edit Vogue. While there, she discovered model Annabel Hodin, a former North London classmate. Her connections helped her secure locations for innovative shoots by Helmut Newton and other trend-setting photographers. One recreated the works of Renoir and Manet using models in go-go boots. After chronic disagreements with new editor Min Hogg, a rival,she quit and moved to New York with her boyfriend, freelance journalist Jon Bradshaw.Through the years she has come to be regarded as one of the most powerful people in fashion, setting trends and anointing new designers. Industry publicists often hear "Do you want me to go to Anna with this?" when they have differences with her subordinates. The Guardian has called her the "unofficial mayoress" of New York City. She has encouraged fashion houses such as Christian Dior to hire younger, fresher designers such as John Galliano.

Her influence extends outside fashion. She persuaded Donald Trump to let Marc Jacobs use a ballroom at the Plaza Hotel for a show when Jacobs and his partner were short of cash. More recently, she persuaded Brooks Brothers to hire the relatively unknown Thom Browne. A protégée at Vogue,Plum Sykes, became a successful novelist, drawing her settings from New York's fashionable élite.

Her salary is reported to be $2 million a year. In addition, she receives several perks, such as a chauffeured Mercedes S-Class (both in New York and abroad), a $200,000 shopping allowance, and the Coco Chanel Suite at the Hotel Ritz Paris while attending European fashion shows. Condé Nast president S. I. Newhouse also had the company make her an interest-free $1.6 million loan to purchase her townhouse in Greenwich Village