Anna Wintour steps down as editor-in-chief of Vogue after 37 years

Anna Wintour steps down as editor-in-chief of Vogue after 37 years

Anna Wintour is stepping down from her role as editor-in-chief at American Vogue after 37 years.

The Daily Front Row and Business of Fashion confirm that the longtime editor of the “fashion bible” is leaving her position leading the monthly magazine.

The publication also claimed that Wintour, 75, announced the news in a staff meeting on the morning of Wednesday, June 25. 

Vogue will now seek a new head of editorial content while Wintour will stay on as Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and global editorial director at Vogue, overseeing every brand globally, including the Vanity Fair, GQ, AD , and more.

The longtime editor began her career at Vogue in 1988, taking the reins from former editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella. Wintour immediately started reshaping the magazine and one of her first major moves made history for the brand.

Her first cover (the November 1988 issue), featured model Michaela Bercu in a $50 pair of jeans (the first time denim was on the cover of Vogue) with a $10,000 Christian Lacroix sweater in a fun and relaxed shot photographed by Peter Lindbergh.

“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. This one broke all the rules,” Wintour told Vogue in 2012. “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 was true. I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change. And you can’t ask for more from a cover image than that.”

Her tenure is widely regarded as a transformative one for the magazine, helping to cement US Vogue as a leading magazine in the global fashion industry.

Prior to becoming editor-in-chief, Wintour served as Vogue’s creative director in 1983. She later led British Vogue, before rejoining American Vogue as the top boss in 1988.