Anna Wintour: A Life in Vogue

the most powerful figure in fashion my father really decided for me that I should faccia I said well you want to be edit your vote so that was it rock your monastic option carcass word bark smash hit high fashion clothes I turn local international and I'm so focused on hold the riches never fold it I'm a moat that stitches that total fitness I'm coach depending upon my co-defendant papadum cold and inches pedal to the like [Music] and don't forget hands up [Music] [Applause] okay here she is this she is my friend my colleague ex-colleague Tina thank you so much so the Met Gala it's only like what four weeks away two and a half - oh my god so vogue must be in full warum mode what's happening back there and what are we gonna see we are the theme of the Met this year is camp notes on fashion and it's based on the Susan Sontag essay notes on camp and it really examines the camp aesthetic starting with the court of Louis quatorze moving through the Oscar Wilde period to the current influence of camp on modern designers so we're going from some Kings to drag queens and there is a lot of discussion in the halls of Vogue and the halls of the museum about what our guests are going to wear and where they're going to be in a rant of feathers is this what we're told I have options I have options but I am right I'm really what I'm really hoping is that someone will arrive in hiking boots and a backpack so this must be a little less stressful I would think than last year's theme which was heavenly bodies which was the Vatican yeah the whole Catholic Church yeah I can't imagine what wrangling that was like well it was not so much wrangling as having to go frequently to the Vatican because the Vatican as you may well know do not believe in email I think they send messages by pigeon or smoke signals Andrew Bolton and I who is the curator in charge of the Costume Institute at the Met had to make many many visits to the Vatican to negotiate the loans and the whole concept of the museum we met many maestro's many Cardinals many fathers we learnt a lot about the many intrigues at the Vatican but just about this time maybe a little bit earlier last year I had very much wanted the Vatican choir to sing at the matin His Holiness had agreed but then we got a call to say that unfortunately His Holiness had changed his mind and the Vatican choir had to work on their homework and they would not be able to come to the Met to perform so we went into complete panic and we were able to find a wonderful alternate which was Madonna and take that you know two days before the Matt or three days before his holiness changed his mind so then we had not only Madonna we also had the Vatican choir and and my stroke so we ran through the museum and listening to all these wonderful entertainments and the Vatican choir were absolutely perfect immaculate so well behaved even though they were they were sitting in the American wing with Rihanna there and George Clooney and Ameri they were perfectly behaved and then the minute they finished their performance which was fantastic they left out and it was selfie heaven but then they went back to the Vatican and we learned that there was a lotta displeasure on the part of the Vatican on their behavior and that the maestro himself had been let go oh my god Wow I think there was also an element of possible corruption on the part of the maestro so it was a very believed it was a very backstage the Vatican is the next episode of dirty season editing so of course the gallery is happening now at a time when you just got a new CEO right I mean yeah he's he's called Roger Lynch at Conde Nast he's yeah man it's like the first kind of big outside sort of CEO that I mean really he's the former CEO of Pandora deep experience in videos in TV but but none in publishing so you're the artistic director of Conde Nast I mean what what advice are you giving your new CEO well he hasn't actually started yet he came in last week and met everybody he seemed like a very dynamic person very straightforward very matic and eager to learn and obviously since he's going to be a global CEO our first tina is very different from our days on Madison Avenue and so he's going to I think go on a listening tour and go to all our different territories Russia China everywhere that the world over the world that we we have offices and and obviously he'll come back with a strategy that we're all looking forward to hearing but he was very impressive and I think talked a lot about opportunities and learning from from mistakes and you know I think we're all very very excited decided yeah well you really being the queen of American fashion now 400 decades 200 and you and I arrived at Conde Nast oh you know within a few years of each other in the 80s when I was editor of Vanity Fair of course and you went to Vogue working first for grace Mirabella before you became editor-in-chief and in those days it was really a bit like the court of louis xiv everything revolved around the Sun King the Chairman's side new house right and now it's this totally different world I mean for you who stayed on you know and so all these different evolutions at Conde Nast what's the one of the biggest changes that you've seen as editor audiences Tina I mean I think if you go back even further when you and I were both working in London and we felt very excited if we reached an audience of what 50,000 at Tattler a hundred thousand at Vogue it was minuscule and that that was a good day and now we have all these opportunities to talk to our audiences you know in the millions by all these different channels whether it's coming to a fascinating conference like this one or doing an event like the Met or through social media whatever it may be I mean our reach is just so much more enormous and it's how you you use those different avenues to talk to your audiences that to me is the biggest change and the most fascinating change right right I see that a through it all of course Vogue has always been chronicling and celebrating women leaders actually and you're known is a very sort of forthright and supportively they're very decisive you know who are your leading role models I mean who did you who have you sort of watched as a great model for leading and and how have you grown into that many but obviously most recently I have been so impressed and inspired by the prime minister of New Zealand I think we love it yeah I feel the same absolutely I think when we look at the terrifying issues that we have in this country and obviously many other countries on on gun control and how brilliantly and directly and emotionally she dealt with the tragedy in New Zealand and how swiftly they moved to correct the situation and it is astonishing to me that we cannot pass the simplest correction in this country I just think it's appalling so right now if you're gonna ask me I write Cinda I wish you'd come and run this country yeah me too it's you but for your self as a leader I mean you're very decisive I mean who have you personally you know patent yourself on a little bit as a as a manager as a leader is there anybody that you admire honestly well I obviously growing up I was inspired by my dad he knows and probably your husband as you know great decisive leaders and I think the most important thing is is to have clarity I think the people who work for you they they want to know where they stand what the decision is being made and how they can execute it I think when people waffle or in two sizes that's incredibly frustrating for the people that work for you and and then obviously I was also so inspired by my Katherine Graham whom I saw really as a figure who represented women through the last century you know starting off her her life really as even though it was a very privileged life as a wife and a mother and then going into the workforce and leading that that media business and and the ocean post era too I'm very very tough and fearless decisions yeah she certainly was of course I knew your father who I admired enormously and actually I had what's a rather chilly interview with him has that it heard the Evening Standard where I was trying to he was famous for this yeah make a number with him you you you you know your mother you don't talk about a lot is what's an influence was your mother on you well she she started off she met my dad at Cambridge and she actually started off a career as a film critic and then she had four children and when she went back to work she decided that she wanted to to work in social issues and she helped take care of teenage mothers and their and their children and help place the children if necessary in adoption homes and kept in contact with the mothers and and the foster homes and that was you know a very important work to her and I think very inspiring to to all of us and you know I think both of them in in in many ways were a deep inspiration to me and I just have to tell you one story about an interview that with that I like to tell about my dad I mean there's a famous English playwright called Tom Stoppard and he came down from from Bristol where he had studied I believe politics to interview with my dad for a job in on the political desk so they had a little talk and he said well I am you know so could you tell me Tom or mister stop are probably he would have said at that time could you tell me mister stop are the name of the Home Secretary and there was a long silence and Tom answered well I said I was interested in politics I didn't say I was obsessed with him so as a result he did not get the job that's hysterical so obviously one of the big changes we've seen recently in the whole culture of fashion the world in general is the explosion of the me - movement right and you know that's a big reckoning for a lot of industries including in fashion yeah and you've moved on that yes yes so I mean how did that hit vogue and how did that was it was that a kind I think a troubling time I think that we were as shocked and disturbed as so many industries were and we moved very quickly to update global code of conduct we interviewed hundreds of people that go on shoots or are involved within the company in many different ways in and outside of the company and we revised our guidelines we made it very clear that any kind of disrespectful or upsetting behavior would in no way be tolerated and we put in place a hotline for anyone who wanted to call in things that were untoward that were happening either in the office or on shoots and we made the very very difficult decision to stop working with a number of photographers that were under investigation for sexual harassment and these were photographers that were not only long-term collaborators brilliant collaborators and colleagues at Conde Nast throughout the world and you're very important to to the voice of many of our titles but also personal friends and that was has been a very very tough decision but absolutely no question that it was the right one to make and you've been very supportive of Harvey Weinstein's wife Georgina Chapman yes I mean I think we've seen many times over the years Tina where maybe the wife is the last person to know what her partner might be up to and I I think that Georgina behaved with discretion and [Music] I think was you know emotionally obviously devastated but kept very there it was very private was very concerned rightly about her children and I think it would have been exceptionally unfair to blame Georgina for her husband's behavior you know honey you preside over changes in fashion every month and you're famous for having perfected your own look the celebrated sunglasses which I know you've had a girlie blind today so I did have eye surgery just in my kind of white ass date just in time for the men and you're also you know famous for having sort of perfected your own sort of uniform which I think you know here you are in your it's always sort of colorful prints and the big a big statement glasses and necklace and you know the same kind of Manolo shoes I mean how did you arrive at your own uniform and is uniform the best solution for working woman I think that's an entirely personal decision do you know I know you have your uniform it's very well for you not as well as yours I have to say you know other women who you know love to be chameleons and to change and surprise us I mean I it's probably just a very easy decision to think about wearing the same thing every day and not to have to be concerned but you know I think it's a little bit maybe it's a little bit boring and it's time to change I've been thinking a lot about suits recently certainly okay good I want to see them thank you the Dutchess of Sussex right absolutely speaking of which I mean how do you the new the new Dutchess of Sussex Meghan Michael Sheehan Kate obviously very different styles what do you think that Meghan is is bringing to fashion right now well I think that she obviously has her own style and has looked fantastic I thought her choice of Claire for her wedding was that was amazing and I I think more importantly you know obviously his style is fantastic and she's I think when she went on that trip to Australia and New Zealand she was very respectful and in choosing a lot of unknown Australian designers to wear which was which was great but I think more importantly she's really bringing modernity to the royal family in a way that is inspiring I think the image that I that I have in my mind that I think so many people all over the world have in their mind of the Duchess of Sussex walking down the aisle by herself you know that to me was represent evolve a modern woman and then looking at her extraordinarily beautiful and proud mother in the in the pew was a to me that symbolize goodness this is going to be a different day for the British royal family you know it was it was stunning and are you and I together I had lunch with Princess Diana six weeks before she died yes in the four seasons July 1997 little did either of us know that you know six weeks later she would be dead but you were smart enough to keep a diary yes I kept the diary I mean what I remember from that lunch was just how much she spoke about loneliness you know how terribly lonely she seemed and and how lovingly she spoke about her boys I mean what are you what do you remember from that lunch yourself I mean did you did you have any I mean she looked incredible first of all that was the most important thing and she looked fantastic today I heard that she spent a lot of time deciding what to wear to that particular lunch and it was it was actually a green chanel yes and we had a wrists and we talked about how you describe that particular color mint I think we decided yeah actually I remember her talking about quite a bit and at other times too is how the royal family and obviously it's a different time now and I think things are completely changed were not comfortable dealing with the media and I think that the part of her popularity was that Princess Anna really was so good with the media and was so in tune with them and welcomed them rather than standing back in a way that was she was one of she was certainly the first person in the royal family to understand the benefits of that mm-hmm you had a wonderful moment recently well last year when you you were of course you were made a dame which is a huge honor I mean a dame commander at the British Empire I think it's the full title which was bestowed upon you by by Queen Elizabeth and she then dropped into this fashion show where you were sitting together and I love that picture is my favorite viral moment yes pull up the picture of of that with the Queen what was it like when the Queen just sort of locked herself down next to you I know that when I got when I got my CBE from the Queen she had she said to me are you here over there now I can't do the accent as well as you but she and I discussed how long we had both been in our jobs yeah that would definitely be a point of God so the fashion world is currently mourning the death of Karl Lagerfeld I know what a deep friend of his you were what what do you miss most about Karl well there is no one was no one like Karl I mean he was just a completely exceptional person I mean he had he was a linguist he was a historian he was a designer he was a decorator it was a philanthropist who ISM humanitarian he was witty he was wicked he was you know the best kind of friend to have he was in he was incredibly generous and had incredibly kind and he was this larger-than-life figure that I I think that we all need to inspire the world it was it was very poignant for me when we we lost him and I I was in London and I had to get on a flight very early the next morning to go to Milan for a press conference and it was sitting there reading you know all the obituaries in the British papers in international media and there was a very unfashionable Minh next to me like check shirt and you know obviously yeah probably a businessman and I just I had and I just suddenly started to bawl I mean really more and he was so lovely he just reached into his pocket and he just kept giving me handkerchiefs and then at the end I thought I must say something because he never said a word I have to say something and I said you know thank you so for being so very kind and he said madam the world has lost a great figure and to me that you know that was someone who was not involved in our world and he felt the loss and I and I feel like the whole - the whole world felt the same way I mean this force yes he certainly wasn't and you lost someone else very who you love very much recently to the Franco Sozzani yeah the legendary editor of Italian Vogue she was another wonderful life force woman a--such polio and attack and flare and all the rest of it and she was only in her sixties and of course your two families now have a very special connection because your daughter be married her son yes Frank and I actually started work icon in asked the very same week so we grew up at Conde Nast together and you know we sort of circled each other a little bit at the beginning but we over the years we became incredibly close friends and very much like like cause she was a very you know from a personal perspective she was a very private person but we did spend a lot of time a lot of dinners together talking about our children and it wasn't until and they and they knew each other since they were they were 16 franca for a while actually even lived across the street from us but it wasn't until I guess three years ago that I think I asked Francesco to come to the met satting with bees table that they connected in a new way and what was so magical for me and and i think particularly for being francesco with before we lost franca she she really did know that though that they were to be married and and she I think was given a lot of comfort with that towards the end yeah and I mean it's an amazing amazing union in that sense I hesitate to ask either hackneyed question about how women kind of you know how you've juggled your own hugely powerful career and being a mother to your two children I do remember how stunning it was when you were what six months pregnant and you went to edit British Vogue which came up as an opportunity and I remember we were both pregnant at the same time and I was in the elevator with you thinking how can you have that little tiny bulge under that nationale suit well I'm like you know 190 pounds here but but I was also just very silly impressed at your dynamism that you felt you know even though you were that pregnant and David your husband was living still in New York you were going to go over and do this thing in London yes well I I had always had a dream to one day edit British Vogue so it was an opportunity that I I couldn't resist but I had been there for a while and I was actually pregnant with my second child be and I was having dinner like a week maybe five days before I was due to give birth with Victoria new house and and sign your house and aside has looked to me and he said well what are you doing this summer Anna I'm having a baby next week he hadn't even noticed so I loved that you know those were the days when we just didn't talk about it I think he generally didn't notice yes genuinely didn't notice that's hysterical obviously so obviously one of the other great things about your career gosh we're running out of time but I just want to ask you you know you've been an amazing fundraiser for the Democratic Party I'm like God I mean you know you weren't I think one of the I think the third the third biggest bundle of fur Obama I was told which is really astounding and then of course you when went on to race for Hillary Clinton who I gather you took percy fleabag me I did and she loved it I was so nervous that it would be too raunchy for her but she was so you and she's now going to see fleabag but meanwhile we have Donald Trump as president yes what for long yeah that's a bad exchange what what do you think of the new crop of candidates just quickly who do you see who's really lighting your fire right now and any of the women particularly I might add on well you know I'm looking forward to the post label generation maybe be Izzy's kids or bees kids or hopefully before when we don't have to label our candidates because these the gay mayor from South Bend or the black female candidate from California how about they're just great candidate yeah so true ya know we had Stacey Abrams yesterday she just rocked the house so you're waiting to see in short well I you know I think it's wonderful that there are so many viable candidates I hope that the decision on who the Democratic candidate will be doesn't take too long because I am convinced that Trump is already you know fueling his war chest he's I'm sure spending a lot of money on digital advertising and probably voter suppression and many other things so I think that that the sooner that we can find the right candidate and to be honest whoever is the candidate I will support as you're gonna raise money well because yeah we have to win absolutely okay Anna last question before we close you once said that you would not ever invite Donald Trump back to the Met Ball anything he could do to get back absolutely nothing okay great thank you Anna thank you wonderful to talk to you

Channel: Women in the World

Views: 246,524

Keywords: WITW, Anna Wintour, Tina Brown, Fashion

Id: f3qMkYdw7cw

Length: 27min 24sec (1644 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 12 2019