Anna Wintour: 5 surprising things you might not know about Vogue’s editor-in-chief

The 2023 Met Gala is quick approaching and maybe nobody is extra prepared for the annual trend occasion than Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.

This yr, the largest night time in trend will as soon as once more happen on the primary Monday in Might on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York Metropolis. The theme of the 2023 Met Gala, titled “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Magnificence”, will honour the legacy of the legendary German designer and Wintour’s longtime buddy.

Since 1995, Anna Wintour has rigorously presided over the Met Gala and its unique visitor listing. Together with her signature black sun shades and completely coiffed bob, the British journalist has been a mainstay on the Met Gala, and within the trend world, for many years.

It comes as no shock that the Vogue editor-in-chief is likely one of the most outstanding figures in trend, contemplating she comes from a journalism background and has been working in trend since she was 15 years outdated.

Her father was a well-known newspaper editor

Anna Wintour was born on 3 November 1949 to British journalist Charles Wintour and American Eleanor Trego Baker, whose father was a Harvard Regulation College professor. Her father, Charles, labored as editor-in-chief of the London Night Customary. Considered one of her 4 siblings, Patrick, can also be a journalist and the diplomatic editor of The Guardian.

Wintour studied on the North London Collegiate College, the place she rebelled in opposition to the varsity’s gown code by taking over the hemlines of her skirts. Within the 2009 documentary The September Difficulty, Wintour mentioned that rising up in London within the Nineteen Sixties framed her view on trend and made her fall in love with it at a younger age.

She received her begin in trend at 15 years outdated

When she was 15, her father helped her land her first job in trend on the London boutique, Biba – the identical yr that she started to put on her hair in what’s now her iconic bob with bangs, in response to biographer Jerry Oppenheimer. She left faculty to start a teenage coaching program at Harrods, earlier than changing into an editorial assistant at Harper’s Bazaar UK and Harper’s & Queen. In 1975, she relocated to New York Metropolis the place she labored as junior trend editor at Harper’s Bazaar.

Wintour’s massive break at Vogue got here in 1983 when she landed the position as inventive director of the American journal. In 1985, Wintour changed Beatrix Miller as editor-in-chief of British Vogue, however leapt again to New York Metropolis in 1988 to take over as Vogue editor-in-chief.

Her annual clothes finances is reportedly as excessive as $200,000

The style icon is rumoured to be given an exuberant clothes allowance of $200,000 (about £120,000) from Vogue’s writer, Condé Nast. The stunning determine was revealed in New York Instances’ T Journal by an undisclosed supply. Along with her annual allowance, the British editor is reportedly gifted many high-fashion garments and items from designers.

Regardless of having a rumoured clothes finances, Wintour’s web price is estimated to be $50m, and her yearly wage is reportedly between $2m and $4m.

She has two kids

In 1984, Wintour married youngster psychiatrist David Shaffer. The previous couple had been collectively for 15 years earlier than they divorced in 1999. Collectively, they’ve two kids. Her son, Charlie Shaffer, is a physician and assistant professor of scientific psychiatry at Weill Cornell. Her daughter, Bee Carrozzini (née Shaffer), labored as a producer at Late Evening With Seth Meyers from 2014 to 2017.

She wears her darkish Chanel sun shades so nobody can inform if she’s bored

Whereas Wintour is understood for her signature sun shades, the darkish shades truly serve a function. In a 2009 interview with 60 Minutes, the Vogue editor revealed that she typically dons her giant sun shades as a result of they permit her to maintain her reactions to trend reveals non-public.

“Effectively, they’re severely helpful. I imply, I can sit in a present, and if I’m bored out of my thoughts, no person will discover. And if I’m having fun with it, no person will discover,” Wintour mentioned. “So, I feel at this level they’ve turn into, , actually armour.”

The 2023 Met Gala will happen on Monday 1 Might on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York Metropolis. The theme of this yr’s Met Gala, titled “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Magnificence”, will “look at the life” of the late designer.

The gown code for the annual fundraising occasion, which raises cash for the museum’s Costume Institute, requires company to put on clothes “in honour of Karl” – particularly appears impressed by his work as inventive director at Chanel or Fendi. The Costume Institute’s accompanying exhibition will deliver round 150 creations from the enduring German designer collectively to “discover [his] stylistic language”.

Together with Vogue’s editor-in-chief, there can be 4 co-chairs of the occasion: Dua Lipa, Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, and Roger Federer. Followers can tune in to the Met Gala 2023 crimson carpet livestream on Monday 1 Might at 6.30pm ET on the Vogue web site or its social media platforms.