Anna Wintour
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Anna Wintour, born November 3, 1949 in London, England, is the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue magazine, a position she has held since 1988. She is an icon of the fashion world.
She has often been the target of various animal rights organizations such as P.E.T.A who are angered by her use of fur in Vogue. Undeterred, she continues to use fur in photo spreads.
Wintour was born in Britain and started working in fashion magazines in 1970 in London. She became editor of British Vogue in 1986 and of House & Garden in 1987. At the latter position, she was so fond of putting couture in photo spreads that industry wags began to refer to the magazine as House & Garment.
She did, however, turn both magazines around, increasing their circulation. She was expected to do the same at Vogue, which had, under her predecessor Grace Mirabella, become more focused on lifestyles as a whole and less on fashion. Industry insiders worried that it was losing ground to the upstart ELLE. Under Wintour's editorship the magazine renewed its focus on fashion and returned to the exalted position it had held under Diana Vreeland.
Wintour is also a noted philantropist. She is a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and has worked to create attention for young and emerging fashion designers. She is also a major fundraiser for AIDS charities.
She is the daughter of Charles Wintour, former editor of The Evening Standard, and Elinor Baker. She was previously married to noted child pyschiatrist David Shaffer and has two children by him, Charlie and Bee. She is now involved with millionaire investor Shelby Bryan. She never went to college.
In 2003, The Devil Wears Prada, a best selling roman à clef was written by a former Vogue intern, Lauren Weisberger, who allegedly modeled the book's antagonist on her (although Weisberger denies it). Wintour is now the subject of a hard-hitting unauthorized biography by Jerry Oppenheimer, author of books on American icons such as Martha Stewart, Barbara Walters, Jerry Seinfeld, Ethel Kennedy. Oppenheimer's bio is called Front Row: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor In Chief.