Vanity, glamour, rivalry and other fare
Tina Brown became editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and helped set the tone for a time of decadent affluence. Her diaries are juicy and vulnerable.
The Vanity Fair Diaries: 1983-1992
Tina Brown
Henry Holt and Co.
All’s fair in love, war and magazine publishing
Originally hired as a consultant for Vanity Fair editor Leo Lerman, Brown decided to usurp Lerman instead. She headed out to Condé Nast exec Alex Liberman’s country house to claim the VF crown. Brown convinced Liberman that Vanity Fair “would be down the drain by the end of the year,” decrying Lerman as “an impediment to its success.” The plan worked, and Brown quickly turned Vanity Fair around. During her tenure, VF transformed into one of the most prestigious and profitable U.S. magazines.
The Brown-Wintour rivalry is probably a myth
Brown and Anna Wintour are both upper-class British gals who stormed Manhattan to claim Condé Nast publications. While Brown ran cultural touchstone Vanity Fair, Wintour took the helm at fashion bible Vogue. The chattering classes have taken their feud for granted ever since. Brown, however, says this famed enmity is imaginary. Apart from a 1985 diary entry in which a heavily pregnant Brown envies expectant Wintour’s “neat couture bulge,” Brown is coolly detached with regard to her. In September of ’87, she writes, “Anna is too frontal for feuds and Vogue has never interested me.”
Lunch is the most important meal of the day
The dreary desk lunch of last night’s leftovers is not an experience to which Brown is accustomed. Instead, she power lunched like the pro she is. She regularly broke bread at such legendary NYC haunts as the Four Seasons, using lunch to woo potential advertisers including Ralph Lauren. Lunch is also where she first met Si Newhouse, heir to the Condé Nast empire and Brown’s longtime boss.
When in doubt, throw a party
In the glittering world of VF, parties solve all problems. When Brown wasn’t attending an endless array of New York galas and cocktail parties to rub shoulders with such luminaries as Gloria Steinem or Martin Amis, she was throwing her own. Convinced putting movie stars on her covers was the way to move copies, Brown threw the first of VF’s now-legendary Hollywood parties at Spago in 1987: “If it goes well, I want to make our Hollywood party an annual thing because our power base for covers is here.” For Brown, parties are about networking and lavish displays of dominance: “Social gatherings like this not only bring the pages alive, they also make a statement about our convening power.” Brown was basically the Sun Tzu of socialites.