AMAZING ANNA BY THOSE WHO KNEW HER

Anna Wintour

“I started working with Anna when I returned in 1985 to edit British Vogue. It was a moment of tumultuous change there; Beatrix Miller, the longstanding editor, had retired and I turned up from New York, with a very American get-it-done attitude and a staff with a very English way of doing things. Anna, blessed with the most impeccable manners, was incredibly welcoming: kind and generous and, once you got past her reserve, revealed that wonderfully dry and selfdeprecating sense of humour of hers. British Vogue then, like all magazines, had plenty of larger-than-life personalities. Yet Anna was Vogue’s ballast, calm and respectful with everyone she worked with, and in everything she did. It might have been not longer after I arrived that she let an up-andcoming photographer called Steven Meisel sleep on her floor when he shot for the magazine. She became Vogue’s centre of gravity, the person everyone – myself included – would turn to for advice and help. It’s that, just as much as her considerable talents as a sittings editor, that I will fondly remember her for.”

Sam Mcknight

“I remember being on a shoot with Patrick Demarchelier for Versace with Christy Turlington in Paris. She was wearing a pale blue figurehugging sequin dress. Turlington said: ‘This would look great on Diana because she looks so fit these days.’ I took a Polaroid and showed it to Diana. She loved it. I showed it to Anna, who said in her typical low-key fashion: ‘Leave it with me.’ Anna set up a meeting with Donatella and that was the start of Diana’s relationship with the Versaces.”

Jasper Conran

“She was steadfast in her support of the British designers. Everything else at the time was more America, Milan and Paris. We were cottage industries in comparison. But Anna championed us over the years. As a person, as a professional, she was magnificent.”

Manolo Blahnik

“Without Anna, I wouldn’t be where I am today – she contributed greatly to my career in so many ways. Modest and so generous with her constant advice. However, also graceful, patient and bestowed with a natural elegance. A very dear and loyal friend, I will miss her forever.”

Grace Coddington

“I first worked with Anna as a model and then later as fashion editors at Vogue. Her shoots were classic and timeless, she wasn’t avantgarde, but she recognised talent when she saw it.”