Beguiling secrets behind those trademark Wayfarer sunglasses

WINTOUR’S sunglasses, which seem like an eccentricity, may have a purpose beyond fashion.

She has claimed her short-sightedness is paired with acute light sensitivity, hence her need for them. But Vogue’s longtime West Coast director Lisa Love said she just preferred the appearance of them, which defined her iconic look and added to her mystique.

Friend Vivienne Lasky remembered Wintour unhappily wearing spectacles when they were at school together, but didn’t recall her wearing sunglasses. ‘I thought it started because if you’re wearing sunglasses, people don’t know they have prescription lenses,’ she said.

Wintour’s longtime assistant Laurie Schechter recalls that the only thing her highly organised boss seemed unable to keep track of was her prescription Wayfarer sunglasses. Schechter repeatedly had to collect replacement pairs.

In the mid-1990s, now-disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein became obsessed with getting Wintour to his screenings, believing that publicity in Vogue would improve his Oscars chances. Wintour got a plum seat in the screening room where Miramax publicity staff could monitor her reactions.

Except that Wintour sat there and watched entire films with her sunglasses on, which made any flicker of a reaction impossible to detect. Rumours went around that the sunglasses hid the fact that she was sleeping. Weinstein got so frustrated at one point that he told a publicist to ask Wintour to remove her sunglasses. Another publicist set him straight. ‘Harvey, you just don’t ask Anna Wintour to take off her sunglasses.’