The devil is nada?
Anna Wintour rumored out at Vogue
IT is almost beyond the fashion world’s wildest imagination, but the chatter coming out of Condé Nast has reached a deafening crescendo — Anna Wintour could be on her way out as artistic director.
A host of stunned sources have told Page Six that Wintour — the grand high priestess of both the fashion and publishing industries since she became editor in chief of Vogue in 1988 — is to exit her powerful role at the publishing house this summer after the July wedding of her daughter, Bee Shaffer, to Francesco Carrozzini.
The rumored move would also allow Wintour, 68, to step aside on a high after closing Vogue’s all-important September issue.
But Condé Nast strongly denies Wintour is going. A corporate spokesperson told Page Six, “We emphatically deny these rumors,” but declined to comment more specifically on Wintour’s plans. However, we’re told British Vogue’s editor,
Edward Enninful, is the likely replacement as the editor of US Vogue. It’s unclear who — if anyone — might replace Wintour as artistic director, the title she ascended to in 2013, giving her oversight of all Condé magazine titles.
Longtime Condé chairman S.I. Newhouse, who died last year, was Wintour’s biggest cheerleader. But there are rumors that his presumed successor, Jonathan Newhouse — chairman of Condé Nast International who has been living in Lon- don — is coming back to New York. Jonathan “doesn’t like [the amount of power] Anna has” and favors Enninful, one source tells us.
Under Wintour’s watch, the company folded the print editions of Teen Vogue, Self and Details, and closed Style.com. The company is about $100 million a year in the red. And while many fashion insiders insist that Vogue without Wintour is unimaginable, other Condé Nast grandees, including Graydon Carter, recently toppled. But well-connected Wintour won’t be short of other offers — she may be eyeing a big position back in England, such as leading the British Fashion Council, which in hindsight makes her seat next to Queen Elizabeth II at London fashion week a genius personal p.r. move.