Stilettos at dawn!
As fashion ice queen Anna Wintour’s rival tells weeping staff she’s leaving as editor of British Vogue (with Sam Cam’s ambitious sister waiting in the wings), was it a case of . . .
The corridors at Vogue house were lined with weeping women yesterday. Visitors could be forgiven for thinking there had been a death in the building, there were so many mascarastreaked cheeks, red-rimmed eyes and fumbling in handbags for emergency tissues.
For Vogue’s popular editor-inchief, Alexandra shulman, has revealed that she is stepping down from the role after 25 years — a quarter of British Vogue’s history.
The announcement, made at the 10am editorial meeting by Alexandra and Nicholas coleridge, the outgoing managing director of conde Nast Britain, left staff in shock.
‘Nobody wanted to believe it,’ one sobbed. ‘We don’t know what to do. Most of us can’t imagine Vogue without Alex in charge.’
For her part, Alexandra, 59, who will stay at the helm of the magazine for several months, remained tight-lipped about her departure.
Yesterday afternoon, on the social network instagram, she shared a newspaper clipping from January 24, 1992 — the day after her appointment to the editorship.
A smiling brunette stares out from a black-and-white photograph, her eyes shining with youthful confidence and ambition.
‘Twenty-five years ago,’ she wrote, simply. ‘Thank you for all the wonderful comments.’
But it was her official statement on the matter that set tongues wagging in the fashion world.
While others in her position might have thanked their editorial teams and perhaps lamented the end of an era, Alexandra’s carefully chosen words were at best lukewarm, at worst passive-aggressive.
‘it has been very hard to find a rational reason to leave what is unquestionably a fascinating and rewarding role,’ she declared, ‘but last autumn i realised that i very much wanted to experience a different life and look forward to a future separate from Vogue.’
even the most cursory analysis couldn’t fail to focus on the word ‘separate’. Not ‘outside’ or ‘after’ but separate, cut adrift.
And although she insists she made the decision herself and is looking forward to the future, could there be other intriguing reasons behind Alexandra’s sudden exit?
After all, it’s no secret that her sharp-elbowed deputy emily sheffield, sister of samantha cameron, has had her eye on the editorship for several years — and certainly has friends in high places.
so also does imperious Anna Wintour, the editor of U.s. Vogue, with whom Alex has a rumoured long-running rivalry — brought to public attention in a TV documentary shown, quite pertinently, last autumn.
Yesterday, Vogue spokeswoman hildy Kuryk said: ‘Anna has nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for Alexandra, not only for the intelligence, wit and style that she brought to the pages of Vogue, but also for her enormous and valuable contribution to the fashion industry at large.’
in character and appearance, the pair couldn’t be more different: British-born Wintour, 67, is unflappable and preened to perfection; while Alex, who fluctuates between a size 12 and 14, has made a name for herself as the friendlier, everywoman face of high fashion.
When she was offered the role of UK Vogue editor, there was no doubt she ticked all the boxes.
she had experience — as the first women’s editor of The sunday Telegraph magazine, features editor at Vogue and editor of men’s magazine GQ — and the right breeding, her mother, drusilla Beyfus, was an associate editor of Vogue in the seventies and her father, Milton shulman, was once its film critic.
indeed, the newspaper clipping from the day features a quote from conde Nast boss coleridge that ‘Vogue is almost in her blood’.
BUT from the start, Wintour is thought not to have taken to Alex. her own iron-fisted reign over the UK magazine, dubbed by staff ‘the Wintour of our discontent’, lasted from 1985 to 1987 and involved sweeping job cuts and changes.
By the time Alexandra took charge, Wintour had been editing the magazine’s U.s. counterpart for four years and was said to be among the voices who complained that the new British editor simply didn’t have the fashion pedigree for the job.
over the years, they managed to lead parallel but separate lives; attending the same catwalk shows, store openings and glitzy fashion events, without unnecessarily bumping into one another. in 2011, samantha cameron threw a swanky party to mark the end of London Fashion Week. only the industry elite were invited — Wintour, designers christopher Bailey and Tom Ford, model Poppy delevingne — and guests enjoyed champagne and canapes in the dining room at No 10.
There was, however, no sign of Alexandra shulman. The event went down in fashion circles as a snub — proof that it was Anna who pulled the strings, even in Britain.
Then there was the scandal of the clashing cover stars, shown in glorious detail in Absolutely Fashion: inside British Vogue, a flyon-the-wall documentary broadcast on BBc Two last september.
Alex and Anna clashed over the latter’s plans to feature pop star rihanna on the cover last June, when the UK May edition — also featuring rihanna on the front — would still be on newsstands. Just half an hour before the April edition of her magazine was printed, Alex decided to pull the planned cover (featuring Kate Moss) and put rihanna on the front instead.
documentary-maker richard Macer, who spent nine months filming in the Vogue offices, says he definitely witnessed professional rivalry between the two.
‘i don’t think Alex has any personal contact with Anna Wintour,’ he explains. ‘i got the feeling they were far from best friends.
‘even telling me about the cover clash was quite a contentious thing to do. But i think Alex quite liked the idea of getting one over on Anna.
‘There’s a sort of david-and-Goliath thing going on with UK and U.s. Vogue. i think it was quite thrilling for her to win.’
Now it seems that the tables have turned.
There is only room for one powerful
woman in the fashion world, and Wintour doesn’t like to lose.
Her star has been in the ascendant across the Atlantic for years: on a reported £1.6million salary, she has been dubbed the ‘unofficial mayoress’ of New York and can be spotted wearing her trademark sunglasses as she is driven around the city in a chauffeured Mercedes S-Class.
More recently, her domination has spread to our shores. She was made a dame in the New Year, elevating her far above the status of mere editor to cement her status as a global fashion power-broker.
Perhaps her greatest coup of late was getting Theresa May to appear on the April cover of American — not British — Vogue, after a secret photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz at Chequers.
At a party last September to celebrate British Vogue’s centenary year, Anna and Alex posed for photos together in an apparent attempt to quash rumours about their feud.
The pair looked far from friendly as they held thin, strained smiles for the camera. Alex, who was holding a large glass of white wine, could barely hide her relief when Victoria Beckham appeared and wedged herself between them.
Unfortunately for her, Wintour’s appearances in Britain are likely to become more frequent.
Change is brewing at Conde Nast, the publishing house which owns Vogue, and new executives have been brought in across the company — all of whom hold ‘Nuclear Wintour’ in extremely high regard.
Wolfgang Blau, a tech guru who was chief digital officer, has been promoted to president, while Albert read, formerly deputy managing director, will take over from Nicholas Coleridge from August 1.
Both are Wintour devotees, with Blau mentioning her several times on his personal Twitter account.
‘Nicholas Coleridge was Alex’s biggest champion and they worked hand-in-hand,’ a Vogue insider explains.
‘Alex is old-guard print media. A new era is coming: they may want someone younger and digitally savvy.
‘She had an amazing 25 years when magazines were ruling the media world. Now it’s all about constant job cuts, budget restrictions and amalgamating production teams. It’s managing decline rather than managing fabulousness.’ While Vogue’s audience share has grown steadily under Alex’s editorship (up 7.1 per cent year on year) and sales have risen to 200,000 per issue, the declining fortunes of Conde Nast have been wellpublicised of late, with shrinking ad revenues and restructuring across several magazines. even some of Alex’s greatest achievements — securing the Duchess of Cambridge as a cover star last June — weren’t enough to turn things around. In the Vogue documentary there are signs, too, that Alex was feeling far from at ease in her own company. In one poignant scene, filmed inside her office — where two ‘gatekeepers’ filter visitors depending on her mood — she reveals that she sometimes feels isolated. ‘You can’t expect people to be your friends, exactly, and you can’t expect people really to like you,’ she says. ‘That can’t be your main consideration. And that can mean you’re a bit isolated . . . but I’ve got enough people around me that I don’t ever feel lonely.’
DOCUMENTARY maker Macer says Alex struck him as being ‘quite melancholy’. In fact, she did mention her retirement during their time together, but suggested it was five years away; not five months from when they last spoke. ‘She said the reason she wanted to do the documentary was that she didn’t want her successor to arrive in five years and take all the credit for her 25 years of hard work,’ richard explains. Although the official line from Conde Nast is that they will advertise for a replacement, potential successors are already vying in the wings. Both Alexandra and Jonathan Newhouse, chairman and chief executive of Conde Nast International, have provided a shortlist of suggested names. Industry insiders say emily Sheffield is a strong contender, having served as Alex’s deputy for almost seven years — though others insist she is ‘too political’, particularly after her brother-in-law’s involvement in the EU referendum and Brexit. Another in the frame is Justine Picardie, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, whose recent marriage to Philip Astor, a wealthy landowner and first cousin-once-removed of Viscount Astor, who is married to Sam Cam’s mother Lady Annabel, has the requisite social standing. There is also Kate reardon, the outspoken editor of Tatler, a longterm friend of Alex’s. As for the woman who has steered the nation’s fashion choices for a quarter of a century, the future is less clear. Asked by the Mail last night if there were other reasons — or other individuals — behind her departure, she said: ‘Good Lord, no. I’ve been here for 25 years and if there was ever a good time to leave, this was it. It was a completely personal decision.’ She has already written two novels, having turned her hand to chick-lit in 2013, and penned a diary of her life during Vogue’s 100th year. In it, she writes about the experience of attending a fashion show: ‘To be absent is to miss the game in which I’m a player, even though at times it seems I spend a lot of days sitting on a bench, waiting for a 15-minute show to begin, then sitting again, waiting for a traffic jam to ease.’ Those days may now be few and far between. But whatever happens next, one thing is certain: Queen Anna will be in the driving seat.