“Imperfection is fine.”
― Anna Wintour
“To me, fashion is ceaselessly fascinating because it is an expression of self.”
― Anna Wintour
“We all have a role to play in creating safe environments where everyone can be free to work without fear.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’m always looking for a cover subject that reflects the magazine, an interest in fashion, in culture, in society. We’re trying to bring the world into the pages of ‘Vogue.’ We do that by tapping into the zeitgeists with our cover subjects.”
― Anna Wintour
“To be in ‘Vogue’ has to mean something. It’s an endorsement. It’s a validation.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think it’s very important for children to understand that women work and that it’s fulfilling, and it doesn’t mean that they love you any less or care about you any less.”
― Anna Wintour
“I hear the same anxieties over and over again. Everything is too fast; everything is too precarious. We have more access than ever to the people we are trying to reach, thanks to social media and mobile technology, and more information than we know what to do with.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think possibly what people working for one hate the most is indecision. Even if I’m completely unsure, I’ll pretend I know exactly what I’m talking about and make a decision. The most important thing I can do is try and make myself very clearly understood.”
― Anna Wintour
“’Vogue’ and ‘Vice’ may appear to some to see the world through different lenses. But in my view, both are fearless and breathtaking, with unquenchable curiosity and vigor.”
― Anna Wintour
“I have learned that documentary makers are incredibly sneaky people.”
― Anna Wintour
“To be famous these days with no grounding and no substance is not especially difficult. I urge you instead to seek to be relevant, to be agile and educated.”
― Anna Wintour
“I look for strong people. I don’t like people who’ll say yes to everything I might bring up. I want people who can argue and disagree and have a point of view that’s reflected in the magazine. My dad believed in the cult of personality. He brought great writers and columnists to ‘The Standard.’”
― Anna Wintour
“It’s very important to take risks. I think that research is very important, but in the end you have to work from your instinct and feeling and take those risks and be fearless. When I hear a company is being run by a team, my heart sinks, because you need to have that leader with a vision and heart that can move things forward.”
― Anna Wintour
“I learned how important it is to lead and be decisive and to, in a way, empower other people to do their best.”
― Anna Wintour
“Even if you aren’t sure of yourself, pretend that you are… most people prevaricate.”
― Anna Wintour
“Things change. You walk on the street and get a Starbucks, and things have changed by the time you come back to the office.”
― Anna Wintour
“If my style is too direct for some, maybe they should toughen up a bit.”
― Anna Wintour
“Fashion is a reflection of the time.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’d always been extremely fascinated by the French Nuit Blanche, which is a weekend that they have in Paris where they keep all the museums open until dawn. You can go and hang out in Versailles in the middle of the night and watch the sun come up.”
― Anna Wintour
“Those who want things always to stay the same are not living in the real world.”
― Anna Wintour
“The young people we hire today at Conde Nast are fearless polymaths.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think what you have to do in print is to create even more memorable images and more memorable pieces because what one consumes online or in social has a much shorter shelf life, so to speak, so what print has to have is no more weight, but it has to be something that you can’t find so easily online. It has to really stand for print.”
― Anna Wintour
“In the end I do respond to my own instincts. Sometimes they’re successful, and obviously sometimes they’re not. But you have to, I think, remain true to what you believe in.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’m very driven by what I do. I am certainly very competitive. I like people who represent the best at what they do, and if that turns you into a perfectionist, then maybe I am.”
― Anna Wintour
“One doesn’t want fashion to look ridiculous, silly, or out of step with the times – but you do want designers that make you think, that make you look at fashion differently. That’s how fashion changes. If it doesn’t change, it’s not looking forward. And that’s important to me.”
― Anna Wintour
“Everyone should get sacked at least once. It forces you to look at yourself… It is important to have setbacks, because that is the reality of life. Perfection doesn’t exist.”
― Anna Wintour
“I see a lot of women in these great-looking sneakers, as though they are almost very influenced by sport.”
― Anna Wintour
“Mental health is an area where people are embarrassed. They don’t want to talk about it because somehow they feel they’re a failure as a parent or, you know, they’re embarrassed for their child or they want to protect their child, lots of very good reasons, but mental health, I feel, is something that you have to talk about.”
― Anna Wintour
“I surround myself with a talented group of people that are opinionated and interesting. I try to remain very open to what others have to say.”
― Anna Wintour
“There’s no point about whining or complaining or screaming.”
― Anna Wintour
“I am very lucky in my team. They sit opposite me, and I get to see them every day sitting there staring at the seating chart, not doing much. It is almost like a chess game.”
― Anna Wintour
“For us, creativity means thinking about the lives of our audience and how to connect with them.”
― Anna Wintour
“Designers don’t live in a vacuum; they are not blind to what’s going on. They, too, will be inspired by what they see, and that will come out in their work.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t think I am that hands-on. I’m much more of a believer in finding a great team of people and trusting them to follow their instincts. They work better when they feel they have freedom and they are trusted.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think Beyonce is every woman. She’s superwoman, she’s an extraordinary business woman, she’s a force of fashion. She totally understands the way to communicate to millions and millions of fans.”
― Anna Wintour
“Print publications have to be as luxurious an experience as possible. You have to feel it coming off the page. You have to see photographs and pieces that you couldn’t possibly see anywhere else.”
― Anna Wintour
“Certainly we have made mistakes, but you try and learn from your mistakes. And the most important thing is always to move forward and, I think, empower people to do their best, and to lead. I think people respect that and work better under those circumstances.”
― Anna Wintour
“I want ‘Vogue’ to be pacy, sharp, and sexy – I’m not interested in the super-rich or infinitely leisured. I want our readers to be energetic executive women, with money of their own and a wide range of interests. There is a new kind of woman out there. She’s interested in business and money.”
― Anna Wintour
“It’s very important to me that I look good when I go out publicly. I like looking at my clothes rack in the morning and deciding what to pick out. I enjoy fashion.”
― Anna Wintour
“We have to reflect the world that we live in.”
― Anna Wintour
“Traditionally, those that work in fashion have always had the point of view that items made by hand have their own aura and are something special.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think everyone in the United States has such admiration for the British royal family, and with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, there’s a whole new interest in the younger generation.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t think in today’s world you can go too far. However you may feel about social media or the Internet or selfies, it’s part of how we all live today. ‘Vogue’ needs to understand and reflect that.”
― Anna Wintour
“I feel it would be a huge mistake for ‘Vogue’ always to be completely tasteful, completely perfect. I think it’s very important for us to also rock the boat.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t go to the afterparties. I think people always feel if I go to the afterparties, they have to behave well, which, after all, is not the point of an afterparty.”
― Anna Wintour
“’Vogue’ is a fashion magazine, and a fashion magazine is about change.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t think of myself as a powerful person.”
― Anna Wintour
“’Vogue’ is the best of everything that fashion can offer, and I think we point the way. We are, you know, a glamorous girlfriend.”
― Anna Wintour
“Because of reality television and all these celebrities thinking they can be designers, everyone imagines that they can just become a designer, photographer, or model, but that’s not the way things work. People have to go to school, learn their craft, and build a brand – that’s the right, healthy way to do things.”
― Anna Wintour
“The beauty of what Apple does at Apple is that they’re not on trend; they are classic.”
― Anna Wintour
“It is so important for designers not to run scared, and not to be too worried about what’s safe and what’s commercial.”
― Anna Wintour
“Previous first ladies seemed to feel the need to wear a sort of uniform, whereas Michelle Obama likes fashion and is very comfortable in fashion. She’s happy to mix high and low, and she loves emerging designers. That will do nothing but good for our industry.”
― Anna Wintour
“My father was a newspaper editor, so I was surrounded by journalists my entire life. I think the fact that he was so well known may be why I chose to go into magazines and move to the States at a young age.”
― Anna Wintour
“By the time I came to the States, I really understood how a magazine works. I came to ‘Vogue’ as creative director, and three years later I went back to London to be editor in chief of British ‘Vogue.’”
― Anna Wintour
“I’m very good at delegating – people work much better when they have a real sense of responsibility. But at the same time, I don’t like surprises. I don’t pore over every shoot, but I do like to be aware at all times of what’s going on.”
― Anna Wintour
“I never pay any attention. I’m sure it’s not such a good way to be, but I don’t really follow market research.”
― Anna Wintour
“The notion that a contemporary woman must look mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismaying. This is America, not Saudi Arabia.”
― Anna Wintour
“I love coming in and changing magazines.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t really follow market research. In the end, I respond to my own instincts.”
― Anna Wintour
“The Fashion Fund celebrates the real passion that underlies the fashion business, not the frothy world of glamour and celebrity that so often surrounds it.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’m horribly hands-on, I’m afraid. I like to read every caption.”
― Anna Wintour
“Part of the pleasure of editing ‘Vogue,’ one that lies in a long tradition of this magazine, is being able to feature those who define the culture at any given moment, who stir things up, whose presence in the world shapes the way it looks and influences the way we see it.”
― Anna Wintour
“There’s barely a strand of the modern media that the Kardashian-Wests haven’t been able to master, and for good reason: Kanye is an amazing performer and cultural provocateur, while Kim, through her strength of character, has created a place for herself in the glare of the world’s spotlight, and it takes real guts to do that.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’ve been very lucky to put women that I sincerely admire on the cover of ‘Vogue:’ the then First Lady and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and, more recently, First Lady Michelle Obama. Those were benchmarks for the magazine, and certainly covers that I’ve been very, very proud of.”
― Anna Wintour
“I like having young assistants in my office; they have energy, and I spend time with them to make sure they understand what we’re doing. By investing in them, I’m investing in the magazine. All over ‘Vogue,’ ‘Teen Vogue,’ and ‘Men’s Vogue,’ there are people who have been through not only my office but also many other offices at ‘Vogue.’”
― Anna Wintour
“It is important always to have really original talent. There are lots of good designers that make attractive clothes and make women look beautiful. But at the same time, one doesn’t want to lose the idea that there is someone out there who can change the way you look at fashion.”
― Anna Wintour
“Fashion today is available to everybody in a way that it’s never been before: you’ve got every designer you’ve ever heard of working for H& or Target. That’s fantastic.”
― Anna Wintour
“I went to Wimbledon before I could walk. It’s just been a lifelong passion.”
― Anna Wintour
“If one comes across sometimes as being cold or brusque, it’s simply because I’m striving for the best.”
― Anna Wintour
“I wasn’t academically successful. And maybe I’ve spent a lot of my career trying to make up for that.”
― Anna Wintour
“It’s important for young women and men coming out of the fashion schools to think seriously before starting their own collections.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think we’re living, in terms of media, in a very democratic age, but I think that we still look at everything through the lens of ‘Vogue’ and through our own point of view.”
― Anna Wintour
“In the fact that ‘Vogue’ is someone that can help guide enormous audiences through this fascinating world, I would like to think we are as influential and actually are now reaching so many more people than we ever dreamt of back in the Fifties or the Sixties.”
― Anna Wintour
“I get asked all the time, What do you do differently than 10 years ago, or what will you do differently in the years to come?’ In the years to come, I have no idea.”
― Anna Wintour
“Learning how to be editor-in-chief of ‘Vogue’ wasn’t something that happened overnight.”
― Anna Wintour
“Of course it would be wonderful for Hillary Clinton to be the first female president, but I think she would be the first to say that she wouldn’t want people to vote for her just because she’s a woman.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’m struck these days by how often people come up to me and ask to take a photograph instead of shaking hands, meeting one’s eyes, and having an actual conversation.”
― Anna Wintour
“There is unfortunately a world that still exists that dismisses fashion as being a little bit frivolous and the people who work in it are not so smart.”
― Anna Wintour
“We are in a gender-fluid generation.”
― Anna Wintour
“There are so many causes that you care about, but one can’t change or take on the world, so one has to really focus on where you feel you can – to use a very overworked phrase – truly try to do something to make a difference.”
― Anna Wintour
“Of course there were times, particularly when you travel, when it’s very tough to leave the kids, particularly when they were very young. I would try to take them with me when I could just so they could experience and see a little bit of what a work day involved.”
― Anna Wintour
“I can’t make anything. I don’t know how to make a dress. I couldn’t go on a shoot and create an image. I can’t write a script. I have so much admiration for people who can do these things, because I would have no idea where to start.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t have a high-powered life out of work. I like to go to the country for the weekend with the kids and the dog and play tennis. I am very good at turning off.”
― Anna Wintour
“It would be ridiculous to ignore the speed and possibilities of the digital landscape.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’ve been thinking a lot about the speed and spectacle in today’s fashion industry, because they seem to mirror stresses in other creative fields.”
― Anna Wintour
“Fashion, which often seems to be on a path to be bigger, more Instagram-ready, can also achieve its best through sincerity.”
― Anna Wintour
“It would be a mistake to think something is wonderful just because it looks great.”
― Anna Wintour
“The elitist way of looking on the runway, frankly, seems old fashioned.”
― Anna Wintour
“Western design houses have been exploring China in terms of investment for well over a decade.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t feel that Chinese designers have reached the level of prominence that European or American designers have, but we’ve noticed in fashion schools in the U.S. and in England and we’ve seen how much the makeup of the students in the classes have changed there in the last five to 10 years.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think of young Chinese women today as being incredibly modern and are taking a lot from Western style and tailoring.”
― Anna Wintour
“I’ve never worn a hoodie before!”
― Anna Wintour
“We’re all used to hearing the word ‘authentic’ a little too often these days, but in Senator Gillibrand’s case, it’s entirely accurate.”
― Anna Wintour
“The world of entertainment is, like the world of fashion, becoming increasingly populated by those who don’t want to do things the same old boring way.”
― Anna Wintour
“Trump’s foundation has done nothing. Its board is packed with relatives, and he’s going to use his presidency to sell himself and his brand and profit personally for himself and his family.”
― Anna Wintour
“I hope that President-elect Trump will be a successful president for us all.”
― Anna Wintour
“I was brought up in a family of journalists, and a mother who was deeply committed to human rights, so I think that the mix of those two huge influences have been very, very important to me.”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t understand that if you look wonderful, does that make you less important, less powerful, less serious?”
― Anna Wintour
“I don’t believe in wasting anybody’s time. I like to be honest. I like to be clear.”
― Anna Wintour
“In my own personal career, I have felt almost the most difficult thing to deal with is someone who doesn’t tell you what they are thinking.”
― Anna Wintour
“My career got off to a very shaky start when I dropped out of school at the age of 18. Despite my lack of academic credentials, I got a job as a fashion assistant at ‘Harper’s & Queen.’”
― Anna Wintour
“My first job in the States was as a junior fashion editor at ‘Harper’s Bazaar,’ which I enjoyed, but not for all that long because I was fired by the editor in chief, who told me that I was too ‘European.’”
― Anna Wintour
“After a series of jobs that I prefer not to recall, I was hired in the early eighties as fashion editor of ‘New York’ magazine.”
― Anna Wintour
“In 1986, I returned to London as editor in chief of ‘British Vogue.’ Although I still thought of myself as totally English, to my surprise, everyone here thought I was some sort of American control freak.”
― Anna Wintour
“For my very first September issue, I put Naomi Campbell on the cover. She was wearing this orange Anne Klein sequin suit – it would probably look incredibly ’80s today.”
― Anna Wintour
“’Vogue’ has a history of picking up on various TV shows that reflect a moment in popular culture, whether it’s putting Lena Dunham on the cover or Sarah Jessica Parker.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think it would be incredible for this country if we could have our first woman president.”
― Anna Wintour
“Finding your way doesn’t mean surviving, just as pleasing an audience doesn’t mean twisting your editorial around search engine optimization and Facebook algorithms.”
― Anna Wintour
“It is true that a lot of people are easily distracted online. As a result, too many of us have given up on digital audiences for ambitious work, and this is a mistake.”
― Anna Wintour
“It would be ridiculous to ignore the speed and possibilities of the digital landscape – you absolutely need to have fast-moving news online, but if you want to build a large audience over time, you absolutely have to take a risk on the big challenging stuff.”
― Anna Wintour
“I have such an extraordinary platform where I am able to help people. To me, that’s the number one priority.”
― Anna Wintour
“I think I’m decisive, and I like to get things done quickly. So if that comes across as intimidation, I’m sorry to hear it. But it’s more in the interest of getting things done.”
― Anna Wintour
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