From NYMag - In a rare public appearance, Anna Wintour spoke to Jonathan Tisch at the 92nd Street Y last night. Topics included how Vogue stays relevant in the recession and how to look good without spending a lot of money. Fur might not have come up had the members of PETA in the audience not interrupted. "This woman skins animals alive!" they shouted. As they tossed a banner over the balcony and called Wintour a shame, the editor's expression was a mix of polite restraint and Is there no security in this place? Drowning out the sounds of the chant "Fur Shame! Fur Shame!", an audience member yelled, "I love you, Anna!" to booming applause. Wintour looked her hecklers in the eyes and said, "Fur is still a part of fashion, so Vogue will continue to report on it." When 92Y staff removed the animal rights radicals from the room, Wintour joked, "As I was saying, fashion means different things to different people." Read on for some highlights from the discussion, including why Michelle Obama matters and who will land on next month's cover.
You've said it's time to move on from a job when you get too angry. Are you getting to the point where you're thinking about other options?
Well, mostly I'm thinking about the next day. I think that I have the best job in the entire world. To be honest, I don't think I'd be very good at anything else!
How are you keeping Vogue current at this moment?
You have to remember exactly who you are and not panic. I don't think that Vogue should turn into Recession Weekly. But at the same time, I think that we have to be very aware of what's going on in the world. In terms of our fashion choices ... racks and racks of clothes are wheeled into my office, and we discuss what's going to be in the magazine and what's not. And up until a year ago, we've been very free about the prices of clothes, and I probably didn't delve as deeply as I should have into what things cost. Now I ask the price of every single outfit that comes into the office, and I think a lot of my editors have been quite surprised about what a little sequin dress from an unnamed designer might be, and if it's $25,000, we'll say, ‘Okay, well, not this time.’ So we're looking at that, and at supporting younger designers — like Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler — that are more price-friendly ... But at the same time, we are who we are. We represent the fashion industry, and we have to show the best in the fashion industry, and that's not going to change.
What went into putting Michelle Obama on the cover?
She emerged during the campaign as this enigmatic and strong woman with such great personal style. I think at the beginning, she had quite a hard time capturing the hearts of America, and it was interesting to all of us to see how that changed ... Mrs. Obama loves fashion. She isn't, like some people in Washington, frightened of it. She believes, as we do at Vogue, that to be an independent, working woman doesn't mean that you have to walk around with a brown paper bag on … We always felt that Washington rather looked down on us or didn't understand us or wasn't quite ready for us, and now we have an administration that supports us.
What is the role of a fashion editor today?
There's so much media coverage on fashion today from all sides. Our job is to really dig through all that and help our readers make choices and explain what we're seeing. Right now, there's almost too much information on fashion — I'm confused!
How do you go about hiring people for Vogue?
I really hire on instinct, and I look for people who are going to disagree with me. I think personalities like André Leon Talley and Hamish Bowles are really important to the magazine. Some people talk about lots of market research, but I've never really believed in that.
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