Anna Wintour

Dame Anna Wintour CH DBE (born 3 November 1949) is a British-American media businesswoman. She was editor-in-chief of Vogue from 1988 until 2025.

Anna Wintour stopped going to school at 16 and started her career in fashion. She worked on magazines in America called New York and Home & Garden. She then went back to Britain and worked on a British magazine known as Vogue. She later worked on the American version, making them both more popular and successful. Wintour supports young fashion designers and is sometimes called "Nuclear Wintour" because of her demanding personality.

Wintour was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2023 Birthday Honours]for services to fashion.^[1] In 2025, she was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.^[2]

Wintour stepped down as editor-in-chief of Vogue in June 2025.^[3] On 1 September 2025, Vogue announced she would be replaced by Chloe Malle, who was promoted from editor of vogue.com.^[4]

It is thought that Anna Wintour was the inspiration behind the demanding editor, Miranda Priestly, in the novel The Devil Wears Prada. The author of the book, Lauren Weisberger, had worked as the personal assistant of Anna Wintour at Vogue. It has been suggested that the setting and Priestly were based on Vogue and Wintour, but Weisberger denies this, and says that Wintour is given her own appearance near the end of the book.

The similarities between Priestly and Wintour are:

• They both have two children
• They both serve on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Miranda Priestly is a mean person who makes impossible demands of the people who work for her,^[5] and Wintour is also a very strict boss.

Before the book started selling, Wintour told the New York Times, "I always enjoy a great piece of fiction. I haven't decided whether I am going to read it or not."^[6]

It is also said that a character in the TV series of Ugly Betty is based on Wintour. The character Fey Sommers, is very similar to Anna Wintour:

• They both have a bob haircut
• They both wear sunglasses indoors
• Their surnames are both homophones for seasons (Sommers=Summer, Wintour=Winter)
• They were both targeted by animal rights activists for using fur in their fashion
• Both Sommers and Wintour were involved in some way with fashion magazines. (Sommers with MODE, Wintour with Vogue).

Wintour is also mentioned in Ugly Betty when Wilhelmina Slater is going to get a better job at MODE (the magazine) after Bradford Meade is arrested. She does not accept a lunch invitation from Anna Wintour, saying she should have called back in 1998, not 2007.

Wintour has been a supporter of the Democratic Party going back to Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate run and John Kerry's 2004 presidential run and serving Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential runs as a lot of contributions. In 2008 and 2012, she co-hosted fundraisers with Sarah Jessica Parker, the latter being a 50-person, $40,000-a-plate dinner at Parker's West Village town house with Meryl Streep, Michael Kors, and Trey Laird, an advertising executive, among the attendees. She has also teamed with Calvin Klein and Harvey Weinstein on fundraisers during Obama's first term and Donna Karan has been amongst the attendees.^[7]

• Anna Wintour on IMDb