For almost 25 years, Anna Wintour has been the editor of
Vogue Magazine.
Oh boy, has this pretty woman -- hand on her chin in this picture -- ever affected what you and I are wearing right now!
Robin Givhans, Pulitzer prize-winning fashion critic whose writing I like, and mostly trust, went on and on in a recent
Newsweek article, about Anna Wintour – her new pals, old pals, her fund-raising for Obama, parties she's attended at celebrity homes, state dinners at the White House, fashion runway shows she's attended. The article is loaded with names of bankers, banker wiv
es, ambassadors and other VIP'S with whom Anna has been socializing.
Gee, my brain's jammed with major things -- political wars, potential world wars, life and death things – and I found myself wondering why I was wading through this stuff -- is Wintour on the verge of leaving
Vogue?
Vogue Magazine is bigger, richer, more important than ever -- is Wintour trying to make it bigger and, richer? For years, she's been recommending fashion designers. Whomever she recommends usually gets the job.
(Not little jobs, these are the super, top-echelon, power positions in fashion.) Wintour helped J.Crew and The Gap get into Council of Fashion Designers of America; she raised $85 million for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. According to Givhans' article, Wintour is deeply involved with high-profile, powerful people from the worlds of fashion, film, music, sports, and, of course, politics.
She's 62, easily passing for 50, glamorously bedecked, usually in fanciful
frocks that, of course, define fashion. Photos show that she personally prefers dresses, (
not slacks), chooses heels rather than comfort, wears fur despite the fact that it's
politically incorrect.
... Fur, frocks, and heels ...? Her preferences clash with mine ...
Givhans says Wintour is super influential, but for me, "super influential" is Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama; also commentator Rachel Maddow, Katie Couric, and culture-shaper Lady Gaga. Also, I pay attention to comments by Shirley MacLaine and Sandra Bullock, and I don't ignore, though I'd like to ignore, the fame-hungry Jennifer Lopez, who's into everything.
Hey, if you've got an up-and-coming someone you're observing, a person who's truly, seriously, on the verge of changing our world, let me know so I can read, and write about him or her.
Since Givhans has paid attention to Wintour, I'll pay attention, but aside from frocks, heels and fur, what she's doing, where she's heading ... well, it's just not clear.
All I see is a powerful woman who wants more power, and that gives me the heebie-jeebies.