YouSaid · the spoken record

Anna Wintour

lines on the record: 57
first: 2025-12-08
most recent: 2025-12-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, having worked with Alex and Cy, who said, Well, I'll retire when I die, I think I'll always do something, you know, whether it's the amazing, amazing position that I'm lucky enough to have now. I don't know, but I like Alistair Rory. I like to be busy. I like to help people. I like to... Use the knowledge that I have over so many decades of working with so many incredible people taking that knowledge and seeing how I can connect and how I can help. And I would just like to continue to be helpful.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Memory still of what he was like, and sort of having her and the family members there for the press announcement made it so personal and so real. And I think she was very moved because she said very sweetly, I thought you'd all forgotten about him.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Carter about four years ago when they gave us the go ahead to start the fundraising for it. And she was great and she said, well, he hated the name Montrose. You have to include that. And I said, yes, we have to differentiate it from the business. And then just a few weeks ago, we had the press conference and I called her up again and asked her if she would come over. And she came 95 years old. She came over with like 12 vonomkitas, all extraordinary. And I went to visit her the night before she was staying at the Knickerbocker Club. Of course, she was staying at the Knickerbocker Club. And she brought this album of her dad and people that had worked at Vogue and Vanity Fair and she told me about all these legendary parties he used to give at their apartment on Park Avenue and walking to school across Park Avenue to Really because she lived with her father until she was about, I think, 12 years old.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I'm very grateful to the Met for their collaboration and their respect and their understanding of how important the costume department is to the success. I mean, our exhibitions are among the most successful ever at the museum. And after years of advocating for more space, they have now given us this incredible gallery, right? I don't know how well you know the map, but right off the great hall, which was the gift shop. It's 12,000 square feet. And we will be opening the Cond ⁇ Montrose Nast galleries in May with our next exhibition. Cond ⁇ Montrose NAS was the founder of Conde Nast and Vogue. And to get permission to name the galleries after him, I had to call his daughter, who's called Lady Leslie Bonn.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Strong light on the wonderful work of the curators. And it wasn't until I think it was 2011 when Savage Beauty, which was the exhibition that Andrew Bolton curated around the work of the late Alexander McQueen, because that opened very soon after his tragic death. And at the right after the Princess of Wales had worn Sarah Burton, who was then working for McQueen's wedding dress, so that it was a sort of light on that exhibition that was unlike any that we had seen before, plus the exhibition itself was absolutely extraordinary. And after that, it really began to explode until it's become the night that it is”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. And I was asked by my great late friend Oscar de la Renta and his wife, Annette de la Renta, who was on the board at Namette, to help them with the Met ball that had fallen into rather sad times. There wasn't any leadership behind it. And I honestly, Rory, I had no idea what I was getting into. I said, yes, I thought, well, I'll do this. It'll be great for Vogue. I'll help the museum. do it once do it once, maybe twice, and that'll be it. And now here I am almost 40 years later, still doing it. But I think what people don't realize that the Met Ball did not become the Met Ball, the Met Gala, whatever you choose to call it, immediately. It took many, many years of collaboration between both Conde Nast and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, learning how to work together, how to collaborate, putting”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably, yes, absolutely. I mean, I think there's several things that I've done over my career that if I was going to do them again, I would do them differently. But at the same time, there are profiles of people that have been in distress and have had to overcome challenging situations that I remain incredibly proud of.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the attention can go destructive. I'm very proud of Australia that they've taken a stand on social media and young people because I think the addiction to social media is incredibly stressful, very harmful to mental health. Think we live in a world where very famous people are under a microscope to many degrees and there are those like Roger that have such a balanced life that they know how to deal with it and others that can collapse underneath it. But I think it's a hurdle for anybody that's in the public eye.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, he talks about watching the boys play tennis, and it's like, you know, any dad, heart in their mouth, is Leo going to get the ball over the net? Is he going to win the match? So he's just a very human person.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I love Roger, and I'm very excited that he's being inducted into the Hall of Fame next summer. He's an extraordinary person, and similarly to Kay, he's lovely with everyone. I mean, and he's, I learnt a lot from him too, because he talks about this extraordinary gift that he has in his, obviously his ability to play brilliant tennis separately from himself as Roger the Man. And he's very aware of this amazing ability he has had and probably still has to rise to the top of any sport. He is so incredibly lovely and kind and also an very intelligent businessman. He has this extraordinary mathematical brain. He's a wonderful husband, an amazingly kind father to his two sets of twins.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I admired the grace with which she worked, I admired so much the intelligence with which she worked. I thought the way that she was with people was extraordinary. And if you think, obviously, she grew up with great wealth and great luxury, but you never felt that. She was so respectful and humble with people and didn't have the experience of working until her husband died so tragically, although obviously I'm sure she was very influenced by her father as well. But I think that if I think about a role model to me, she embodied the role of women in the last century completely and rose to every single possible occasion. So she was always my North Star.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, publisher, who was a friend of my father's. And she took me under her wing. And I watched how she was this sort of center of everything in Washington, but somehow she managed to keep her family life and her work life separate.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I love my job. I mean, every day I can't wait to go to the office. I'm always finding the world so interesting. I love all the people that I work with. Last night I saw a young designer, Sean, who works at Alexander McQueen and just talking to him about what his next collection is going to be is so inspiring. And then I went to the royal courts or an amazing play. I'm going to see Brian Cranston tomorrow night in all my sons. I mean, there's just so much to... Really interested in what David Byrne is doing at the Royal Court, really interested in what Hindu is doing here at the National. It's Tristam at the V&A. It's just so much happening, not just here in the UK, but equally so the work I do with the Met in New York, there's just always so much to respond to that one wants to bring to one's audiences.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, as again, as we were discussing before, I see the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the journalists that you really Vanity Fair, the journalists that you respect, that you know, believe in, excellent reporting, fact-checking, all the things that we discussed, telling the truth. And unfortunately, on the other side, there's a lot of fake news out there, but I think you need to... Obviously, not ignore what is not true is what is being said by those who should know better, but you need to always remain true to facts and reporting and journalism”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there were excellent election results recently. And it was sort of ironic to me to hear our Secretary of Transport, Duffy, urge the American public to be more respectful and polite and say please and thank you to the pilots, American Airlines, I guess, and not wear pajamas on a plane the same week that our president was calling a female journalist piggy and ugly. Maybe they need to connect their messaging.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, obviously, it's a very polarized situation, as you mentioned before, Rory, but I tend to separate my role at Condinas and my role as a leader in the fashion industry. I have been very much an advocate around the tariffs in the US with the White House and also have advocated with your Minister for Culture and your Minister for Trade here in the U.S. I think it doesn't get the attention always from those in leadership, political leadership that it should.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and I felt that she was a role model in the way she handles herself to so many people all over the world and again going back to what we were talking about, Rory, I think that she deserved to be celebrated at that time. And obviously we've had her on the cover more than once as we have Dr. Biden and Mrs. Obama. So that is part of Vogue's rich cultural history. We have Eleanor Roosevelt. We have Melania Trump was on the cover when she married the current president. So we believe in covering politics again through the lens of vogue.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But we do have a history at Vogue to always photograph and profile the First Ladies. HRC means such a remarkable woman. And I think to a personal mentor of mine as well as a personal friend, I think that she is an example of... Dealing with adversity with such extraordinary grace. I have nothing but enormous admiration for her. And it was that cover that you're referencing was at a particularly difficult time for her.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, obviously we have all kinds of different elements to vote. We have a whole digital newsroom on Vogue Runway where we review all the shows, I think, very honestly. And we do stories that look at health issues, that look at all kinds of different issues that affect young women today, including is your boyfriend embarrassing. But I don't think our job is a takedown job. I don't think that's what our publication does. Our publication celebrates people all over the world who excel at what they do, whether it's in fashion or the creative arts. I mean, I feel very passionately that we are full of admiration and respect for what these people have achieved and what they bring into society and into our culture. And our job is to Find them and to bring them to the attention of our hundreds of millions of readers all over the world.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and they were all in the event with us. And Nicole actually opened the show singing, put the blame on Maim. She was extraordinary. So for me, I think for all of us who work at Vogue, if somebody is on the cover, we're celebrating them. You're not looking.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Why do people want to read? Vogue, if we put somebody on the cover, that was of a World Hollywood issue where we were Really, the thought behind that issue was very much about the event that we were doing at the Paramount Studios, Vogue World, Hollywood, where we were celebrating.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All the different style issues that New York Magazine produced, and he was also such an incredibly loyal person. I learned a lot from Ed as well. There was a very, very famous American designer that got so upset about a shoot that I did that he was not included in, that he asked to come for lunch. And we went for lunch in a corporate dining room with this person. And at a certain point, he was really attacking me. It just said, I don't like the way this conversation is going, Anna, we're leaving. And we just got up and left the room. But there's a happy end to this because when I started, when Vogue started the common thread initiative right after the pandemic, The first call I received in support of a common threat, and he gave us a very generous donation, was that person in that room. So it had a”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I thought they were probably right. I mean, I hadn't been in New York very long, and I can't remember the shoot that I did that was so controversial. But anyway, it was great for me because I ended up at New York magazine working for a wonderful man called Ed Kosner, who was running a weekly magazine in New York. And I was sitting next to the political editor on one side and their legal affairs person on the other side. And they just thought I was this crazy British girl who, you know, wore weird clothes. But once Ed saw that I knew what I was doing, he really gave me a free hand to produce.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We do actually, that's not completely true. And yes, it is, I think, challenges are amazing. And when I was fired from Harper's Bazaar, they told me I would never understand the American market. I was lucky enough to go and work.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lost our money as well. And Giorgio. Yes. Giorgio was more in a Giorgio was more. Concrete in, I think, Carl was very fluid. Georgio was more very concrete in his vision. He was still telling a very, very strong story, and he certainly... Influence a great deal film, but he was more More on a straight path. Call was more of a roundabout. But I think losing those two great icons meant huge change. And that's great. And it's going to be so exciting. But I do think people that are don't understand really the influencer fashion tend to knock it because I think sometimes people are frightened of it. They're wary of the glamour and the celebrity angle, but it is a vital strong economic force for change and for jobs. It's just so creative.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All changed, and we just all saw those collections last October in. In Paris, and now their brilliance and their creativity and their sense of modernity and who they're talking to will be influencing fashion for the next five or ten years. And I think it really started when we lost the great Carl Lagerfeld because he had been in that position for so long, I think 40, 50 years. It had been such an incredible influence. And I learned, again, so much, and Carl, because he was never looking at anything in a silo. He was a photographer, an illustrator, a cartoonist, a writer, a designer, interior decorator. I mean, there wasn't anything Carl couldn't do. And he spoke 5,000 languages, but he was just such an inspiration to see how he looked at everything.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think fashion is about individuality and self-expression and I think we're all as I was saying before trying to tell stories and represent that to Audiences, our customers, and it's such an interesting time right now in fashion because it had been quite depressed post-COVID. I think we were all very optimistic when the pandemic ended and people were going back into real life and starting to shop again and we were optimistic about growth all over the world and it didn't materialize in the way that many of us had hoped. But it's why we created Vogue World and other initiatives to help galvanize the industry to be relevant. But what's been so interesting in the fashion industry in the last year, I think it's something that I've never seen before, Rory. We have 16, I believe, 14, 15, 16 new creative artistic directors in huge houses, whether it's Chanel or do you...”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To have President Macron give us the Place Vendome for a fashion show which celebrated not only 100 years of French fashion, French couture, but 100 years of sports because it had been a hundred years since the Olympics were in Paris. And then just last month we were in Hollywood celebrating the marriage of costume in film was fashion design. So again, it's about bringing people together.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was just an extraordinary meld of cultural worlds coming together and supporting each other. And then last year we were in Paris just before the Olympics because I got so angry with everybody telling us that Paris is going to mess up and it's going to be a nightmare for the Olympics and was very lucky enough.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The idea was to pick New York back up off its feet where it was obviously I work a lot with the museum, the Metropolitan Museum, and I could see how down the numbers were of visitors, I could see the restaurants were empty. I mentioned initiative, a common thread to help designers, but I felt they needed some joy and some excitement. And we did this incredible sort of street parade, meets fashion show in the meatpacking district. It was sort of like seeing what you see in Central Park at the weekends and it was so successful we bought it here to London and through the graces of Andrew Lloyd Weber, he gave us one of his beautiful theatres and we raised a great deal of money again for the performing arts who had had terrible cuts here in London and we brought together opera and dance and fashion and entertainment and Stephen Daldrey and Baz Lerman helped us and Rufus who was then at the national.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Fashion is a cultural, it's an economic force, it gives millions of people jobs all over the world, but it's also a cultural force. I think it doesn't operate in a silo. You know, we are as important in the messages that we're telling, the stories that we're telling as a great artist or a literary figure, we're defining a moment. And it's so fascinating and inspiring to me how all these different cultural worlds actually come together and help each other. We started this event in New York called Vogueworld after the pandemic, which was really...”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of our communities, and how could Vogue again take a leadership position? And we raised a great deal of money, created a fund called a common thread, and gave out hundreds and hundreds of grants of various numbers to help people just stay in business.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it evolved, and obviously I've been faced with many challenges over my career. And as we were saying earlier, I have had the opportunity to take those challenges and help the industry look at them in the face and think about how can we help rather than to shrink away from them, whether it's the AIDS crisis or 9-11, which is a very small fact, but it happened on the very first day of New York fashion week and that industry was paralyzed and we got them together and organized a fashion show and helped realize, help make the designers think we should go forward, we need to move forward, or the crash when we started Fashion's Night Out, or more recently through the pandemic, the challenges of the pandemic, which were horrific for everybody. And obviously a very, very difficult time for all.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Alistair, I think it's going back a little bit to what we were talking about with my dad. I'm somebody in the office that takes my responsibilities incredibly seriously. And then I have my friends and my family where, you know, it's a whole different life. But I do realize how I have a responsibility to the fashion industry and Condenas to represent us.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a very interesting time for journalism, and I do believe, I talk about this a lot with my wonderful friend and colleague, David Remnik at The New Yorker, like, how do we maintain our standards and how do we use AI in a way that is efficient and useful, but it doesn't reduce our expertise or our belief. In what is right as a journalist.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not so concrete as that, Rory. It's more about trying to look at everything, whatever the platform is through the lens of Vogue and what is that. And is this right for our audiences and our landscape? And I also lose this sometimes, but I always like to think of vogue as being... More elevated than some other. Coverage, and I think particularly in the age of AI, where everything is so mass and so easily accessible, I push hard to maintain Our authority, our belief in fact checking, our belief in truth, our belief in reporting, our belief in journalism, and to maintain the highest standards, whatever the platform. So I think, you know, I don't always win those arguments. I have a lot of incredible teams that push back on me and they're often right”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Things that happen that I have no input or influence over. I mean, our. Most popular piece on every single site last week and the week before was having a boyfriend embarrassing. You know, who knew? But everybody read that article. So you just never know what audiences are going to respond to or the conversations that they're going to start like we were just looking earlier at the Timothy Chalamis cover, which Annie Liebowitz took for us, for our American vogue December cover. And in her head was this idea that he was this sort of celestial figure drawn from the little prince. But it was a subject of intense discussion from the New York Times to The Guardian. So you never quite know what's going to pique people's interest.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or social or digital or events or philanthropy, whatever it may be. Yes, you need a single vision that runs through all that, but the possibilities are so much bigger than they used to be.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The platforms are just so much more vast, and we work now as this global newsroom, and we have 29 vogues around the world, and we are in constant conversation with each other about what we can syndicate, what is local, what is global, what should go on what platform. So you're operating 24 hours with all these remarkably talented people that help you look at the world in a very different way. I think back when I started first in London and then in the United States, it was a much more local way of looking at things. And because of the way we communicate and everything that is available to us today, and if I put the logo of Vogue in the middle of a big circle and you think of all these spokes coming out from it, whether it's video or film,”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sometimes don't know what the big moment is. It's, and I know. Data, spreadsheets, all of that super important. But I tend to work much more from instinct. And I always try to walk in the streets, see what people are wearing, just listen to people. I was, again, on a plane right at the beginning of my time at American Vogue and sitting next to this very kind of correct looking businessman in a nice suit. And he asked me what I did and I explained. And he said, I just love American vogue. I think of it as the chicest thing, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn. Never Madonna. And that just stood in my mind. And I went right back and I put Madonna on the cover. The sales wrong.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The cover, and it signified change, it signified modernity. Famously, the publishers sprang up and said, is this the right? Is it a mistake? And today, it's the cover that people talk to me about the most because it became such an iconic symbol of, I think, a different kind of... Just a different attitude, a cultural shift.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it was a very different time as we've discussed back then. And they had these covers on American Vaux that were very 80s. And they had big, big hair and big, big earrings and big smiles and it sort of cropped up here and they're nearly always blonde. And they were always photographed by the great Richard Avadon. So I arrived, was working with Alex, and we did a cover with Dick that was very similar. And then a shoot came in that we had commissioned on Paris couture. And it was girls walking in the street, nothing earth-shattering, but different from American vogue. And the picture came in of this amazing girl. Her name was Michaela. And she had on a Lacroix t-shirt with a big jewel cross on it and gas jeans and you could see shockingly a little tiny bit of stomach. And I just looked at that image and I thought to myself, this should be.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have ideas, and I think of ideas, but I can't personally execute them. That's why you have to surround yourself by brilliant people that can take your idea, improve it, and put it out into the world.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm useless with my hands. I got fired from Harper's Bazaar because I didn't know how to pin a dress. I'm not someone that is, I think, so much in fashion as to do with the craft and the hand. And if you're an editor or a photographer or videographer or you work in social, you see images. What I do is I put people together.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With Tarzan, we were all over the press, and I was in a complete panic. This is going to cost the company millions and millions of dollars. And Sai just looked at me and he said, Pocus just never had so much press. It's fantastic. And so, you know, I learned from him and from Alex that it's nothing as tragic as it might seem at the beginning, that you just need to work your way through things. And, you know, there was another incident at the time we had our offices were on Madison Avenue and we had zero security. Now it's like getting into Fort Knox, but you could, anyone could walk in. And our offices were invaded one day by the anti-Fur activists. And they were all going all over the office, spraying paint and screaming, particularly at me. And I really didn't know what to do. So I called Sai and he came down. He always wears these little hoodies. War, these little hoodies, and he had his little hoodie.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Directional accomplishments. And we run global newsrooms today. It's a very... Had my very first interview with Alex Luberman, and I started honestly a few days later. And on Fridays, everybody went to the beach because there wasn't that much to do. I mean, that's just not a world that exists today. I also want to say that, you know, I was so fortunate not only to work with Alex Lieberman, but also with Cy Newhouse, who own the company. He was deeply, deeply involved with the media part of what the New House family own. And his office was very, very close to mine and he was constantly available. I can't remember calling him when he didn't either pick up and answer or reply within seconds. And quite early on in my career at American Vogue, we published a story about Tarzan and Jane. And I stupidly had not thought, oh God, we need a copyright. And we were sued by everybody.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, obviously he would shrug it off. And I think because he knew who he was and he had a strong family behind him and many friends, I think you compartmentalize yourself and what you are possibly in the office is a strong leader, a decisive leader, I hope a leader that listens, you know who you are. And I think it's important not to let any of that kind of attention throw you. And we live in a very different world now. I'm not personally on social media. I don't look much at social media, except all our own Instagram and accounts. But I don't read what is personally written about me. I don't feel that's helpful.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think I have this extraordinary platform, Alistair, which I feel so honored every day to be able to use to help others, whether it's people that work within the Condenast group or on the outside. I feel that if you have the privilege of being in a leadership position, you have to use that platform to help others. And I look on challenges, whether it's living through COVID or 9-11 or market crashing, whatever it may be as opportunities to galvanize one's teams and make change. So I think because I do believe in moving quickly and moving through challenging times with a sense of This is a way that we can help others when they're struggling. So, because I am quick and decisive, obviously I'm not cozy, shall I say, that sometimes people can be put off, offended. I'm not sure, but I do take...”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I like to really surround myself as much as possible with creative people that challenge me. And I also like to try and create an atmosphere at Cond ⁇ Nasse whereby people feel there is possibility for leadership. I love the part of my job which involves mentorship and teaching and helping people. Really realize their visions. I don't think it should be AW light. It should be their point of view. And just recently, I've been so thrilled that we were able to appoint Chloe Mal as head of editorial content at American Vogue or bring back a real star from the Middle East called Talib Chowdhury to run Hassan Garden here or the appointment of Mark Guducci, who'd worked both at Vanity Fair and at American Vogue for many years as global editorial director of Vanity Fair.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no. American vogue, and I was hired by this extraordinary man who had the job at that time that I currently hold, which is global editorial director of Vogue and chief content officer of Condenas. But when I went to be interviewed by him, he had prepared this huge portfolio, spent hours getting a perfect and pristine, and he just sort of flipped through it, like took about 60 seconds and says, can you start on Monday? And he had this amazing white box of an office with this immaculate black desk on it, nothing, nothing on it. And I learned afterwards the only thing he had apart from the phone was a button underneath the table when he was done with you. In my case, it was about 65 seconds that he was done with me. He would press it and the door would open and you were ushered out.”
2025-12-08 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 165. Anna Wintour: Culture, Influence, and the Power of Decisive Leadership · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source