anna-wintour

Anna-spotting

Gawker · 03/08/03 12:40PM

From a reader: "I don't know anything about the Empress Anna's dissatisfaction with the quality of the burger flipping at Conde Nast, but I can confirm her imperiousness. My wife and I went to the movies (the Landmark on East Houston) a couple of months ago, and had to ask a couple at the end of a row to stand up so we could get to two empty seats. They stood, with a certain amount of indignation, and as I squeezed past I couldn't help but notice that the chic-er of the two was Miss Wintour. The fact that she was wearing dark glasses only helped me confirm her identity, and the screen must have been very bright that day, as she kept them on throughout the movie. She also left with her companion a couple of minutes before the film finished, presumably so as not to be jostled by scum at the exit."

Gossip roundup

Gawker · 03/07/03 05:00PM

· The Vanity Fair staffers at the annual Oscar party will be deprived of their swimming pool this year, as it will be closed all weekend. [Ed. noteExpect Vanity Fair to bring their own pool. "Si'll pick it up."] [Page Six]
· Kelly Osbourne on her brother's friends: "They are like the world's biggest [bleep] bags. One brain cell in all of them. It's like snowing outside and they are in like nipple covers, and that's about it." [Page Six]
· Madeleine Albright on her favorite North Korean dictator: "I am the only high-ranking U.S. official to ever meet with Kim Jong-il, and we are the same height and both wear high heels." [Page Six]
· Lizzie Grubman and Hans Blix live in the same building but she gets more packages than he does and photographers aren't standing outside waiting to get pictures of him. [Page Six]
· Thanks to Chicago's success, Miramax is swamped with agents claiming their clients "have always been singers." [Liz Smith]
· Anna Wintour's former assistant's book, The Devil Wears Prada, includes a demanding editor who tells her assistant, "When I call, you respond. It's actually simple. See? I call. You respond. Do you think you can handle that, Ahn-dre-ah?" [NY Daily News]

Conde Nast cafeteria etiquette

Gawker · 03/07/03 03:03PM

One Conde insider says the Wintour burger story is too good to be true. The news would have spread like wildfire, and our source hasn't heard it. On the other hand, he hasn't been to the cafeteria recently. "I go to the cafeteria only when accompanied. It's not good to go alone. Doesn't look good, you know." No wonder they're all so skinny. It's the Conde Nast diet: starvation by social pressure.

Anna Wintour and the burger guy

Gawker · 03/07/03 02:43PM

Here's a rumor about Anna Wintour we're trying to track down. Vogue's famously imperious editor was picking up her usual burger at the Conde Nast cafeteria. Bloody, in case you're wondering. The burger, that is. Anyway, the server, not knowing he's in the presence of greatness, taps his spatula impatiently against the metal. For this impudence, he's now out of a job. [Of course, he's just signed a six-figure deal on the tell-all book.] Anyone have any more details? Send them to tips@gawker.com.

Anna Wintour

Gawker · 02/22/03 11:15AM

William Norwich pays homage to The Anna: ''At Vogue we worship one god. Her name is Anna Wintour." There are a few side notes about being one of the few men in the girl's club that is Vogue, but it's mostly Anna. (ANNA!) Anna is great; Anna is good; let us thank her for our shiny new Christian Louboutins...
Homme alone [NYT Magazine]

Art Cooper and career longevity

Gawker · 02/19/03 10:02AM

Ah, so maybe there is a retirement policy at Condé Nast after all. Word inside, officially denied, is that Art Cooper, 65, isn't long for GQ. Of course, Graydon Carter didn't get the memo: he plans to stay on till he's 75, relying on his kids and, presumably, by then, his grandkids, to keep him fresh.
· Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair since 1992
· Art Cooper, editor of GQ since 1982
· Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue since 1988
Cooper: I'm staying [Keith Kelly]

Anna Wintour, populist

Gawker · 02/17/03 09:21AM

According to the NYT's David Carr, Vogue Editor Anna Wintour is down with the people. His evidence? The breaks with the tradition on recent Vogue covers (the April issue will feature a very pregnant Brooke Shields) and the increase in ad pages sold. Both factors have worked well for Vogue, but I'm not sure they're particularly indicative of a more democratic magazine. When Vogue starts featuring The Gap instead of Galliano, we'll talk.
Anna Wintour steps toward fashion's new democracy [NYT]

Bonnie Fuller's fashion faux pas

Gawker · 02/11/03 11:51AM

Supermodels Are Lonelier Than You Think reprints a story about Us Weekly Editor Bonnie Fuller, whose magazine plays "Fashion Police" every year at 7th on Sixth. Apparently Bonnie has some style problems of her own to fix. "She put on this really tight white column dress and asked a bunch of us how she looked in it," said one staffer. "Well, it didn t look good...But the worst part was that you could totally see through it to her underwear. No one would say anything. Everyone was standing there, going, 'Oh, Bonnie! You look great!'" [Ed. notesycophantic twits. Bah!] The article oddly mentions that Fuller "idolizes" Anna Wintour. Not what we heard.
Bonnieshe's just like us! [SALTYT]

Lane Bryant show

Gawker · 02/06/03 04:05PM

The Post's Jared Paul Stern says the fat girls at the Lane Bryant show weren't fat enough. Kelly Osbourne? Not fat enough. Rosanne? Fat enough, but she wasn't walking. (Or "waddling," as Stern puts it.) It's all about context, really. If, for example, Stern were to walk a few of the Super[size]models over to the Vogue editorial office, I think space and time would collapse as soon as they crossed the Conde Nast threshold. Anna Wintour would collapse, at any rate. FAT PEOPLE IN MASS MARKET CLOTHING!! AIIEEEE!!! (It's Anna Day at Gawker.)
Bryant Park's faux fatties on runway [Post]

Anna Wintour documentary

Gawker · 02/06/03 09:14AM

Boss Lady, a documentary about Vogue Editor Anna Wintour, will air on the WE network next week. The documentary provides a peek into the everyday life of the woman otherwise known as "Nuclear Wintour." The film features a cameo by socialite/Vogue staffer Plum Sykes, who explains "the importance of appearance," for Vogue employees, and mentions that she was ordered to get herself appropriately waxed, manicured, and coutured upon taking the job. (Ed. noteHey, as long as Si's footing the bill...)
The haute and hard world of Vogue's Anna Wintour [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

Calvin Klein conspiracy

Gawker · 01/31/03 02:36PM

Patrick at Supermodels Are Lonelier Than You Think notes that Anna Wintour's pen seems to have produced a comparison of the much-hyped supermodel du jour Natalia Vodianova to Kate Moss, Brooke Shields, and Jean Shrimpton. The only real common denominator is that all were Calvin Klein models. Patrick suggests that this is really just a sophisticated exercise in sucking up to a major advertiser. Ms. Wintour & Co. may be too busy pushing product to provide any intelligent commentary. Update: A reader points out that Jean Shrimpton was never a Calvin Klein model. We stand corrected. There is no conspiracy; only bad fashion writing.
Natalia would like you to meet her husband [Supermodels Are Lonelier Than You Think]

Bush and Wintour

Gawker · 01/13/03 04:42PM

In a bizarre game of compare-and-contrast, Maureen Dowd compares George W to Vogue Editor Anna Wintour. We think she'd be better matched with Kim Jong Il, and he with Toby Young, but then it wouldn't be completely arbitrary and pointless, and we can't have that, now can we?
Two tough cookies [NYT]

Bonnie Fuller profile

Gawker · 01/13/03 02:35PM

If you can get your hands on a copy of the January issue of Toronto Life, there's an extensive feature-length profile of Us Weekly editor and "evil genius" Bonnie Fuller. Some things you may not know: She refused to tell people her daughter had leukemia for fear that they would think she was using it for professional advancement. The working title of her memoir was From Geek to Oh My Goddess: How to Have the Big Career and the Big Love Life and the Big FamilyEven If You Have a Big Loser Complex Inside. She didn't tell her husband about her nose job.