Everyone has heard of Anna ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Wintour, but there are Vogue powerbrokers all over the world. Kat Brown rates the glossy posse contenders for her crown.
Queen Elizabeth and Anna Wintour at the Richard Quinn show during London Fashion Week
Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief, Vogue
INSTAGRAM: Don’t be common.
FASHION SWAY: Anna sat next to the actual Queen during London Fashion Week this year. Photos of the pair on the front row at cool British designer Richard Quinn’s show went viral. British Vogue’s Edward Enninful was in Milan at the time and reportedly cried. 10/10
USP: Not only has she inspired (whispers from a safe distance) that film, but she is immediately identifiable thanks to her trademark hair and sunglasses. 10/10
LONGEVITY: Fashion will end before AW leaves Vogue. 10/10
MAGNIFICENCE: The woman. The legend. Star of the good Vogue documentaries. 10/10
Anna Dello Russo, editor at large, Vogue Japan
INSTAGRAM: @anna_dello_russo; 1.4m followers. An early street-style muse, AdR quickly leveraged that into a vast social-media following.
FASHION SWAY: Her followers want to know what outlandish fashion she’ll be wearing next, even if they just wear jeans. 5/10
USP: In February she sold several of her outfits at Christie’s and on Net-A-Porter’s Instagram Stories for charity, with prices starting at £15. 10/10
LONGEVITY: With a perfume and style tome, AdR Book: Beyond Fashion, her brand evolves like the Madonna of fashion. 10/10
MAGNIFICENCE: AdR exists in her own solar system and we simply revolve around her. 10/10
Angelica Cheung, editor-in-chief, Vogue China
INSTAGRAM: @angelica_cheung; 165k followers (it’s all about Weibo in China).
FASHION SWAY: Angelica’s title sells 400,000 more copies than US Vogue, and with China emerging from the post-Mao years it has exploded as a super-buyer. 8/10
USP: Angelica’s asymmetric bob is her armour as well as her identity. 8/10
LONGEVITY: Blessed with an eye for reinvention and confidence in her readers, Angelica introduced a sold-out millennial edition, Vogue Me, and is quietly repositioning Western attitudes to China. 10/10
MAGNIFICENCE: Angelica was made a tourism ambassador for Yorkshire after posting pictures from a family holiday. Her husband is a Yorkshireman. Fabulously low-key. 7/10
Edward Enninful, editor-in-chief, British Vogue
INSTAGRAM: @edward_enninful; 711k followers – six times as many as his predecessor Alexandra Shulman.
FASHION SWAY: He got his first fashion directorship at i-D aged 18 and stayed for 20 years, and also contributed to US and Italian Vogue, before becoming fashion director at W. 8/10
USP: British Vogue’s first black (and male) editor – pictured with model Adwoa Aboah – is bringing diversity, but his Taylor Swift and Hadid covers looked like Vogue of old. 7/10
LONGEVITY: Too soon to tell. He’s making noises about having sushi for lunch rather than steak (the Wintour favourite) so a battle might be looming. 1/10
MAGNIFICENCE: Being upstaged by Anna so soon is a bit awks. 5/10
Emmanuelle Alt, editor-in-chief, Vogue Paris
INSTAGRAM: @emmanuellealt; 482k followers.
FASHION SWAY: French Vogue has a tiny but incredibly powerful readership. 10/10
USP: Her uniform of skinny trousers, shirt and blazer has been pinched by chic women the world over (but, admittedly, without credit). Good line in effortlessly casual hair, too. 7/10
LONGEVITY: Hired as fashion director by her predecessor Carine Roitfeld in 2000, Emmanuelle has notched up a decent tenure at French Vogue including seven years in the big office. She’s not rocking the boat too much. 7/10
MAGNIFICENCE: Insouciance is more her sac à main. 5/10
Bong Guerrero (left), Manuel Arnaut (centre) and Caterina Minthe at Fashion Forward 2017
Manuel Arnaut, editor-in-chief, Vogue Arabia
INSTAGRAM: @mrarnaut has – eek – just 12.3k followers.
FASHION SWAY: Before taking over at Vogue, Manuel was the editor of, erm, Architectural Digest Middle East. (He did spend seven years at Vogue Portugal, to be fair.) That said, his readership is categorically minted. 5/10
USP: Looks like your standard ordinary guy in a suit, but you’d struggle to remember anything more about him. 0/10
LONGEVITY: He’s Methuselah compared to his predecessor: launch editor (and Saudi royalty) Deena Aljuhani Abdulaziz was fired after just two issues. Manuel has so far managed a year. Hurrah! 1/10
MAGNIFICENCE: Loving the Arabia saga – but ask again in five years. 2/10
Emanuele Farneti, editor-in-chief, Vogue Italia
INSTAGRAM: @efarneti; 25.3k followers – but it reads as though the Vogue marketing team have his password. Don’t expect any breakfast selfies.
FASHION SWAY: Emanuele has Milan Fashion Week at his side, plus the legacy of predecessor Franca Sozzani, the woman whose sellout issue using all-black models signalled a sea change in fashion coverage. 7/10
USP: Vogue Italia is certainly iconic, but Emanuele is more a gifted journalist. He was well-rated for his editorship of Italian GQ, so we’ll see what he does at Vogue. 1/10
LONGEVITY: At just over a year in office, Emanuele is one of the Vogue juniors. 1/10
MAGNIFICENCE: Great hair, brooding style, but he is keeping his business cards close to his chest. 4/10
Masha Fedorova, Editor-in-chief, Vogue Russia
INSTAGRAM: @mashavoguerussia; 113k followers. Her social media is fun fun fun (if you understand Russian).
FASHION SWAY: Before Vogue, she was fashion director of GQ Russia, before moving to the newly launched Glamour Russia, where she became editor-in-chief in 2010. 8/10
USP: A hit with everyone. Also happens not to be sample size, so shows her audience how to rock couture when you’re not a size six. 8/10
LONGEVITY: She’s new to Vogue, but safe to say that Condé Nast loves Masha: she’s also staying as editorial director at Glamour until the end of the year. 1/10
MAGNIFICENCE: Renowned as a good egg (of the Fabergé variety – natch, this is Russia). 7/10