Anna Wintour and Chloe Malle on the Future of Vogue

“Sometimes in fashion people can feel too cool, unavailable, a bit laconic, and for me, I’m just never going to be that person. Oh well, first of all, I feel like we’re one of the couples in the beginning of ‘When Harry Met Sally.’ “I mean, this is not how we normally sit, guys. Well, what I love about Chloe is obviously she’s brilliant and interested in so many different things. And of course, she appreciates and loves fashion, but she is not a fashion obsessive. And I think that it’s actually a great gift to have when you’re looking at the landscape of Vogue and you’re looking at fashion as part of the cultural landscape, to be able to have not too insider a view of what it is — that she can step back and think about it from a broader perspective.” “Anna was very pulled back at the beginning of the March issue planning, and she was letting everything simmer. And then before it came to a boil, she tapped in to just check in, and pulled me into her office and said, ‘Chloe, everything in the March issue, it looks good. It’s OK, but I want to know where is the you? What makes this issue yours? Where are the weird dogs?’, was the exact quote. And it was very liberating for me because I do feel the pressure of carrying on this enormous legacy. But I — having Anna say that to me allowed me to think about, ‘But what makes this exciting to me right now?’” “Any great editor is going to have a strong personality. And what they see, what they feel, what they think is going to be reflected across all of our platforms.” “I am very inspired by what Vogue has been for a long time, and especially in the last 37 years. It’s exciting to me, and I think that the people who I’m most excited by consistently are people who are really true to who they are and what excites them. And for me, that’s been a real guiding principle. I don’t want the fact that I may be editing Vogue now to mean that I’m someone who’s intimidating to talk to at kindergarten dropoff. That’s just not who I am.” “Chloe is her own person. She’s going to have her own vision. She’s going to put her own stamp on Vogue. And yes, it will take a little time, but she is not A.W.-lite in any way. And that’s not what we wanted. We wanted someone that was clearly her own person, that clearly believed in her vision. And I think people should get over comparisons and look at people as individuals. And Chloe is already a great Vogue editor.” “Something that I really tried to learn from and mimic is Anna is so dogged about checking in on things, and pushing you and keeping things going. And I find myself feeling so stretched in so many different directions, and it’s so important to me to really feel present and available to the people on the Vogue team, to my husband, to my children, to my mother.” “When I first came to Vogue, I — American Vogue — I had very small kids, and I remember how difficult it was to balance all of that. So that is something that I urge you to prioritize because it really is vital.” “We’ve been building in my house a 3,700-piece Lego of the Daily Bugle newspaper office, and it’s been very exciting to me because now my son thinks that superheroes work in print media.” “You’ve got me excited thinking about this now. What would I do? I would build a whole new podcast studio. I would pay everyone 30 percent more. I would make sure the social team had more people on it because they’re working all the time. I would have our app staffed more fully. We have so many ideas about shoots that we’re excited about doing that take people on adventures, and those budgets would really help with that. And we are still finding ways to do these things. But — there’s always more you can be doing.” “But to be clear, Jessica, we have a very healthy budget at Vogue. And how we use it and use our resources is constantly changing depending on the moment.” “About 30 minutes ago before this interview.” “Oh, for me too? I don’t get nervous.”