Icon Status, Indelible Style Influencer
Dame Anna Wintour is a fashion and publishing legend. As editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1988 and artistic director for Condé Nast since 2013, Wintour, 70, has risen to icon status with an indelible and enormous influence on global style.
“Create your own style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” –Anna Wintour
Although her trademark brown bob and sunglasses make her instantly recognizable, less is spoken about her considerable philanthropic work. As a trustee of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wintour’s exclusive Met Galas have raised $50 million for the museum’s Costume Institute. Other high profile fundraisers she has organized over the years have garnered some $10 million for AIDS research.
Recently, Wintour teamed up with the Council of Fashion Designers of America and Amazon to form A Common Thread, an initiative that has raised over $4.9 million to support small- and medium-sized businesses in the fashion industry with forgivable grants. Apparel produced by grant recipients is then marketed on a virtual storefront calls Common Threads: Vogue x Amazon Fashion, allowing designers access to Amazon’s massive customer base, an important show of support for the fashion industry in difficult economic times.
Wintour’s commitment to helping designers in a time of need shows her compassion and respect for the industry, as well as a deep understanding that with great power comes great responsibility.
