Anna Wintour attends the Chanel show. Photo / Getty Images
Anna Wintour attends the Chanel show. Photo / Getty Images
Wintour may well and truly be coming to an end at Vogue.
Fashion sources claim that Anna Wintour is set to leave her role as Editor-in-Chief of the high-fashion magazine this summer after 30 years at the helm, reports the Daily Mail.
According to Page Six, Wintour, 68, will depart Vogue and Condé Nast - where she has served as artistic director since 2013 - after the July wedding of her daughter Bee Shaffer, 30, allowing her to go out in style, ending her time at the company with the publication's iconic September issue.
But while sources insist that Wintour's time at the company is coming to a close, Condé Nast has rebuffed the claims, with a spokesman telling Page Six: 'We emphatically deny these rumours.'
The company's denial has not stopped speculation, however, that it has a replacement lined up for the editrix - whose frosty demeanor earned her a host of less-than-flattering nicknames including 'Nuclear Wintour' and 'fashion's ice queen'.
Sources allege that Vogue UK Editor-in-Chief, and former fashion stylist, Edward Enninful, 46, is a frontrunner to take over the position at the US publication - despite only holding the role at its British counterpart for less than a year.
Page Six reports that there is nobody currently in place to take over her wider role as Condé Nast's artistic director.
Enninful would certainly be no stranger to the task of taking the reigns from a seasoned veteran, however; he was named as the rather surprising successor to British Vogue's former Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Shulman when she was ousted from the publication last year, following a 25-year run at its helm.
Shulman's departure was seen by many as an attempt to rejuvenate and re-focus the publication amid falling sales, while sources allege to Page Six that Wintour's ousting may be the work of Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast International.
Newhouse, who is currently based in London with his wife Ronnie Cook, is expected by many insiders to be preparing for a move back to New York City in order to take over as Chairman of Condé Nast after the October death of his cousin Si Newhouse, who held the position for more than 40 years.
Si Newhouse was a long-time fan of Wintour's, and supported her throughout her time at the company, however one insider told Page Six that Jonathan Newhouse 'doesn't like [the amount of power] Anna has' within Condé Nast and is eager to see Enninful take over.
The current British Vogue boss might seem like an odd choice to some, however, given his lack of editorial experience; prior to his appointment at the publication, he had spent decades working as a fashion stylist.
Others say that Wintour, who is the daughter of the late Charles Wintour, former editor of the London Evening Standard newspaper, is hoping to secure a job back in her home England, such as leading the British Fashion Council, which is responsible for organizing London Fashion Week.
It was also reported while Hillary Clinton was running for president that Wintour - an outspoken supporter of the Democratic candidate - had hoped to secure an ambassador position in London if Clinton had won the election.
A move back to London would certainly see Wintour come full circle as far as her career is concerned; she started out working as an editorial assistant at the UK version of Harper's Bazaar in 1970, before she moved to New York and joined its sister publication in 1975.
She returned to London in 1985 to serve as the editor of British Vogue, a position that she held for two years before heading back to New York City.
However, she has maintained close ties with her home nation; she was made a Dame in the 2017 New Year's Honors, and in February of this year achieved a major victory on British turf when she arranged for Her Majesty the Queen to attend her first ever London Fashion Week show.
Once there, the royal was seated on the front row alongside a beaming Wintour herself.
The Queen and Anna Wintour sit front row. Photo / Getty Images
According to reports, the surprise attendance of the Queen was arranged by Wintour and British Fashion Council chief executive Caroline Rush - a move that allegedly reduced British Vogue Editor-in-Chief Enninful to tears after he was kept in the dark about the royal's attendance.
Further controversy was then caused by the fact that Wintour failed to remove her signature sunglasses during the event, a move which many saw as being incredibly disrespectful towards the Queen.
Wintour's departure is reported to come as Condé Nast is considering a major financial review, with sources claiming that consultants are in the process of reviewing how the company can best move forward in the changing media climate.
Condé Nast has certainly struggled as the industry as shifted, shutting down the print editions of Teen Vogue, Self, and Details in the last year alone. Insiders told Page Six that the company is losing a staggering $100 million a year.
In the UK, Glamour magazine made a move towards a 'mobile-first, social-first' focus, cutting back on its print issues, which are now only published twice a year.
Wintour's exit would also come in the wake of several magazine closures and the recent stepping down of several other long-serving glossy magazine editors, including Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter, who spent 25 years at the publication, Glamour's Cini Leive, and Allure's Linda Wells within Condé Nast alone.
