Anna Wintour steps down as Vogue's editor-in-chief after 37 years

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: After nearly four decades at the helm of Vogue, Anna Wintour is stepping down from her iconic role as editor-in-chief.

The 75-year-old fashion force broke the news during a staff meeting on Wednesday, June 25, according to Daily Front Row.

Anna Wintour steps away as editor-in-chief of Vogue

While she’s stepping away from the magazine she helped define, Anna Wintour will continue as Conde Nast’s global chief content officer and global editorial director at Vogue. The new EIC is yet to be announced.

Before taking over as editor-in-chief in 1988, Wintour served as Vogue’s creative director in 1983 and later led British Vogue from 1985 to 1987.

Her first Vogue cover in November 1988 featured Michaela Bercu wearing a Christian Lacroix sweater with $50 Guess jeans. The image sparked immediate media buzz for breaking fashion traditions.

“It was so unlike the studied and elegant close-ups that were typical of Vogue’s covers back then, with tons of makeup and major jewelry. This one broke all the rules,” Wintour said in a 2012 Vogue interview.

“Afterwards, in the way that these things can happen, people applied all sorts of interpretations: It was about mixing high and low, Michaela was pregnant, it was a religious statement. But none of these things was true," she added.

"I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change. And you can’t ask for more from a cover image than that," People reported.

Anna Wintour inspired ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and opened Vogue’s doors in 2009

Throughout the 1990s and beyond, Anna Wintour’s covers often pushed the conversation forward, blending celebrity and high fashion with stars such as Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Ivana Trump, Cindy Crawford, and Kate Moss, among others.

Her reputation as a powerful presence in fashion became the basis for the fictional Miranda Priestly character in 'The Devil Wears Prada', written by Wintour’s former assistant Lauren Weisberger.

In 2009, Wintour gave the public rare access to her editorial process with the behind-the-scenes documentary The 'September Issue', which chronicled the creation of Vogue’s largest issue at the time.

It became a major cultural moment and peeled back the curtain on one of fashion’s most private realms.

Fans call Anna Wintour's step down 'the saddest news for fashion people'

Online reactions poured in following the announcement.

“End of an era. The next editor in chief will have huge shoes to fill in, I hope it will also be a woman,” wrote one fan on X.

Another shared, “Vogue cannot survive without her. This is actually terrible.”

“This is the fashion world’s equivalence to Queen Elizabeth dying,” a user posted.

One said, “End of an era for fashion’s ultimate boss lady no cap,” while another added, “This is the saddest news for fashion people.”

Someone wrote, “Anna Wintour stepping down from Vogue was not on my 2025 bingo card and yet here we are um!”

“What’s Vogue without Anna Wintour,” another user wrote.

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