• by Ray Schultz , Yesterday

Everyone knew it had to happen someday. But the fashion and publishing worlds were rocked on Thursday with the news that Anna Wintour is stepping down after more than three decades as editorial head at American Vogue. Condé Nast is now seeking a replacement. 

Wintour will remain as chief content officer for Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue -- titles she assumed in 2020. But her pending departure from American Vogue has people wondering who could possibly replace this larger-than-life figure.

They are also speculating about why Wintour is making this move just now. Is she tired of the grind and the never-relenting business pressures? Is it sheer age?

One can assume that Wintour will still wield considerable power, both at Condé Nast and in the fashion business. 

Wintour grew up around publishing — her father was the editor of the Evening Standard — but she very much had to work her way up on her own. In 1988, she won the top job at Vogue, and shocked the field with her first cover, featuring the pregnant Israeli model Michaela Bercu. 

As the Queen of Fashion, Wintour emerged as tabloid caricature, a perfectionist willing to tear up covers at the last minute no matter what the cost, a terror to her staff and a person whom underlings dared not look in the eye. 

“They have a vivid imagination at times,” Wintour said of the tabloids during a Financial Times luncheon interview last year in which she ate not a bite. “I hope sincerely that the colleagues I work with know who I am and what our joint values are.”

What’s her place in history beyond being an “editrix” who has had movies based on her?

“I am not a creative person,” she told FT. “I can’t draw, I can’t sketch, I can’t make anything. I just have to make sure things are being done right.”

That she did.