Once, a very famous makeup artist, a regular at international runways, told me that he found himself backstage with Anna Wintour, surrounded by her fashion entourage. Excited - for the connoisseurs of the field, Wintour is the queen, the empress, the high priestess of our era, the one who has woven the threads of contemporary fashion for the past almost 40 years as the editor-in-chief of the American edition of Vogue- he couldn't help but let out a shout upon seeing her, a "Anna, Anna" accompanied by a hand gesture of greeting. This artist recounts that yes, Anna turned slowly, not a hair of her French geometric haircut moved, and behind her sunglasses, she looked into the void, into the air, as if that shout had come from... nobody (at least not from anyone who could catch her attention).
Aside from the cold attitude that this behind-the-scenes anecdote reveals, feeding into the legend that became a movie in The Devil Wears Prada, two details emerge that make Anna Wintour an icon of style. Because in addition to shaping fashion on a universal level for decades, she herself has been fashion and beauty, turning herself into a character, perhaps THE character, the leading lady in this grand spectacle that is the fashion universe.
If Tom Wolfe could be spotted from afar by his white dandy suit, Prince was all about his Cuban-heeled boots and Purple Rain, or Queen Elizabeth II stood out in the crowd with her always colorful suits and hats, Anna Wintour is no different. In her, there are also such recurring details that are almost eternal, making her recognizable in the front rows. Because she is style, above passing trends...
On the Met Gala red carpet... and on very rare occasions, we humans have been able to see Anna Wintour's eyes. For her, the sunglasses go beyond being an accessory; they are a shield that gives her gaze the power to analyze all the collections she sees on the runway without revealing whether she loves or loathes the looks, whether they will go straight to the cover of the next Vogue edition or be forever buried in fashion oblivion.
Her sunglasses are not the trendiest of the year, they are not colorful, they are not flashy; beyond being large and dark, they will not be the most imitated in history... But those sunglasses are her.
While in her early years she dared with knee-length skirts, in the last decade, it is the midi length, if not maxi, that dominates Anna Wintour's wardrobe. By the way, pants are not her thing. Even when she indulges in sartorial style, she does so in skirt suits.
She varies the lengths of skirts and dresses in colors and prints, where she allows herself to approach current trends, often pairing them with coats, lighter or heavier, depending on the occasion, long ones. Even on red carpets, she wears them, such as the beautiful tuxedo-style tailcoat with a floral print from Loewe that she shone in at the 2024 Met Gala.
When the heat or the occasion calls for it, Wintour wears the occasional jewel sandal, but her go-to footwear is high boots, which she has in multiple colors, styles... They are the perfect companions for midi skirts, giving many of her looks a seventies vibe.
If we continue analyzing Wintour's wardrobe in terms of accessories, there is another trademark that always accompanies her: large colorful stone necklaces, because if there is one thing the fashion high priestess does not do, it is resorting to black and white as a uniform.
Fan of flowers... and prints
It's not the only print that the former Vogue editor allows herself, but it's the one she likes the most. She is the queen of flowers, which she incorporates into all kinds of dresses - again, always in midi length. But not only that. We have seen Wintour in stripes, polka dots, checks, colorful tweeds... Furthermore, she is daring like few others when it comes to mastering the noble art of mix & match. Mixing different types of checks? Check. Flowers and leopard print? Check. Abstract patterns of different kinds? Check, check, check.
Last but not least is Wintour's haircut. Like her sunglasses, it is that signal that she is above trends, that she is THE fashion. Her perfect jaw-length bob with rounded tips and short bangs, always at the same length, indicates that not much more than a month should pass without a pair of scissors touching it. The color, that honey blonde, is also unchanging.
All of this demonstrates that Wintour has a clear vision, which is perhaps why she has kept current fashion on course... She is the (im)mobile woman of the fashion universe.