Anna Wintour and Her Successor, Chloe Malle, on the Future of Vogue
Mar 13, 2026
What happens when you’ve ascended to the most prestigious job in your field, only to have your larger-than-life mentor and predecessor still working down the hall? That’s the new normal for Chloe Malle, who took over for Anna Wintour as editor of American Vogue in September. Her first print issue will hit newsstands on Feb. 24.
Sometimes in fashion, people can feel too cool,
unavailable, a bit laconic.
And for me, I'm just never going to be that person.
Well, first of all, I feel like we're one of the couples
in the beginning of When Harry Met Sally.
I mean, this is not how we normally sit, guys.
Well, what I love about Chloe is obviously she's brilliant
and interested in so many different things.
And of course she appreciates and loves fashion.
But she is not, you know, a fashion obsessive.
And I think that it's actually a great gift to have
when you're looking at the landscape of Vogue
and you're looking at fashion as part of the cultural landscape
to be able to have, you know, not too insider
a view of what it is that she can step back
and think about it from a broader perspective.
You know, Anna was very pulled back at the beginning of the March
issue planning, and she was sort of like
she was letting everything simmer.
And then before it came to a boil,
she sort of tapped in to just check in
and pulled me into her office and said,
Chloe, everything in the March issue, it looks good.
It's OK, but I want to know, where is the you?
What makes this issue yours?
Where are the weird dogs?
Was the exact quote.
And it was very liberating for me because I do feel
the pressure of carrying on this enormous legacy.
But having Anna say that to me allowed me to think about
but what makes this exciting to me right now?
Any great editor is going to have a strong personality
and what they see, what they feel, what they think
is going to be reflected across all of our platforms.
I am very inspired by what Vogue has been for a long time
and especially in the last 37 years.
It's exciting to me.
And I think that the people who I'm most excited by consistently
are people who are really true to who they are and what excites them.
And for me, that's been a real guiding principle.
I don't want the fact that I may be editing Vogue now
to mean that I'm someone who's intimidating
to talk to at kindergarten drop off.
That's just not who I am.
Chloe is her own person, you know, she's going to have her own vision.
She's going to put her own stamp on Vogue.
And yes, it will take a little time, but
she is not A.W.
Light in any way.
And that's not what we wanted.
We wanted someone that was clearly her own person,
that clearly believed in her vision.
And I think people should get over comparisons
and look at people as individuals.
And Chloe is already a great Vogue editor.
Something that I really try to learn from and mimic is Anna is so dogged
about checking in on things and pushing you and keeping things going.
And I find myself feeling so stretched in so many different directions.
And it's so important to me to really feel present and available
to the people on the Vogue team, to my husband, to my children, to my mother.
When I first came to Vogue, American Vogue, I had very small kids
and I remember how difficult it was to balance all of that.
So that is something that I urge you to prioritize because
it really is vital.
We've been building in my house a thirty seven hundred piece
Lego of the Daily Bugle newspaper office.
And it's been very exciting to me because now my son thinks
that superheroes work in print media.
If you did have the budget that Vogue had or another
publication had in the late 90s, what would you do with it?
You've got me excited thinking about this now.
Sort of what would I do?
I would build a whole new podcast studio.
I would pay everyone 30 percent more.
I would make sure the social team had more people on it
because they're working all the time.
I would have our app staffed more fully.
We have so many ideas about shoots that we're excited about doing
that take people on adventures.
And those budgets would would really help with that.
And we are still finding ways to do these things.
But I'm I you know, there's always more you can be doing.
But to be clear, just that we we have a very healthy budget
at Vogue and how we use it and
use our resources is constantly changing,
depending on the moment.
OK, last question.
The last time you felt nervous?
About 30 minutes ago before this interview.
Oh, for me, too?
I don't get nervous.