After two months of anticipation, Anna Wintour announced on Sept. 1 that Chloe Malle will be Vogue’s new head of editorial content. While Wintour will remain in her other two roles — global chief content officer at Condé Nast and global editorial director at Vogue — there was significant speculation as to who would fill the position she held for 37 years.
Amy Odell, author of the New York Times bestseller “Anna: The Biography” shared with People her belief that the descendant would be within the Vogue or Condé Nast family, hinting at Chloe Malle or Chioma Nnadi.
Many outlets predicted that the successor would be one of the two women who hold leadership positions at Vogue. Wintour herself was handed the role in 1988 from former editor-in-chief, Grace Mirabella. With a change in supervision and generations comes a shift in ideas, which is exactly what happened when Wintour took over — Vogue covers transitioned from a Hollywood beacon of glamor to dressing the everyday woman.
But what will Vogue now mean to the public with Malle as its visionary? The 39-year-old has been at the publication for 14 years now, and she has some interesting ideas to say the least. She is widely known for starting the magazine Dogue, a fashion magazine displaying dogs draped in fabulous scarves, earrings and an array of accessories, in 2023. She also co-hosts “The Run-Through with Vogue,” a space for fashion history, discussion of recent trends, celebrity impact in the fashion industry, the intersection of politics and fashion and more.
The New York native was born to Candice Bergen, an American actress who ironically played Carrie Bradshaw’s Vogue editor in the late 90s to early 2000s series “Sex and the City,” and French Oscar-winning film director Louis Malle. She received her bachelor’s degree from Brown University, majoring in comparative literature and writing. In the midst of the announcement, it appears that many social media users are not too thrilled to see Malle as editor-in-chief, calling her a “nepo baby.”
Despite the negativity, Malle is wearing that title proudly.
“There is no question that I have 100% benefited from the privilege I grew up in. It’s delusional to say otherwise. I will say, though, that it has always made me work much harder. It has been a goal for a lot of my life to prove that I’m more than Candice Bergen’s daughter, or someone who grew up in Beverly Hills,” Malle said.
She also acknowledged a reality felt by many in the industry: “The truth is that no one is going to replace Anna.”
Malle and Wintour will continue to work together, having offices right down the hall from each other.
“I implicitly trust Chloe and I want her to succeed to the best possible degree…She looks at things with a more…quirky, unusual point of view. She comes at things from different angles. She’s interested in fashion but not obsessed with it… There are many levels that will weigh into her decisions. I think that she will not be drawn into…a ‘fashionista conversation.’ I think that she will be able to step back and look at things in a very healthy context,” Wintour said.
