Anna Wintour Calls Irving Penn 'Seductive,' Says He 'Liked Strong Women, Not Waifs'

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour spoke to a crowd at Pratt last night about late photographer Irvin Penn, who she called "seductive," The Cut reports.

Perhaps his seduction stemmed from the fact that Penn would actually challenge Wintour's editorial decisions:

"Irving Penn and I developed our own ritual that involved meeting every so often for lunch, either at Il Cantinori or the Union Square Café. Over lunch, he would talk about how Vogue had become so commercial, how everything had titles over it ... 'Anna, I don't understand how you can do this,' and that was just the first course ... I would throw out an idea and he would turn me down. It took me a long time to realize that with Irving, no meant no. Now, I don't take no very easily, but I learned that with Irving, there was no revisiting. But then, miraculously, we would hit a home run." One such home run was the cover Penn -- who "liked strong women, not waifs" -- shot of Nicole Kidman wearing Christian Lacroix for the May 2004 issue.

Wintour also professed her love for bloggers, saying, "We love as much coverage of fashion as possible. We don't care at all where it comes from, and we embrace bloggers and video and social networking, and anyone that's talking about fashion is a good thing."