Got 25 minutes to kill on this misty Monday?
While there aren't a whole lot of revelations in Bloomberg's "Game Changers" documentary on Anna Wintour, there are a few solid who knews. The episode chronicles Wintour's fashion roots from her days as a high school dropout ("it was the 60s" and she was "captivated by London's cultural and social scene") to her nomadic journey in magazine publishing. Once a young Wintour was fired from Harper's Bazaar, her inaugural American gig, for being "too European," she was Vogue-bound. But she first took a detour to Penthouse founder and publisher Bob Guccione's Viva, an erotic magazine for women where Wintour's fashion editorials were widely recognized. (You'll find that bit around 4:32.) And while Wintour is often applauded for picking superstars in lieu of supermodels as Vogue cover girls, this tactic resulted in subscription refunds at House & Garden, her second stop before helming the glossy.
Substituting empty rooms with celebrities and their lavish dwellings may have cost Wintour the job, but Teri Agins, former fashion writer for the Wall Street Journal notes that Wintour's choices were "revolutionary," adding "her plan to come in and do something that radical to an established magazine -- the prospect for failure is high when you do something that gutsy." (Check it out at 9:03.) Upon her Vogue debut, Wintour was gutsy from the get-go. Her first front image featured Michaela Bercu in a $10,000 sweater...paired with $40 jeans. Elaborate shoots with the renowned photographers elevated Vogue's stature. Then the narrator reminds us that in 2003 Wintour created Vogue Living and Men's Vogue, two brand extensions that were unsuccessful. (At Wintour's defense -- Teen Vogue was launched at the same time and is still on stands.)
Wintour -- whose low profile has garnered unflattering nicknames such as "ice queen" and "nuclear Wintour" -- declined to participate in filming of the short doc.
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