Do you do tricks? You said you didn't have much talent when you were young. Were you always a rebel? You either know fashion or you don't.
No, I don't. It was impossible for us not to be involved with the excitement of journalism. I don't think I accept things on face value. I think I have the best job in the world. I don't remember saying that, but if you have it, I'm sure that I did.
Okay hi Anna, good afternoon. So I start always with how are you really doing?
How am I really doing? Well, to be honest, I had a really tough workout this morning so my back is killing me, but apart from that I'm great.
Okay, do you work out every day?
Okay lovely. Um, who are you?
Anna? I'm not sure I completely understand that question, but my name is Anna Wintour. I work at Condé Nast. I'm the chief content officer of that company and I'm here in Dubai because it's a very exciting moment for Condé Nast. We are the only global publishing company to actually own titles here, so obviously I've come to be part of the launch event tomorrow. And so excited to be in Dubai for the very first time and to meet so many interesting people and learn as much as I possibly can.
So the question is supposed to be vague because I always find it interesting how people answer it, like how do people view themselves, you know, how do you describe yourself. So if I actually now add more to the question — if I asked you, how would you describe Anna? How would you describe her today?
I am very excited by my incredible job that I have at Condé Nast. I think I have the best job in the world. I've been doing it for some time and every day I'm just so grateful for what I do and the amazing people that I get to meet along the way and the stories that we have the privilege of telling. And I feel very strongly at this particular moment in time, it's really important to work with journalists who believe in the truth, who want to tell the truth, who publish stories that are based on accuracy and fact and on joy and on creativity. And to be able to be part of that process across so many different territories, working with so many incredibly talented people and learning so much as I go — because when I think back to when I started as a young editor, I mean, we published a print magazine and most of the rest of the time we were not doing so much. So to be able to have this amazing choice of platforms across an entire global network is something that is just so extraordinary to be part of.
I believe you grew up in a house between a philanthropist and a journalist, is that correct?
Well, both my parents were journalists. My dad was a Fleet Street editor. He lived for the news, loved the news, couldn't wait to get to the paper every single day. And I think his enthusiasm and incredible professionalism that I saw as a young girl growing up certainly influenced myself and also my brother, who's now an editor at one of the British newspapers. I think it was impossible for us not to be involved with the excitement of journalism. And my mother actually started her career as a film critic and they met when they were both at Cambridge. And then she had many, many children and sadly gave up her career to take care of all of us. And when we were old enough, she took up the responsibility of taking care of young kids who didn't know their parents and helped them find foster homes, and she worked in that world for the rest of her life. And I think seeing the combination of being able to use your platform to do good in the world and also to have that platform to tell stories — which were the two biggest influences on my childhood — I think it goes very back to the roots of who I am. It's to use your platform to tell the truth and to do good in the world.
You used the word 'sadly' — had to take care of us and gave up on her career. Why did you use that word?
I think it was a different time. I mean, it was in the 50s, 60s, 70s in the UK where if you had as many children as my mother did, that was the sort of decision that you made. And she got married very young. And I think in today's world she could have easily managed both, but I think those were the expectations of the time.
Were you always a rebel? Would you consider yourself actually a rebel?
I don't think I accept things on face value. I don't know that that's being a rebel. I like to question things, I like to push creativity, and I like to be surprised.
What's up with the sunglasses? That's the first thing that got me curious. I always connect you to your sunglasses as it's an icon, so I'm curious about it. What is it?
No, it's just everyone asks it and it's just a habit. And I'm shortsighted so they help me see and they help me hide a bit, I guess. And I think more the latter.
I read somewhere that it hides expression, so people don't know how to read you, maybe in a meeting or at work. And I don't know if that's true.
Especially helpful when you're jet lagged.
Okay. Would you say that you smile a lot?
I don't know, that's not anything I ever think about, to be honest.
Okay, then what makes you laugh?
My kids, my grandchildren, people at work, a beautiful day like today — many different things.
I have this red card with different quotes from you that I'd love to ask you. You said, 'I really didn't have much talent when I was young. I was not good at anything.' Is that true?
Yeah, I didn't have any defined skills. Like, I have friends that are athletes — that's a gift, that's a skill. I have friends who are amazing writers — that's a gift, that's a skill. People who paint — how wonderful and amazing is that to have that gift. So I have no gifts like that. I have an eye and an understanding, I think, and an instinct about storytelling, but I personally can't do it. So I think that segues very neatly into the job that I currently have, which is being an editor — which is where you help other people form their ideas and help them put them out into the world. But for myself, I am very aware of my lack of creative talent.
But it's an interesting way of putting it because I would call what you just described a talent on its own. You know, just even how you curate, or how you could be a perfectionist, or how you could be creative, or the fact that you're trying to squeeze the truth in journalism — you want authenticity and all of that. So I think I would categorize that as another talent that a lot of — because I think most people, Anna — it's not a word but like zombie, like unconscious — they just go with the trends of how the world is supposed to be and how we're supposed to go. And this word 'supposed to' is very subjective. A hundred years ago what we were supposed to be doing is completely different than now. And I like that you just don't take things, like you said, at face value. You love to question — okay, why should I do it this way? I think that's a beautiful curiosity.
Well, I think if you work in journalism you have to be curious. And I also think working in the world — and certainly the titles that we have here in Dubai, whether it's Condé Nast Traveler which is about exploration and visual delight, or Architectural Digest which is about expressing yourself through your home and looking at how the minds of brilliant architects or landscape designers or interior designers may work — or again, just talking to the editor here this morning, I was saying, I think what you're doing here is wonderful but it's a little bit expected. You need to push what you're showing the world more and it needs to be more personal. And I feel, you know, where I can help all the different editors that I work with around the world is seeing when it's time to push boundaries more, because I think it's very easy to get locked into a certain way of doing something, especially if it's very successful. And this is not a criticism of any of my editors or certainly of anybody working in journalism, but it's sometimes when you're in something very deep it's hard to see it clearly. And because I'm involved but in a way separate, maybe I'm able to take a step back and understand when it's time to think about things in a new way. And that you also have a sense when you are out in the world, the way I'm lucky enough to be and able to travel and meet so many interesting people and hear what they have to say. And I always tell my editors: you have to walk in the street, you have to climb the highest mountain, and you have to explore. You'll never be able to do this job successfully if you're stuck in the office. It just doesn't work that way, especially today when everything is so completely global and we're all absorbing information from so many different cultures and worlds, which makes it so much more interesting but even more complicated as an editor to sort of discover what's local and what's global and what can work across many territories.
There's this idea, you know, the rug — if we leave it there for a while, dust accumulates. So somebody has to come and shake it from time to time. I think that's you.
I've never thought of myself as a rug, but I will try.
No no, it's not the rug, you're the shaker of the rug.
Okay, so, you know, from time to time — I was doing that in the gym this morning.
So there you are. And I think that's what you do for the industry, that we need people that will disrupt. And the funny thing is, the example was given to me when you manage people — when you manage people, if everything is just calm, you know, the dust accumulates, that you need somebody to come and shake it up a bit from time to time. People wake up. Okay, another thing you said: decisiveness is important in everything you do. What did you mean?
Well, I think it's very helpful to the people that you're working with if you're decisive, or at least have a clear answer. Like, 'I don't know, give me some time.' I've worked with different people in my career who are not that way and I think it's very frustrating and debilitating, honestly, for the people that you work with. And also disrespectful not to be clear in what you're saying and what you're expecting. You can react if someone says, 'No, I don't like that, we're not going to do it,' or 'Yes, this is fantastic, go ahead,' or 'I'm not sure, give me a couple of days to think about it.' But at least it's clarity. I think when you're not clear and you're not decisive, you have a lot of people swimming around you waiting for you to make up your mind, and that's just a waste of everybody's time. And most importantly, it's a waste of their time, and to me that's disrespectful.
I love that. I really do connect with the idea — how, you know, time is our most expensive currency, and if I respect you I don't want to waste it, and if I respect myself also.
Um, you said, 'You either know fashion or you don't.' That sounds very definitive.
Did I really say that? I don't remember saying that, but if you have it, I'm sure that I did. Actually, I think you can know fashion — you can understand fashion more the more you see it. And I've just had this incredible opportunity to meet with the most brilliant designers in the world over many, many years, and that I think has helped me to understand and to help Vogue or GQ or any of the other titles that we work with best represent what we feel is the most creative in the world, because I've had so much exposure to seeing how different talents work, how they create. Some are very fast, like Karl was — he could do 20 sketches in 20 seconds and then you'd see the dress come out on the runway and it would look exactly like what you'd seen him sketch in one second. Or somebody maybe like John Galliano, who will go on long, long research trips all over the world and compile these amazing books of what he's seen and what he's been interested in, and then you'll see that sense of storytelling and romance come out in the studio and then come out on the runway. But it's a much longer process. I'm not saying that one is right or one is wrong, it's just very different. Everybody who is creative and has that kind of genius works in very different ways — the same as an actor does, or a director, or a painter. But since I've been able to be on the sidelines watching all this for such a long time, I think it's helped me understand fashion in a much deeper way than if it was more surface, because I've been lucky enough to be invited in.
Go back to a childhood question: if you had to summarize Anna's childhood in three words, what would they be?
Loving. Brothers and sisters. And my parents.
Were you close to both your parents?
Oh nice, that's lovely. Are you close to your children?
Okay, lucky, that's good. Um, okay so this is — we're going to play cards, it's a card game with questions, and I'm going to give you and the team a few. They're really nice. So if you don't mind — do you mind shuffling?
We'll choose, we'll see what...
