Anna

How Many Calories are in a Vogue Magazine?

A Book Review of Anna: The Biography

If you want to be the next Anna Wintour, download MyFitnessPal: it’s time to start counting calories. Or, better yet, hire a personal assistant to count them for you. If her parents are recognizable from her résumé, double check that she studied at an Ivy League, she owns a pair of Manolos, and (of course), that she’s under 120 lbs. As it turns out, The Devil Wears Prada wasn’t far off. Even Anne Hathaway – without a makeover and a head-to-toe Chanel outfit – couldn’t please the Ice Queen of Vogue. With over three decades as editor-in-chief under her belt, Wintour might as well be referred to as queen of the entire fashion industry. 

While Amy Odell investigates the surprising ups and downs of Wintour’s long career in the biography Anna, Odell makes one consistency in Anna’s life clear: her weight. Vivianne Lasky – Wintour’s childhood friend (seemingly the only one) – made sure to note during her interview that the number on Wintour’s scale hasn’t changed since they were eighteen-years-old. It helps that Anna does not eat more than a few bites at any meal. Odell ensures that her readers are aware of Wintour’s diet, starting off the book by describing Wintour’s breakfast: a whole-milk latte and a “mostly uneaten” Starbucks blueberry muffin. Odell may not be one to condemn Wintour, most of the industry won’t either, but I will:

Dear Ms. Wintour, 

Fuck you and your fatphobia.

Most will not be shocked by Wintour’s unwillingness to hire qualified candidates that she deemed to be “overweight.” It was not until 2017 – twenty-nine years into Wintour’s editor role – that Wintour put a plus-sized model on the cover of Vogue. It was Ashley Graham. You couldn’t really tell because she was hidden in between size zero models including Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid. Curious? Go google “vogue plus size cover.” That picture won't show up first. Rather the 2019 cover of Ashley Graham will be first, only she’s pregnant in that. While anyone could make the argument that everyone in the fashion industry is fatphobic, isn’t Anna Wintour the gatekeeper to the pearly white gates? As Odell claims, “she has defined not only fashion trends but also beauty standards, telling millions of people what to buy, how to look, and who to care about.” 

Simon & Schuster

10,200 people die on average a year from an eating disorder. I am not going to say that blood is on Anna Wintour’s hands, but personally I don’t think it is helpful for the face of fashion to be described as being as meticulous about food as she is about clothes. The irony is personal: the year I decided to pursue a career in fashion and bought a Vogue subscription, I ended up in the hospital for four months. But, I digress. No one will ever be happy with the “it” girls in fashion. After all, Bella Hadid is under fire for admitting that she eats pizza once a day in an interview audio clip that went viral. TikTok users mocked the bold-faced lie: isn’t she too skinny to like pizza? The Hadid sister quickly responded with screenshots of her camera roll: squares and squares of aesthetically photographed thin-crust slices. 

But, Bella Hadid is respected by the general public, mostly for her kindness towards strangers and her activism for Palestine. Odell’s biography assumed a similar attitude towards Wintour. After all, Wintour made the decision for Vogue to publicly endorse Hilary Clinton for presidency in 2016, standing in solidarity with LGBTQ, women, and immigrants rights. Yet, Wintour is known for tokenizing minority communities in the workplace and in the magazine. In regards to a token piece on Asian women for Vogue beauty, Odell writes “[it] would be far from the only time Anna’s attitudes about people of color would strike some as deeply hurtful.” Although you can count on Wintour to be a #girlboss role model for women, do not expect that feminism to be intersectional. Outdated like the pantsuit-millennial-Hilary-Clinton-type, Anna Wintour does not represent the future of fashion. Or at least one I want to be a part of. 

Most biographies are published after death. Perhaps Anna serves as the grim reaper knocking on the doors of Vogue’s offices. It's time to retire.