Latest news with #AnnaWintour
Daily Mail
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Vanity Fair staff 'blindsided and devastated' after Anna Wintour appoints an 'unqualified' nepo-baby to run magazine
Vanity Fair staff were 'blindsided' and are fiercely unhappy with Anna Wintour 's decision to appoint her daughter's nepo-baby best friend to run the magazine, a source has claimed. News hit the web last week that the longtime Vogue editor, 75, had picked her daughter, Bee Shaffer's close pal Mark Guiducci, 36, to run Vanity Fair following a high-profile search for the publication's next leader.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Vanity Fair staff 'devastated' after Anna Wintour appoints daughter's best friend to run magazine
Vanity Fair staff were 'blindsided' and are fiercely unhappy with Anna Wintour 's decision to appoint her daughter's nepo-baby best friend to run the magazine, a source has claimed. News hit the web last week that the longtime Vogue editor, 75, had picked her daughter, Bee Shaffer's close pal Mark Guiducci, 36, to run Vanity Fair following a high-profile search for the publication's next leader. Now, an insider has alleged that the decision has sparked immense outrage in the company, claiming that many Vanity Fair staffers feel like Guiducci is 'not qualified' for the job. 'There's a real feeling of devastation and sadness [amongst the Vanity Fair staff],' the source said exclusively to '[They feel] that the person appointed to lead isn't qualified to do this job and isn't an experience editor, he's a family friend of Anna's and her daughter.' Guiducci started his post-college career in 2010 at Vanity Fair as an assistant. In 2017, he was named editor-in-chief the art publication GARAGE Magazine, owned by VICE Media. It went out of print four years ago, a year after Guiducci left in 2020. That same year, he took on the role of creative editorial director Vogue and helped launch Vogue World, an annual fashion and cultural show. News hit the web last week that the longtime Vogue editor, 75, had picked her daughter, Bee Shaffer's close pal Mark Guiducci, 36, to run Vanity Fair following a high-profile search 'People are not on board with Mark doing this job,' the insider continued, adding that when Guiducci briefly spoke to staff following the announcement it seemed 'clear that he wasn't an experienced editor.' 'When he was talking about the magazine, everything was very vague, there was no clear vision of what he wanted to do,' they alleged. 'When Anna talked to the Conde Nast executives about this job search she initially said she wanted to bring in an experienced journalist like Wired editor-in-chief [Katie Drummond]. 'Anna interviewed a lot of accomplished editors and we're not sure why she didn't select one of them... The staff was blindsided by the announcement.' The source said to make matters worse Wintour jetted off to New York for Huma Abedin's wedding to philanthropist Alex Soros immediately after sharing the news, followed by a vacation, leaving the magazine in chaos. 'After she announced this she went to Huma's wedding then went to a vacation so people on the staff are wondering what they're supposed to do, there's no direction,' the insider dished. 'She just left after announcing this.' A source close to Wintour, on the other hand, insisted to that 'Mark was chosen because he was the right person for the role' and no other reasons. In addition, a separate insider at Vanity Fair stated that 'most of the Vanity Fair staff are excited about the appointment and looking forward to working with Mark.' The search for a new leader launched in April, when Vanity Fair's former editor-in-chief, Radhika Jones, resigned after seven years. She assumed the role from longtime editor Graydon Carter, who held the job for 25 years. At the time, Wintour told staff that Jones would help with the transition 'as we start the search for a new editor.' Now tasked with filling that void is Guiducci, who will be Vanity Fair's first 'global editorial director' rather than the editor-in-chief title held by his predecessors, including the legendary Tina Brown. Guiducci's friendship with Wintour's daughter Shaffer, 37, has spanned years and the two have been photographed together frequently, often at high-profile parties - something that allegedly hasn't gone unnoticed by the disgruntled Vanity Fair staff. 'Anna has tried to bring Bee more into the fold,' the source claimed. 'The thinking is that having Mark oversee Vanity Fair [will give] Bee an outlet to host parties and be part of the Vanity Fair.' Former Vanity Fair editor Carter expressed faith in Guiducci as a successor, despite working with him many years ago. 'Having worked with Mark, I know that he has so many of the skills necessary for the job at hand - and many that I did not have,' the iconic editor told Breaker. 'He's the perfect editor for the new Vanity Fair.' 'Congrats to Mark Guiducci, the new editor of Vanity Fair,' Brown separately tweeted. 'He's a fabulous, fresh appointment with bags of flair and fun ideas.' 'People are not on board with Mark doing this job,' the insider continued, adding that when Guiducci spoke to staff following the announcement it seemed 'clear that he wasn't an experienced editor' In a statement to the New York Times, the 75-year-old Wintour sang a similar tune, describing how great editors 'inspire their colleagues to move with speed, dexterity and thrilling derring-do.' 'That's the magic of Mark,' she said. 'An energetic and creative editor at the center of his generation and a leader under whom Vanity Fair will grow in ways I can foresee and, no doubt, many ways I can't.' Guiducci also expressed excitement at taking on the job. 'There are all these old-school tools that can be used in new ways,' Guiducci told the Times. 'Cover stars, long lead ambitious investigations, sophisticated visuals - those are all things you can't do on Substack. The difference today is we create them for and publish them on modern platforms.' 'We're going to have fun,' he told the Times separately, when asked about his plans for the magazine. 'I think that's something we're going to need in our culture right now.' 'Beyond proud,' his longtime pal Shaffer wrote on Instagram Tuesday in a story celebrating Guiducci's appointment. has reached out to Guiducci and Wintour's representatives for comment.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Jonathan Anderson: Fellow fashionistas on the Irishman guiding Dior's future
In two weeks' time in Paris , Irish designer Jonathan Anderson will make his much-heralded debut as creative director of Dior , the most famous fashion house in the world, with his first collection of men's wear. His appointment will bring all the collections – menswear, womenswear and haute couture – under the wing of one designer for the first time since the death of founder Christian Dior in 1957. Dior himself came to Dublin in 1950 to open the Dior boutique in Brown Thomas . A jewel in the crown of fashion conglomerate LVMH's 16 fashion brands with a huge global reach, Dior quadrupled sales to more than €9 billion in 2023 but saw them decrease to €8.7 billion in 2024. Given the current slowdown in the luxury sector, which in France contributes more than 4 per cent of the country's GDP, Anderson's role will be challenging. If Anderson also continues his own brand JWA and his long-established collaboration with Uniqlo, that will amount to 18 collections a year, making him, at the age of 41, fashion's most outstanding and prolific designer. 'He plays by his own rules – fearlessly,' Anna Wintour of Vogue has said of him. 'He knows what people want before they know what they want,' observes Paris-based Irish couturier Sean Byrne . 'He has created a universe for himself which a lot of designers can't do very well.' READ MORE Jonathan William Anderson was born in Magherafelt, Co Derry in 1984, eldest son of the celebrated former Irish rugby captain and coach Willie Anderson , a farmer's son from Sixmilecross in Co Tyrone, and his wife Heather Buckley, a teacher. Anderson's younger brother Thomas, a lawyer, works with him as operations director and his sister Chloe is a pharmacist. They are a close-knit family. [ Dior appoints Irishman Jonathan Anderson as sole creative director Opens in new window ] Jonathan's talent, drive and love of drama were evident from an early age, as well as a strong business sense, his father has mother is the daughter of a talented English textile designer, Jim Buckley, who came to work in Northern Ireland and whom Jonathan has always credited as a huge influence in his life. After leaving the local Protestant grammar school where he was diagnosed as dyslexic, Anderson studied acting in New York – 'full-on Stanislavski for two years' – before dropping out and returning to Dublin where he landed a job in Prada menswear in Brown Thomas. Team captain Willie Anderson, Jonathan's father, and the rest of the Ireland side famously face down New Zealand as the All Blacks preform the haka at Lansdowne Road in 1989. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho That period also saw him come out as gay. At a recent award ceremony at Trinity College Dublin , he raised laughter describing how much he enjoyed partying in Dublin at the time, asking: 'and does that club called The George still exist?' University Philosophical Society presented The Honorary Patronage to JW Anderson. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw In the store, his imaginative merchandising attracted the attention of Prada's right-hand woman, the late Manuela Pavesi, who offered him a job in London. With her encouragement, he applied to every fashion college in Britain 'and every single one turned me down'. An offer finally came from the London College of Fashion at the then newly established menswear course. When he graduated in 2005 with first-class honours, he started styling and consulting, rebranding a luxury British underwear company Sunspel while his sell-out collaborations with Topshop, Aldo and Swarovski marked him out as one to watch. With financial support from his family, he launched his first menswear collection in 2008, becoming quickly known for his groundbreaking street style aesthetic which combined creativity with commercial appeal. Designer Jonathan Anderson walks the runway at the JW Anderson Spring/Summer 2024 show in Milan. Photograph: Pietro S D'Aprano/Getty His shows, upending conventional notions of male/female attire, always attracted attention. 'Clothing makes people question identity. Their codes question gender – why should buttons be on different sides for men than women?' he once queried. Andrew Bell, an Irish designer who now works with the Polene handbag brand in Paris, recalls working with Anderson, one of 17 interns in the summer of 2013, as JWA was expanding. 'It was five-six days a week, 12-hour days on menswear, so it was super intense. He was moody, intense, a perfectionist, maybe not the warmest, but a visionary, extremely cultured and well read. He allowed us freedom to explore and experiment which was quite unique for a designer at the time.' South Korea footballer Hwang Hee-Chan poses with the Loewe puzzle bag. Photograph: by Han Myung-Gu/WireImage [ Irish designer JW Anderson named as one of Time's most influential people for 2024 Opens in new window ] That collection for men, with its skirts, medieval-style tunics with ruffled boots and boiled wool tops 'was such a statement of masculinity', says Bell. He describes Anderson's managerial skills and leadership qualities as 'like an orchestra conductor who can synthesise discordant harmonies that work. He is a true creative director'. Anderson's big break came that year when LVMH took a 46 per cent stake in his brand and hired him to helm the Madrid-based leatherwear brand Loewe. Behind the deal was Delphine Arnault , daughter of LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault. She is now chief executive of Dior so her association with Anderson has been a long one. As the fashion world learned how to pronounce the name Loewe ('low–ehvey'), Anderson immediately became involved in every aspect of its rebranding, aiming to turn it into a cultural rather than a fashion brand. Under his stewardship from 2014 to 2024, the sleepy Spanish luxury brand (its sales in 1996 hovered around $2 million) was revived and turned into a global superstar business of $2 billion. I am very happy for Jonathan and his new appointment. He has made stimulating and exciting work over the last decade and I am looking forward to seeing that energy at Dior — Simone Rocha His first bag, the Puzzle , based on an origami construction, became – and remains – a best seller. One of his proudest achievements was establishing the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize, an annual award that recognises excellence among makers. His witty designs made headlines – whether pigeon bags, heirloom tomato-inspired clutches, upside-down rose-heeled stilettos, balloon sandals or, more recently, beautiful hooped floral dresses for spring 2025. Riccardo Simonetti wearing a pink tee from Palomoand a JW Anderson clutch in pigeon shape. Photograph:White high heels with rose during the Loewe show at Paris Fashion 2024. Photograph:Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2024 Womenswear collection by Jonathan Anderson for Loewe during Paris Fashion Week His collaborations with global superstars and celebrities tend to fire up the internet: Rihanna, whose red leather corset at the 2023 Super Bowl revealed her pregnancy; Beyoncé's see-through catsuit with black hand motifs for her Renaissance tour, or his costumes for Zendaya for Luka Guadagnino's movie Challengers last year, are just some examples. His campaigns are always talking points, notably the one with then 88-year-old Maggie Smith modelling one of his celebrated Puzzle bags in October 2023. His makeover of a post-Bond Daniel Craig in the Loewe menswear winter 2024 campaign in cargo trousers, leather jacket, chunky boots with a multicoloured handknit decorated with a poppy abstract print by US artist Richard Hawkins was described by GQ as 'kooky, eclectic and really f**king cool'. According to Bell, Anderson is 'obsessed with the zeitgeist and so good at encapsulating the moment. He is now head of the biggest fashion brand in the world. Whatever he does is going to be super exciting.' Moooood — NFL (@NFL) Rihanna performs at the Super Bowl. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images Irish designer Simone Rocha says: 'I am very happy for Jonathan and his new appointment. He has made stimulating and exciting work over the last decade and I am looking forward to seeing that energy at Dior.' Another Irish designer, Sorcha O'Raghallaigh, has remained a fan since she and Anderson were selected for Create, a showcase for design talent in Ireland, in its first year in Brown Thomas in 2011. 'On every aspect of Loewe, he has been strong – the imagery, the campaigns and exciting pieces on the runway. His accessories are always on point. I still cherish a pair of ballerina shoes with ankle ribbons and gold hourglass heels bought when I was working in Italy. I can't wait to see what he will do at Dior," O'Raghallaigh says. [ 'Forget about glamour': Jonathan Anderson offers advice to would-be fashion designers as he receives TCD honour Opens in new window ] An avid art collector and voracious reader, Anderson's cultural references are wide and all-embracing. The pale pastel shades in his collection for spring 2022, for instance, were based on his viewing of a newly restored 15th century Pontormo painting in Florence. He regularly collaborates with artists he admires. His ability to combine both the avant-garde and the commercial remains consistently his forte. 'I am always trying to find subtlety in newness. I am always curious about other people's creativity. I have two incredible teams and if you have the right people around you, they prevent you from blowing up. Some have been with me for 11 years, some for 15 years. I can be tough, but I always hire people that I admire and have potential. I want people to challenge me and feel able to express themselves. I don't like yes people,' he said in a recent interview with Bella Freud, Former womenswear director at Brown Thomas, Shelly Corkery, reckons he will widen the appeal of Dior while keeping its DNA. 'He has a good commercial eye, is a visionary and, like Prada, pushes boundaries. There is always novelty in his collections. With his Loewe logo denim, little vests and T-shirts that young people could afford, he widened its demographic. He will modernise Dior. He will have more fun with the brand and widen the ready to wear so that a younger customer can buy into it.' A gifted communicator, with the voice of a trained actor (which he is) Anderson is a storyteller, loquacious, always adept at articulating his ideas. He spoke frankly and thoughtfully to Bella Freud in a recent interview about his background and his approach to fashion, and he described how his mother narrowly escaped the Omagh bombing in 1998. Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz attend the Loewe 2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week. Photograph:'Growing up, the North of Ireland was a complex place to live and it's important for me that I did grow up there and it helps me understand what I am today. The great thing about Ireland is storytelling and young people are curious, want to know you and that you believe in what you are selling, so you have to prove that you are not selling a sterile dream – otherwise it gets very corporate,' he said. Christian Dior himself was famously superstitious, believing in signs and symbols. Predicting the future is what great fashion designers do. Willie Anderson in his autobiography, Crossing the Line, tells a story of how a younger Jonathan, given the intense pressure around one of his early shows, decided holy water might give it a boost. 'There wasn't a lot of that around the house, but [Catholic] friends rode to the rescue delivering enough to float a small pleasure cruiser. Heather was on hand when the models were getting dressed. 'Jonny, will I sprinkle a bit on each model or how do you want to do this?' she asked. 'It's already sorted Mum,' he replied, 'It's in the steam irons so we can spread it!''
Telegraph
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
How Vanity Fair fell from grace under Anna Wintour
'I certainly look at Vanity Fair and sometimes read it on the plane… Vanity Fair is a terrific magazine, but I'm not poring over it to see what they are doing.' So said American Vogue 's British supremo Anna Wintour in a 1997 interview with the fashion magazine R.O.M.E. That's a view which has definitely gone out of style for the formidable fashion queen who reputedly inspired the fierce magazine editor in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. Having already overseen Vogue since 1988, in December 2020, Wintour, 75, was promoted to chief content officer at Condé Nast, handing her ultimate editorial responsibility for the global editions of Vanity Fair, among other titles. Once a lavish, highly profitable pop culture blend of show business, politics and high society, Vanity Fair has, according to its critics, fallen in influence and quality. Plummeting news-stand sales and a decline in advertising revenue has left a publication fixated on money and status facing questions over its own relationship with those quintessential American Those questions intensified this week with the appointment of Mark Guiducci, 36, as Vanity Fair 's new editor (and first global editorial director), following the announcement in April by incumbent Radhika Jones that she was stepping down to pursue 'new goals'. It is not that Guiducci, a Southern Californian, who resembles a cross between actor Jim Carrey and a real estate reality television star, is perceived to be unfamiliar the magazine; rather that he's too familiar. Guiducci, who was formerly chief creative officer of Vogue, is a close friend of Bee Shaffer, Wintour's producer daughter. According to the media website Breaker, his nickname is 'The Anna Whisperer' on account of his closeness with his boss. ' Vanity Fair is best when it has an outsider-at-the insider's ball mindset,' says a former Vanity Fair staffer, citing previous editors Tina Brown and Graydon Carter. 'Tina arrived from England fresh from those waspish society exposés in Tatler; Graydon came from Canada and Spy [the satirical magazine he co-founded]. Much of what Mark has written has been about Condé Nast.' One event that generated much discussion, according to former colleagues, was Guiducci's account for Vogue of Wintour and Shaffer's dinner for Tony Award nominees in 2017 at Wintour's New York home: 'Call it sweet success!' he concluded of the night celebrating Broadway's equivalent of the Oscars . Guiducci, like Wintour, is an accomplished networker. An Anglophile, he studied at The Courtauld Institute of Art and counts Princess Beatrice and Eugenie as good friends. Just don't expect too many Vanity Fair exclusives about their beleaguered father. 'Mark's the ultimate Condé Nast company man – he even wrote Vogue features about tennis, Anna Wintour's favourite sport!' the former staffer says, adding, 'It's unfair to say it's over for him before he's begun but I wonder how revealing his Vanity Fair will be.' Guiducci's predecessor Radhika Jones, who came from Time magazine, endured a rocky tenure. Tina Brown's Vanity Fair delivered exclusives about Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher and infamously persuaded a seven-months-pregnant Demi Moore to pose nude on the cover in 1991; Graydon Carter balanced long reads on Old Hollywood and coverage of corporate scandals with world exclusives on Michael Jackson's alleged sexual misconduct and the identity of Watergate's 'Deep Throat'. Jones set out to broaden the editorial brief and include stories about people who were not rich and powerful. 'It feels like we have all this opportunity to tell new stories with new faces and new voices,' she declared upon becoming editor in 2017. New readers proved harder to come by, however. According to the New York Times, the magazine's print sales have declined. And, although digital subscriptions have increased, with overall circulation remaining steady at just over 1.2 million, online traffic is down 39 per cent in the last four years, according to the media measurement company Comscore. Jones's Vanity Fair generated some exclusives but, as with last year's bizarrely-written scoop about late novelist Cormac McCarthy's relationship with a 16-year-old girl – which appeared to treat McCarthy's paedophilic interest in a teenager as a great love story – they often went viral for the wrong reasons. While Vanity Fair always steered progressive in its politics, it has become even more stridently Left-wing online. Headlines have included 'After Thoroughly F---ing Over America, Mitch McConnell Decides to Treat Himself to a Break', 'Trump 2024: Why the Ex-President Should Never Be Allowed Within 1,000 Feet of the White House Again' and, earlier this week, 'Jacinda Ardern Is No Longer Campaigning for Office – Now It's for Humanity.' ' Vanity Fair under Tina and Graydon had plenty of buzz,' says New York society photographer Patrick McMullan. '[Under Jones] it became more politically correct, which is good in some ways, but I didn't feel compelled to read it as much.' The ex-staffer questions the wokeness and political posturing: 'A few of us met up just after Trump got elected again and someone said the only definitive metric that Vanity Fair has made the world a better place is through the magazine becoming thinner in size, meaning less paper, less trees chopped down and less emissions!' The May 2025 edition contained 90 pages, compared with 176 pages in May 2015. Jones's desire for a more inclusive publication aligned with a sense that the magazine needed a refresh after her predecessor's 25-year tenure. Her approach, however, was not universally well-received. 'The covers under [Radhika Jones] have been photographed badly to the extent that they are among the worst in modern magazine history', says veteran writer Roger Friedman, who covers Vanity Fair for the entertainment website Showbiz 411. 'I think that DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] stuff will surely go now.' However, a source close to Vanity Fair says that Guiducci is intent on keeping the magazine as progressive as it was under his predecessor. Sources say another factor behind Guiducci's appointment was the role he will play in shaping events hosted by the publication – the Vanity Fair Oscars party is still regularly attended by some of the ceremony's biggest stars. Part of his duties at Vogue involved organising Vogue World, a series of philanthropic artistic extravaganzas in big cities, including London in 2023. 'Vogue World is closer to a day of shopping than it is to the contents of the magazine,' says Friedman. 'If they were really serious they could have any number of qualified people who could be great editors for Vanity Fair. This is Anna saying she wants someone she can control.' A source close to Vanity Fair says the interview process was long and rigorous and that Wintour would never have chosen Guiducci if he wasn't the best candidate for the job. A spokesperson for Vanity Fair says 'the staff are thrilled with the appointment'. But Wintour's closeness to Guiducci remains a rich source of debate among fashionistas. Manhattan-based investment banker Euan Rellie, whose socialising resulted in him being nicknamed the 'Fashion Banker', says, 'I met Mark fleetingly – he was slick and polished. But Anna's M.O. these days is to surround herself with allies who she enjoys hiring and then promoting to the extent that it's in danger of becoming a social network.' According to a former Condé Nast editorial executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, the predicament facing Vanity Fair has been caused by Wintour's elevation as global chief content officer, which resulted in her supervising international titles. 'Her assumption of total power coincided with a structural upheaval in the company,' he says. 'The budgets got centralised in New York and international editors had to defer to Vogue. Anna's a brilliant editor but her strategic ideas were not always informed by a huge amount of background knowledge. 'She would go on Zoom meetings and talk about how to cover subjects, such as sport, that she wasn't always an expert in.' Another Vanity Fair contributor, speaking on condition of anonymity, adds that the magazine's feature ideas are often now commissioned and co-ordinated in conjunction with Vogue scheduling. 'If you want to write about an in-demand personality or event, Anna will have often secured the exclusive interview or photoshoot for Vogue and you'll need a fresh angle for your idea not to get [scrapped],' he says. Of course controversy has accompanied Vanity Fair ever since it launched in 1913 (it was folded into Vogue in 1935 before being revived in 1983). In 2009, the actor Rupert Everett, who was listed on the magazine's masthead as a contributing editor, was sacked for telling the Daily Beast, 'Who does one have to f--- to get off that masthead?' But the magazine long benefited from the luxurious excesses of magazine publishing with colossal editorial budgets and expenses. Joan Juliet Buck, a former contributing editor to Vanity Fair and editor of French Vogue, who wrote of her Condé Nast experiences in her memoir The Price of Illusion, recalls how a Vanity Fair Princess Diana cover story in 1989 arose: 'I said, 'I have this tax bill to pay', and Tina [Brown] said, 'I'll pay you enough to cover it if you write about Diana.'' Buck adds: 'Tina invented the buzz and the mix. The mix created the buzz. I wrote about the Paris Air Show for Vanity Fair, but she said, 'Martin [Amis] handed in his piece about Wimbledon before you handed in your piece about the Paris Air Show and I'm not running them both in the same issue – so you lose!'' Buck believes Vanity Fair has become the victim of changing tastes in reading habits: ' Vanity Fair used to gather together urgency and glamour into a single monthly object that created the thrill of the moment, and none of that exists anymore,' she says. 'With the end of magazines has come the end of moment itself.' Compounding Vanity Fair 's current problems are that Graydon Carter's Air Mail website, launched in 2019, is evoking the spirit of his Vanity Fair – a recent story featured allegations of sexual misconduct by the Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto which he denies. Carter has also poached a raft of former Vanity Fair staffers. 'Last year at Cannes [Film Festival] Graydon threw a party for the 100 th anniversary of Warner Bros and they upstaged Vanity Fair,' says Friedman. 'This year Vanity Fair didn't throw a party at Cannes.' Carter, who was indiscreet about Wintour in his recent memoir When the Going Was Good, nevertheless has declared Guiducci the 'perfect editor for Vanity Fair '. Brown called him a 'fabulous, fresh appointment with bags of fun and fresh ideas'. And Dana Brown, a former Vanity Fair deputy editor, also agrees with Wintour's choice. 'Mark's first job out of college was a Vanity Fair assistant so he has VF in his genes,' he says. 'He's socially connected in the art and fashion worlds and being a very public face is a really important part of it - that's something the previous regime didn't understand.' Patrick McMullan says: 'Everybody I know loves Mark so let's hope he brings the buzz back to Vanity Fair.' In today's world, that might prove too tall an order. Asked on the Condé Nast website in 2023 about his plans for Vogue World, Guiducci answered, 'Sooner or later, someone will do a fashion show in space.' The cosmos can wait. For now restoring Vanity Fair to its former glory seems like the magazine equivalent of the moon shot.
Mint
13-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
I used an AI stylist for five days and hated it
For five days, generative AI became my personal stylist. It told me what to wear and how to wear it. It chose my hairstyle and lip colour. It even suggested to the manicurist that yellow was my colour. Generative AI—which can do everything from write code, conduct makeshift therapy sessions and create designs for fashion designers—could add close to $300 billion in the next five years to the operating profits of apparel, fashion and luxury sectors, says a 2023 report by consulting firm McKinsey. It can do so, the report adds, by helping streamline design and supply chain issues, but more importantly, it can allow shoppers to try on clothes via their devices, and add chatbots as shopping assistants to help people sift through their wardrobe and make better style decisions. So, I decided to dive into the world of AI with three apps to see if algorithms could change the way I dress. Also read: Gen Z can't stop buying fast fashion and won't repeat outfits—here's why One was ChatGPT, the popular US-born general-purpose tool, and the other two were newly launched homegrown platforms, Glance AI and Slayrobe. These three AI advisers, or stylists, saved me time and lessened the burden of making a decision each time I opened my wardrobe. But they seemed to have one agenda: turn me into a blind follower of trends. Sample this conversation with ChatGPT. Me: Hey ChatGPT, What should I wear to office today? I work in a newsroom and I want to wear something corporate-ish but a little casual and it should look all very effortless. ChatGPT: That's a great idea. I'd suggest going for something like this: A simple, well-fitted blazer in a neutral colour (like navy, black or grey), but leave it unbuttoned to keep it relaxed. Pair it with a plain shirt. Chinos in a neutral shade, or dark jeans if you want to keep it even more casual. Casual loafers or stylish sneakers. Keep accessories minimal. Me: This is too boring. And it's 40 degrees Celsius here, so blazer is out. I'm a fashion writer and I want something different and stylish. Suggest more options? ChatGPT: Wow! A fashion writer, I'm jealous of you, girl! Of course, here's something for that 'unbothered but unmistakably stylish" look. Lightweight cotton shirt with 3/4th sleeves or rolled long sleeves. Tuck it in slightly at the front (French tuck) for that casual-editor vibe. Straight or wide-leg trousers in breathable fabrics like linen. Chunky flats or sleek platform slides. Bold earrings or a structured minimalist necklace. Go for a low sleek bun. Add gold hoops—bam, you're Anna Wintour's cooler cousin. It's not bad advice, but recommending rolling up the sleeves or adding an ankle-length skirt for a Parisian touch isn't exactly going to up my style game. Then, I turned to Slayrobe. After logging into the app, you have to enter your height, identify your body shape (round, triangle, rectangle, inverted triangle, hourglass), features you want to flaunt/downplay, and your 'style agenda" (Effortless Chic, Dreamy Diva, Bold Boss, Timeless Queen). Then comes a barrage of looks, from clothes to jewellery, all based on algorithms trained on over 70,000 styling decision points. You can also buy the suggested options—the app leads the user to the respective product's brand website. There's colour analysis in case you wish to know which shades are meant for your skin tone. And a wardrobe organiser allows you to upload a photo of your garments and create looks, like Cher Horowitz's outfit-picking computer in Clueless (1995). 'Women are being overfed with trends, and despite this, the universal feeling remains: We have nothing to wear," says Slayrobe's founder-CEO Pooja Lalwani, who's earlier worked on fashion tech initiatives at Google and Tommy Hilfiger. 'I wanted to create one platform where you can get help organising your wardrobe, style yourself better, know your colours and then post about it." The women-only app is designed to let you post your photos on the feed and as Stories, and follow other people—much like Instagram. After choosing the option of Dreamy Diva as my 'vibe", I asked the stylist bot to help me find some timeless office wear style ideas. The responses were: 'Embrace soft, flowing fabrics", 'accessorise with delicate details", don't 'overdo with embellishments" .... again, all useful tips but nothing new. But for a school student like Aashna Gulati such information is useful. 'I am still figuring out what my style is," says Mumbai-based Gulati, 16, who constantly experiments with AI apps to find fashion inspiration. 'I shop after seeing (on AI stylist apps) what will look good on me. I want to dress like Kendall (Jenner), Kareena (Kapoor Khan) but I don't have their stylists, so this is the best option for me." Also read: The salwar returns to the runway with a new look That's the promise of an AI stylist. It might not give you exactly what you're looking for but it can direct you towards what you might like. 'AI gets the basics right. It can tell you how a sage green blouse, a pair of canary blue trousers and a burgundy bag will look together but it can't tell whether that combo will suit you," says celebrity stylist Isha Bhansali, who's styled the likes of actor Ayushmann Khurrana. 'It's also about how much you care about personal style. Many people are just happy with following trends and shopping accordingly, and AI helps with exactly that." Glance AI works on this theme: it creates fully styled, shoppable looks based on your body type, personal taste, lifestyle and mood, all on the phone. After entering my details, Glance AI offered a variety of looks in a somewhat Pinterest moodboard way. Under Ready For Safari, for instance, I could see a myself—the app asks you to upload a selfie—wearing a moss green casual shirt from two brands, one ₹664 and other, ₹1,799, depending on your budget. The options were followed by text explaining how the collection 'merged utility and sophistication, featuring earthy tones, linen and structured silhouettes for an elevated, adventure-ready and stylish look". Choice of a green shirt for safari? Definitely not out of the box. 'We're built for Gen Z and millennial consumers," says Mansi Jain, senior vice-president and general manager, Glance AI. 'These are users who want AI to curate for them—not just show options. It marks a shift from marketplace models to inspiration-first commerce, where the AI stylist becomes the first touchpoint of fashion discovery." Can an AI stylist replace a human stylist? It depends on who you ask. Bhansali compares AI to a calculator, saying 'it works on calculations, trends and not emotions, and fashion is so much about emotions." Jain's take: 'Unlike human stylists, AI stylists scale to millions, adapt in real-time, and learn from every interaction. Our models don't just react to trends—they understand your style graph, predict what will resonate, and visualise you in it with near-photorealistic accuracy." The thing is AI can offer answers when you're searching for your sense of style but it cannot serve you that personal touch that makes you you. Whether it was the taupe blouse ChatGPT suggested I wear for an interview, or the smokey party make-up I did after going through different looks on Glance AI, or the red salwar-kameez I zeroed in on for a family puja, they were all 'uniform"-like answers. And so very boring and predictable. As Bhansali says, 'If I told ChatGPT I am on my period, it won't suggest anything white because that information has been fed into it. But what if my mood is to wear white? Style can be dictated by algos, not personal style." When I asked ChatGPT if it believes AI stylists can supersede human counterparts, it said: 'AI is the calculator. The human stylist is the architect. Both can do math. Only one can build the Taj Mahal." Also read: Why labubu dolls, Disney cartoons have entered the adult wardrobe
