Anna Wintour ended weeks of fashion-world speculation Tuesday when she named Chloe Malle her successor as head of editorial content at Vogue—but the most powerful person in the business isn't going anywhere. Wintour, 75, remains chief content officer for Condé Nast and global editorial director of American Vogue and its 28 other editions around the globe. Malle may be stepping into Wintour's low-heeled slingbacks, but she'll report to the original wearer while taking over day-to-day operations at the US edition, per the AP. And gone is the storied "editor-in-chief" title that Wintour held for nearly 40 years.
Malle, 39, is the daughter of actor Candice Bergen and the late French director Louis Malle. She joined Vogue as social editor in 2011, moved on to contributing editor in 2016 and has been editor of Vogue.com since 2023. She also co-hosts the magazine's podcast "The Run Through." In June, she interviewed the then-Lauren Sánchez ahead of her wedding to Jeff Bezos. "Vogue has already shaped who I am, now I'm excited at the prospect of shaping Vogue," Malle said in the announcement.
"Chloe has proven often that she can find the balance between American Vogue's long, singular history and its future on the front lines of the new," Wintour said in a statement. Malle, a Brown graduate and mother of two young kids, has been outspoken about her liberal-leaning politics, just as Wintour has. "I actually love working with Anna, because I love someone telling me exactly what needs to be done and exactly what she thinks about something," Malle said in a recent profile by the Independent. "There's no indecision. There's no ambiguity." Wintour will continue to oversee almost every Condé Nast brand, including Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, and Tatler, while reporting to CEO Roger Lynch.