After 37 years at the helm of the American edition of Vogue magazine, editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is stepping down.

It has now been confirmed that the longtime editor of the “fashion bible” is leaving her position leading the famed fashion magazine. Wintour, 75, made the announcement at a staff meeting on the morning of Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Vogue will reportedly seek a new head of editorial content, while Wintour will stay on as Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and global editorial director at Vogue, overseeing every brand globally.

Wintour began her career at Vogue in 1988, taking the reins from former editor-in-chief Grace Mirabella. Wintour immediately started reshaping the magazine and one of her first major moves made history for the brand.

With her first cover, the November 1988 issue (which hit newsstands a month prior), Wintour initiated a cultural milestone. The cover featured Israeli model Michaela Bercu in a $50 pair of stone-washed jeans (the first time denim was on the cover of Vogue) with a $10,000 Christian Lacroix sweater in a fun and relaxed shot photographed by Peter Lindbergh. Shocking at the time, the issue would go on to be one of the most famous fashion magazine covers of all time.

“The powers that be were a little surprised – the printers even questioned this picture – but it made a statement. It made a statement that it was a different time: we had a different view on fashion that we wanted to be much more accessible, much more free,” Wintour recalled when she took a trip down memory lane for Vogue’s 120th anniversary in 2012.

A few months later, Wintour would be responsible for another major shift with fashion magazines when she decided to put a celebrity on the cover: Madonna. When Wintour made the decision to put Madonna on the cover of Vogue‘s May 1989 cover, that decision, she hadn’t even been on the job for a year. Putting a celebrity on the cover of a fashion magazine, even one as popular as Madonna, was a big risk. But, she ushered in a whole new era of magazine covers designs which the rest of the industry followed.

In 1992, she broke with a century-old Vogue tradition by featuring a man on the cover (in the form of Richard Gere, who appeared alongside Cindy Crawford, his wife at the time).

Though Wintour is most closely associated with Vogue, in 2013, she became the artistic director of Condé Nast and in 2019, earned her third job title when she was named global content advisor. In 2020, she became Condé Nast’s chief content officer, overseeing all its titles globally, including Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit and Condé Nast Traveler.

Rather than a retirement announcement, Wintour’s shift, as well as the new role atop Vogue’s US edition, are part of a wider global restructuring of the company.

Still, the changing of the guards is a seismic shift for American Vogue, offering a coveted opening for fashion editors as well as the opportunity for the industry’s most influential publication to head in new directions. Two years ago, Chioma Nnadi became the first Black woman to lead British Vogue as she succeeded Edward Enninful’s own history-making six-year run as the magazine’s first Black editor-in-chief.

Wintour’s replacement at Vogue has been not yet been named.

This is a developing story…