Vogue names Chloe Malle as its new editor

NEW YORK – For the first time in 37 years, there is a new editor of American Vogue.

Anna Wintour has surrendered the title that transformed her into a titan of fashion and publishing, and handpicked a successor – sort of.

The role now belongs to Ms Chloe Malle, 39, editor of Vogue’s website and co-host of its podcast, the publication said on Sept 2.

Rather than editor, though, Ms Malle is “head of editorial content” – a sign of how much the magazine business has changed since Vogue established itself as fashion’s monthly print heavyweight, ruling the industry with a bejewelled iron fist.

In 2025, Vogue is fending off the same threats as any other legacy media company.

Modern editors are expected to devise new revenue streams, execute cinematic events and sell television series or lines of merchandise.

Institutions that hesitated to adapt to the digital age, and now artificial intelligence, have bled money and power – scrambling to reach new audiences and hang on to their existing base.

Still, Vogue remains a centre of gravity in media.

For at least a decade, the industry has speculated wildly about who might replace Wintour, 75.

For Ms Malle, the question became a routine “dinner party parlour game”, she said in an extended interview with The New York Times.

“The truth is no one’s going to replace Anna,” said Ms Malle, who begins her job immediately.

What might have seemed like a moment of baton-passing was complicated by Wintour’s unusual standing at Conde Nast, the publisher of Vogue.

Wintour is not retiring. She is still the company’s chief content officer. She is still Ms Malle’s direct supervisor, overseeing all 28 international editions of Vogue. She is not even moving out of her office.

Both women have acknowledged the strangeness of this arrangement. In remarks to staff on Sept 2, Wintour referred to herself as both Ms Malle’s mentor and her student.

And in the interview with the Times, Ms Malle called upon the image of Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist who in 1974 balanced precariously between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.

“I know that some people who were interested in this job were sort of daunted by the idea of Anna being down the hall,” Ms Malle said. “I’m very happy she’s down the hall with her Clarice Cliff pottery.”

Still, Ms Malle was vocal throughout her application process that “whoever took on this job would not succeed if what they produced was ‘Anna lite’”, she said.

“Placing my own stamp on this is going to be the most important part of this being a success. There has to be a noticeable shift that makes this mine.”

By the time Ms Malle spoke to the Times on Sept 1, she had known about the job for about a week, though under strict confidentiality orders from Wintour.

Ms Malle was still withholding the news from her mother, 79-year-old American actress and star of TV sitcom Murphy Brown (1988 to 2018) Candice Bergen, she said.

A few hours later – and after weeks of speculating that Ms Malle was the front runner – Puck’s Line Sheet reported the news of her hiring before Vogue’s planned announcement.

What had not yet been reported, however, was Ms Malle’s pitch to Conde Nast: a thesis of “childlike excitement” that includes major changes to Vogue’s print product.

She believes issues should be released less frequently and around specific themes or cultural moments, upending its current monthly schedule.

These issues should be viewed more as collectible editions, printed on thick, high-quality paper. Her first print issue will most likely be published in 2025.

“I keep all my World Of Interiors,” Ms Malle continued, referring to the Conde Nast design magazine. “They feel like something that shouldn’t be thrown away, and that has to do with paper stock, and that they feel like historical documents in a way.”

She similarly believes that less is more on Vogue’s website, which she has led since October 2023, overseeing projects like Dogue – an elaborate cover contest for dogs – breaking Women’s National Basketball Association news and hiring Mr Jack Schlossberg, the provocative grandson of former US president John F. Kennedy, as a political correspondent during 2024’s presidential election.

She wants to build “a more direct, smaller, healthier audience”, she said – leaning into Vogue’s niche, rather than appealing to a general audience – through “giving original, witty, irreverent, joyful points of view on things”.

This may mean publishing fewer of the quick trending stories saturating online news outlets that are designed to capture wide swathes of search traffic.

One recent example: Like every other media organisation, Vogue raced to publish a pre-written story online about

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift’s engagement to professional footballer Travis Kelce

.

Yet, the story that ultimately received more web traffic, said Ms Malle, was a Vogue analysis of Swift’s jumbo diamond ring.

Ms Malle’s father was the late French director Louis Malle. She grew up in Los Angeles and New York before studying literary arts and comparative literature at Brown University.

After college, she worked for The New York Observer. She has contributed articles to many publications, including the Times. (Her first mention in the Times came at age three.)

“There is no question that I have 100 per cent benefited from the privilege I grew up in,” Ms Malle said. “It’s delusional to say otherwise. I will say, though, that it has always made me work much harder. It has been a goal for a lot of my life to prove that I’m more than Candice Bergen’s daughter, or someone who grew up in Beverly Hills.”

She also identifies more as a journalist than an authority on fashion or visuals – though Vogue is more known for the latter.

(In an e-mail to staff, Wintour made a point to praise both qualities, calling Ms Malle a “voracious, engaged journalist” with an “eye for the definitive image”.)

The magazine often dispatches her to write major profiles, particularly related to weddings. Online, she has expanded wedding coverage by 30 per cent since 2023, she said.

Her recent digital cover story on Mrs Lauren Sanchez Bezos caused an uproar on social media, with commenters suggesting that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ new bride had not earned the prestige of a Vogue cover. The couple wedded in June.

“I do think there is an element of endorsement with a Vogue cover, and I do think it is worth taking a calculated risk,” said Ms Malle, who added that she received death threats in the aftermath of the article.

“You want something to be a moment, and that was a huge moment for us. That was what everyone was talking about. And we had that, and we owned it.”

When asked if she would put Mrs Melania Trump – wife of US President Donald Trump – on the cover, Ms Malle declined to answer. NYTIMES