As part of a series of fashion talks at the Met, Anna Wintour sat down with Alina Cho and spoke candidly on a range of topics, from Oscar De La Renta's last words to Vogue's push to stay relevant in a shifting cultural landscape. In exploring the latter, Wintour elaborated on the thought process behind putting Kim Kardashian and Kanye West on the cover of Vogue at a time when high fashion had been giving them the brush-off. Wintour says,
"I see the role of Vogue to reflect what's going on in the culture. The first celebrity that I put on the cover of Vogue was Madonna, and that was considered completely controversial at the time, too. It's such a long time ago probably no one remembers, but she was a very controversial figure. Now she's part of the establishment. I think if we just remain deeply tasteful and just put deeply tasteful people on the cover, it would be a rather boring magazine! Nobody would talk about us. It's very important that people do talk about us. Going back to Estée Lauder's decision to make Kendall Jenner the face of Estée Lauder. What a fantastic decision that was! They have a wonderful brand that's very traditionally American, and they decided they want to shake it up and reach a different audience. Now and again one has to do things like that. I think it's part of the excitement and part of being a journalist. I hope another Kim Kardashian comes along this year!"
We're not going to pass judgment on whether this counts as shade, but no one can deny Wintour is a smart bitch keeping Vogue in the game.
Lead Image: Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
