Design & Style, Arts & Entertainment, Business

Editorial Decision-Making

Anna Wintour

Lesson time 14:53 min

With her forward-thinking and sometimes surprising editorial choices, Anna has kept Vogue relevant for more than 30 years. She explores the process behind several of her controversial covers and features, and explains why making mistakes is vital.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Data Can’t Tell You Everything · Always Think About the Big Picture · Make the “Wrong” Choice · Fall Flat on Your Face: It’s Worth It · Own Your Mistakes · Choose Your Controversies · Stay Open

Preview

[MUSIC PLAYING] ANNA WINTOUR: It's very important to understand how your work fits into a much larger, cultural narrative. What is it that you are trying to say? What are you standing for? Your choices need to be a balance between how you stay true to the values and when it's important to become disruptive and confound expectations. In this chapter, I will be showing you how I've made some decisions and the mistakes and the lessons that I have learned over time. We have research, and facts, and data that supports who looks, who watches, who sees us. And they are educated, single, usually living in a city. But I don't have-- I don't think any of us have one image when we're talking to the "Vogue" reader, to the "Vogue" audience. We are just talking to them about what we care about, what we're passionate about, what we believe in, what we understand. And we believe that if we speak with that passion, and that voice, and that sense of authority, and all the amazing resources that we have, and the credible people that we're able to talk to that inform all the decisions that we make, that our passion, that our belief will reach that audience. I do not believe, I don't think any of us who work at Condé Nast, who work at "Vogue," is that you can find an audience or develop an audience through data, or research, or analytics. They can help you. They can inform you. They can make you focus on something. And they can tell you something you probably already guessed or thought. But at the end, the vision, the heart, the soul comes from the creative talent that's putting it out there every single day. And your audiences-- your audiences, your readers, your customers, whoever it may be, they will find you because of that passion. [MUSIC PLAYING] If we're thinking about how "Vogue" works and how we think today, I think a perfect example of the huge opportunity that we have to give something that we believe in a platform that is so remarkable, that the range is so remarkable, is our March 2019 issue. It was a moment when I think we were all thinking about what shows we were-- what designers, what talent we were truly responding to, what-- who had truth, who had meaning, who was actually really saying something. And I think it was the designers that gave us a sense of community and a sense of experience that stayed with us. And as we plotted out or started to first discuss the March issue, I think we wanted to do something that had weight, and that had meaning, and that could talk about the world in a very broad landscape. And we kept going back to the idea of California, and the changes that we saw happening in California, that it had become this center for so many different forces, whether it's technology, or whether it was the arts, whether it was fashion, whether it was design, whether it was a force for education, politically inspiring. I think it seemed to all of us that all worlds were colliding in Californ...

About the Instructor

A fashion and media icon, Anna Wintour has been driving our cultural conversation for more than 30 years. The Vogue Editor-in-Chief and Artistic Director of Condé Nast takes off her signature sunglasses and gives you unprecedented access to her world. See how Anna nurtures talent, makes bold decisions, and evolves a brand. Learn how to lead with impact from a visionary creative leader.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Anna Wintour

Anna Wintour gives unprecedented access to her world, teaching you how to lead with vision and creativity—and without apology.

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