Hello, Open Thread. Happy end of June. The big news of the week was the epic freakout that occurred Thursday, when Anna Wintour — a.k.a. the Great and Powerful Oz of fashion — made the surprise announcement that she was stepping back from running the day-to-day operations of Vogue. If that sounds kind of vague, it is. She is not, as some hysterical headlines suggested, resigning or even leaving the magazine. She is not hiring a new editor in chief for American Vogue. That title is becoming extinct. In fact, there are only two left at Condé Nast: Amy Astley, E.I.C. of Architectural Digest, and David Remnick of The New Yorker. Instead there is now the H.O.E.C. — head of editorial content — which doesn’t trip off the tongue in quite the same way. As for Ms. Wintour, she is still the global editorial director of all Vogues, as well as the global content director of Condé Nast. She’ll still be grandmaster of the Met Gala and Vogue World, and she will still sit on the front row of fashion shows. Essentially, she is retaining her power and giving up the time-consuming daily management of one magazine, the better to rule over them all. This puts American Vogue in the same place as all of the other Vogues (Britain, France, Italy, etc.), with an H.O.E.C. that reports to Anna. It’s as if she is C.E.O., not chairman, and she has a bunch of regional C.O.O.s reporting in to her. Or H.O.E.C.s! It’s a cool job, don’t get me wrong, but given the diminished influence of glossy fashion magazines, and the diminished power of these C.O.O.s, it’s not like running a kingdom of your own. The most interesting thing about the whole announcement, to me, was the brouhaha it caused and how many people cared. If anyone needed proof of Anna’s ascendence to pop culture status, this is it. (Well, along with the fact that she is pretty much referred to only by her first name, like Prince.) Part of it is the awareness, I think, that she really is the last of her kind: the white rhino of magazines. Part of it is that she has run Vogue for so long — almost 40 years — and exercised so much power over the increasingly powerful fashion world, playing puppet master with designers and brands, that she has shaped a lot of what we wear. And part of it is that, with her bob and glasses, she has made herself into a brand. She clearly had a sense that people would lose their cookies over the idea of her changing her job description, because apparently, in an effort to play down the news, she didn’t even tell the internal Condé Nast communications team. As if to say: “No big deal. Nothing to see here!” Which of course had the opposite effect and led to all the misunderstandings about what exactly was going on. My takeaway from all of this is that when she actually does step down, it will be a seismic event in fashion. And that now we will be treated to a quazillion rumors about who will get the exciting H.O.E.C. job. Here in Paris, where the men’s show are underway, the big money is on Chloe Malle, the editor of Vogue.com and longtime Vogue-ette. (She has been at the magazine since 2011.) She’s very chic, young, knows Anna and how she works, and has been happy toiling away in the semi-background like the other regional H.O.E.C.s. Sara Moonves, the E.I.C. of W, is often mentioned as an Anna successor, but she is a … well, E.I.C., and it’s hard to imagine her wanting to bend the creative knee. Anyway, for more on the world of all of this check out my colleague Jessica Testa’s report on the news, this article on the end of the imperial editor, and a piece I wrote seven years ago about imagining a world after Anna (which will give you some idea of how long this speculation has been going on). Even if we're not quite there yet. Then, if you have had enough of all that, consider the sartorial balancing act of the New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and the role image played in his winning primary campaign; mull over the return of the Speedo; and catch up with a female tailor from Savile Row who is reinventing the power suit. Have a good, safe weekend. I’m off next week for the July 4 holiday, but will be back on the 11th, coming to you from the couture shows. In the meantime, stay hydrated!
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Your Style Questions, AnsweredEvery week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or X. Questions are edited and condensed.
Why do men, especially in D.C., suddenly seem so taken with electric blue suits? Is this a MAGA trend? Or something broader? — JoAnn, Canton, Mich.Where the president goes, many follow. President Trump has been wearing a suit that is a brighter shade of blue than the traditional midnight or navy for a while now. This may be because it reads more like the flag, especially when paired with his white shirt and red tie, thus creating a subliminal link between his person and patriotism, especially in photographs. It may also be because the bright blue suit is easier to see on the small screen, which may be why it also is a favored shade of Fox newscasters. (This could be a chicken-and-egg question. Which came first? Mr. Trump or Fox?) And it may be because, as Alan Flusser, a tailor to the tycoon set, told me, it appeals to “those who want to stand apart.” Like, he said, sportscasters. Or the occasional celebrity, like Ryan Gosling, who has a yen to experiment with color. Now, however, it also appeals to those who want to stand with the president, like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and who want to be clearly seen as standing with the president. And increasingly, said Sam Hine, the global fashion correspondent of GQ, it may appeal to a new generation of power dressers who don’t want to dress exactly like their fathers, in dark suits, but who have to adhere to a certain professional style. Like, he said, beginning investment bankers. The effect is a more showy masculinity, which makes sense for the Trump crowd and Wall Street climbers. It used to be that politics and finance were bastions of discreet dressing in which the overriding sartorial ethos was to be well-groomed, fit in and not attract attention to yourself, but that started to change back in the 1980s. The seeds planted then with Gordon Gekko, whose advent as a pop culture paradigm coincided with Mr. Trump’s formative New York real estate years, are now bearing fruit. It’s not an accident that this particular blue, which is known variously as cobalt blue and royal blue, is also called Neapolitan blue, which is a blue favored by certain Italian captains of industry like Gianni Agnelli. Still, while the bright blue suit is unquestionably becoming more visible, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a men’s wear trend — or even a flag of the MAGA movement. Most cabinet members, and Vice President JD Vance, are sticking with tried-and-true dark blue suits and choosing to adopt Mr. Trump’s red tie, or the red MAGA cap, as a sign of allegiance. Accessories, after all, are an easier investment. At the men’s fall shows in Paris, there weren’t many bright blue suits on the runway, if any at all. When I asked Mr. Hine if he thought they were going to take off, he looked dubious. A more likely development is that they will simply become a more common part of the male professional wardrobe. Mr. Flusser said that before Mr. Trump’s second term, he would have estimated that “out of 50 navy suit sales, maybe three were of a cobalt nature.” That number may have risen, but it’s still not the dominant shade.
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