Anna Wintour on the demand for luxury after Covid-19 lockdowns
Fashion guru and Vogue editor Anna Wintour told the Financial Times that “lines around the block” at reopened London Gucci and Dior stores show the demand for the luxury lifestyle Condé Nast titles have long chronicled.
“People have been locked up for a long time and they are going to go out and want to spend. They are going to want to travel . . . to get dressed up,” Wintour said, in a rare interview.
“I don’t think it’s about being old fashioned, it’s about enjoying everything that life has to offer. It’s wrong to think of Condé Nast as an elitist company; we’re a company that believes in quality and the best storytelling.”
The Vogue editor is serving as Artistic Director and Global Chief Officer at Condé Nast and is at the centre of the overhaul of the magazine publisher.
Anna Wintour dominated the pre-internet age, her work as a fashion editor made her into a celebrity. But Condé Nast has been reckoning with less certain prospects since entertainment moved online for free.
Anna Wintour said “It’s a new day for the company” as she laid out how they will consolidate editorial teams.
The new approach will include leaning more on local newsrooms for coverage of fashion weeks, coordinating bids for celebrity interviews, with the content being shared across editions.
Adam Baidawi of GQ said “so much time” had been wasted before “competing for global stories with the same celebrities and designer interviews”.
The new unified approach will give local journalism a bigger global audience, he said.
In recent years the company has lost millions of dollars due to the decline of print advertising. And with the pandemic, this year is also set to be a loss. But the company is expected to break even in 2022 and reach double-digit operating profit margins by 2024, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company faced recent accusations of racial discrimination and pay inequity and questions remain over how the company that rose to power by selling a luxury lifestyle, can stay relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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