Anna Wintour’s biographer says the Vogue editor-in-chief and Met Gala host is nothing like The Devil Wears Prada character based on her

Only one other book has ever been written about Wintour, Vogue editor-in-chief and the most powerful person in fashion, if you discount The Devil Wears Prada

Amy Odell, who interviewed more than 250 people for Anna: The Biography, reveals a determined leader and loving mother who sees her philanthropy as her legacy

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour during London Fashion Week in 2018. Wintour is the subject of a new biography that charts her rise and continuing relevance. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:15pm, 30 Apr 2022Updated: 9:46am, 2 May 2022

Anna Wintour, the legendary editor-in-chief of American Vogue, is the most powerful person in fashion. She has been at the helm of the magazine since 1988, and in 2012 was appointed artistic director of Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue and other glossy magazines such as Vanity Fair and GQ.

Wintour is the rare editor who has reached A-list celebrity status – at least in the rarefied world where fashion, entertainment and culture intersect. This is thanks in no small part to her ability to straddle those worlds with unparalleled aplomb.

Anna: The Biography, written by journalist and author Amy Odell, charts the rise of the British-born editor, who still exerts outsize influence on fashion and beyond after more than three decades at the top.

When Odell, who started working on the book in 2018, had to explain to her “non-fashion” friends who she was writing about, she only had to mention the 2006 hit movie The Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep as the all-powerful editor of a fashion magazine, for them to figure out who Anna Wintour was.

A still from the movie The Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep. Photo: moviestillsdb

The book that the film is based upon, written by Wintour’s former assistant Lauren Weisberger, has become a cult classic and one of the things that cemented Wintour’s fame as a global figure.

“If you want to know who that character in The Devil Wears Prada really is you should read this book,” says Odell in a recent interview from her home in Westchester County, outside New York. “[The Devil Wears Prada] is a pretty one-dimensional view of Anna. I was surprised to hear some of the ways in which she is that Meryl Streep character and the ways she isn’t.”