Front Row: Anna Wintour: The Cool Life and Hot Times of Vogue's Editor in Chief

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Macmillan, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 377 pages
From the New York Times bestselling author of Just Desserts: Martha Stewart: The Unauthorized Biography comes a scrupulously researched investigative biography that tells the inside story of Anna Wintour's incredible rise to power

From her exclusive perch front row center, glamorous Vogue magazine editor in chief Anna Wintour is the most powerful and influential style-maker in the world. Behind her trademark sunglasses and under the fringe of her Louise Brooks bob she determines whether miniskirts are in or out, whether or not it's politically correct to wear fur. She influences designers, wholesalers, and retailers globally from Seventh Avenue to the elegant fashionista enclaves of L'Avenue Montaigne and Via della Spiga. In the U.S. alone a more than $200 billion fashion industry can rise or fall on Anna Wintour's call. And every month millions of women-and men-read Vogue, and are influenced by the pages of the chic and trendy style wish-book that she has controlled with an iron hand in a not-always-so-velvet glove since fighting her way to the most prestigious job in fashion journalism.

Anna Wintour's fashion influence extends to celebrities and politicians: because of it, Hillary Clinton underwent a drastic makeover and became the first First Lady to strike a pose on the cover of Vogue in the midst of Monicagate; Oprah Winfrey was forced to go on a strict diet before Wintour would put her on Vogue's cover. And beauties like Rene Zellweger and Nicole Kidman follow Anna Wintour's fashionista rules to the letter.

Now in her mid-fifties, as she nears her remarkable second decade at the helm of Vogue, comes this revealing biography that will shock and surprise both Anna's fans and detractors alike. Based on scores of interviews, Front Row unveils the Anna Wintour even those closest to her don't know. Oppenheimer chronicles this insecure and creative powerhouse's climb to the top of the bitchy, competitive fashion magazine world, showing up close, as never before exposed, how she artfully crafted and reinvented herself along the way.

She's been called many things-"Nuclear Wintour," by the British press, "cold suspicious and autocratic, a vision in skinniness," by Grace Mirabella, the editor she dethroned at Vogue, and the "Devil" by those who believe she's the inspiration for a recent bestselling novel written by a former assistant.

Included among the startling revelations in Front Row are:
* Anna's "silver spoon" childhood spent craving time with her father.
* Anna's rebellious teen years in London, obsessed with fashion, night-clubbing and dating roguish men.
* Anna's many tempestuous romances.
* Anna's curious marriage to a brilliant child psychiatrist, her role as a mother, and the shocking scandal that led to divorce when she had an affair with a married man.
 

Contents

Family Roots
1
A Teenage Bond
12
Swinging London
19
A Growing Independence
28
London Party Girl
36
Shopgirl Dropout
42
Finding Love at Harrods
51
Livein Model
56
Mister Big
191
In Vogue
203
Golden Handcuffs
211
Marriage Made in Heaven
220
Baby Makes Three
229
Annas Guillotine
236
Lover Friend Mother
247
Beginning of the End
257

Making the Masthead
63
Family Affairs
76
Creative Energy
80
Meeting Mr Wrong
84
Playing Hardball
94
Axed American Style
100
A Curious Betrayal
111
An Embarrassing Position
116
Complex Persona
132
Out in the Cold
139
The Chanel Affair
151
A Savvy Decision
158
New York by Storm
173
A Territorial Grab
181
The Parking Lot
265
July Fourth Massacre
274
Anna and the Boss
282
Madonna Di and Tina
289
The Assistant
297
Fashion Battlefield
303
The Partys Over
314
An Affair to Remember
329
A New Life
345
Selected Bibliography
361
Authors Note on Sources
363
Index
365
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

Jerry Oppenheimer is an investigative reporter and TV news and documentary producer. He has been writing definitive, bestselling biographies of American icons since the mid-80s, including Rock Hudson, Barbara Walters, Ethel Kennedy, Martha Stewart, the Clintons and Jerry Seinfeld.

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