Anna Wintour's father, Charles Wintour, was Editor of the Evening Standard from 1959 to 1976. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography described the Standard under his leadership as a "blend of popular and serious news and opinion which prefigured many of the broadsheets of the 21st century." Anna Wintour's brother, Patrick Wintour, has worked at The Grauniad and The Observer since 1983.
On leaving British Vogue to take up the Editor–in–Chief's job in New York, Anna Wintour chose Liz Tilberis as her successor. Tilberis had been given a job in the Vogue office ("making tea, picking up dress pins, and ironing for fashion shoots for 25 pounds per week") in 1967, after winning a competition in the magazine. Beatrix Miller, Wintour's predecessor as Editor (from 1964 to 1985) had promoted her to Fashion Assistant three years later, having been impressed by her "niceness" and enthusiasm.
During Tilberis's time in charge, sales of British Vogue began to rise; she suggested that "My staff are respectful rather than frightened." She moved to New York in 1992 to become Editor of Harper's Bazaar. In 1993, aged 46, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She became convinced that the diesease had been cause by fertility treatments that she had undergone, without success, during the 1970s and early 80s. She died in 1999, aged 51.
Tilberis was succeeded at British Vogue by Alexandra Shulman – London–born daughter of the Canadian author, film and theatre critic Milton Shulman. She held the post for 25 years – longer than anyone in the magazine's history, which amounted to 101 years when she left in 2017.
Alexandra Shulman's successor, and the current Editor, is Ghanaian–born Edward Enninful – the first Black editor of any of Vogue's 26 titles. He had modelled for the youth culture magazine i–D from the age of 17, and was appointed as Fashion Director of the magazine in 1990, aged 18. In 2016 he was awarded the OBE for his services to diversity in the fashion industry, and in September 2020, as Editor–in–Chief of British Vogue, he was featured on the cover of Time magazine, which described him as the most important Black man in the global fashion landscape.
© Haydn Thompson 2021