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Anna Wintour, editor In chief of American Vogue (and possibly an undercover Walmart shopper) gives her two cents on the importance of value in fashion in an interview with Wall Street Journal‘s Rachel Dodes.
When prompted with this question by Dodes: Are you trying to add more moderately priced clothes to fashion spreads?
I think we need to give women the aspirational clothes that can make them dream, and another portfolio that’s about mixing high and low, certainly the way the First Lady is dressing. It’s about a mix…In the Index pages we are looking more rigorously at price and value and asking, is something worth that particular price tag?
Anna Wintour
Anna Wintour
A thing that wasn’t worth it? Without naming names, we had a little sequined thing that wouldn’t come down to here on you [points to chest.] And I said, ‘How much is it?’ $25,000. I said, ‘No. We’re not going to photograph that right now.’
Welcome back to the sales rack, Ms. Wintour. I stress welcome back because preaching the gospel of value isn’t something new for her. In fact, Ms. Wintour caused a firestorm in the fashion world when she put a shirt from the Gap on the cover of Vogue as a new editor in chief.
Plus, it’s amazing to see the impact Michelle Obama is having on the fashion world — changing the image of working women/moms — and how very smart people like Anna Wintour notice and capitalize on this change.
You can see the generational shift between Mrs. O (and to a lesser extent Sarah Palin) and Secretary Clinton. One came from a generation where self expression is worn as a birthright. The latter came from a generation when in order to play with the boys, you had to look like the boys. Although Secretary Clinton’s royal blue suit worn for Vanity Fair was quite chic.
It will be interesting to see how Ms. Wintour balances her belief in value with the hundreds of pages of ads in her book for frankly inspiring clothing, worn by models that don’t reflect the diversity of our country. For more on Wintour, see Anna Wintour don’t like fat people.