SHE is fashion's long-standing ice queen, famed for her frosty demeanour and behaviour so eyebrow-raising it spawned the book and then movie, “The Devil Wears Prada”. Now Anna Wintour has apologised for “hurtful” and “intolerant” behaviour at Vogue. 

American Vogue?

Famed for her uniform bob and supersize sunglasses, London-born Wintour, now 70, has helmed US Vogue since 1988, having edited British Vogue briefly beforehand, during a period that became known by staff as "the Wintour of Our Discontent” as she made the publication her own.

Ice Queen?

Amid reports of intimidating, brusque behaviour, the most powerful style maker in the world was nicknamed “Nuclear Wintour” at the magazine. Asked about the monicker on US TV in 2009, she said: “If I'm such a bitch then they must really be a glutton for punishment, because they're still here. If one comes across as sometimes being cold or brusque, it's simply because I'm striving for the best."

But a new memoir has added fuel to the fire?

Or ice to the glacier. Wintour’s former colleague, André Leon Talley, who was editor-at-large for Vogue for decades, claims in his upcoming memoir, “The Chiffon Trenches”, that Wintour is simply “not capable” of “human kindness”, claiming she prefers to mingle with A-listers such as George Clooney and Roger Federer. Talley writes: “She is immune to anyone other than the powerful and famous people who populate the pages of Vogue.”

He was the first black man to take on his role?

Talley said that “At one point, I was the only black person on Anna’s staff”, but he was then frozen out, saying: “I had suddenly become too old, too overweight, too uncool, I imagined, for Anna Wintour.”

Silver screen?

In 2003, US writer Lauren Weisberger published her debut novel, "The Devil Wears Prada”, inspired by her time as a put-upon assistant to Wintour at Vogue. Speculation was rife that the magazine editor in the book, Miranda Priestly, was based on Wintour and in the movie version released in 2006, Meryl Streep played the ice queen editor.

No love on the elevator?

Her biographer, Jerry Oppenheimer, wrote that Wintour dictates everything that goes into the magazine, "along with the behaviour and attitude in its hallowed halls, from how subordinates should act on the elevators when she's aboard - subdued, respectful, no eye contact - to how they are supposed to dress if they want to work there...thus naked legs and open-toed stilettos in the bitter New York winter were requirements of the famed and feared editrix’s unwritten dress code."

Apology?

Amid the winds of change blowing across the world, Wintour sent an internal email to her staff last week that has since been leaked. In it, she writes: “I want to say plainly that I know Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators. We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes.”

She has pledged change?

Wintour wrote: “It can’t be easy to be a black employee at Vogue, and there are too few of you. I know that it is not enough to say we will do better, but we will — and please know that I value your voices and responses as we move forward.”