The women shortlisted to replace Anna Wintour at Vogue; Condé Nast

Malle now serves as editor of Vogue.com and is well-regarded for a down-to-earth manner somewhat at odds with her privileged upbringing. She has two children with her asset manager husband and, like Wintour, is a Democrat unafraid to express her views.

The Francophile – Claire Thomson-Jonville

Vogue editor, or cover star? Much has been made of Thomson-Jonville’s “model looks”, with breathless profiles lingering on the bikini shots she shares with her 201,000 Instagram followers. Born in Glasgow, educated at Edinburgh University and once editor of indie style mag Self Service, Thomson-Jonville, 40, has been head of editorial content at French Vogue since 2021. “Anna and I have a very similar vision … a definite complicité,” she has said (she’s fluent in French).

That’s not all they share: both have two children (though the father of Thomson-Jonville’s remains unknown), both are exercise devotees (tennis for Wintour, yoga for Thomson-Jonville), and both are famously disciplined, rising at 5am. Where they part ways is in their fondness for motivational mantras – you wouldn’t catch Wintour posting “energy flows where intention goes”.

The protegee – Amy Astley

Michigan State University-educated Astley, 58, is a Wintour protegee of long standing, joining US Vogue in 1993 and rising to become beauty director before being tasked with launching Teen Vogue in 2003. In 2016, Wintour handed her the editorship of Architectural Digest, which Astley swiftly transformed into a must-read with cachet and relevance well beyond the design world.

A recent feature on Pamela Anderson’s love of gardening underlined her sharp commercial instincts. Some insiders suggest Astley is being groomed to replace Wintour as chief content officer when she finally retires. If she ever does.

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The digital savante – Eva Chen

With magazine sales in terminal decline, who better to refine and drive Vogue’s digital strategy than Instagram’s head of fashion partnerships? Another Wintour protegee, Chen, 45, was recruited by the platform in 2015 and has been monetising its fashion and e-commerce potential ever since.

Armed with a master’s in journalism from Columbia University and a CV that spans Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue, Elle and Lucky (where she became the youngest editor-in-chief in the magazine’s history), the question isn’t so much whether Chen could do the job, but whether Condé Nast could afford her.

The safe pair of hands – Nicole Phelps

As global director of Vogue Runway and Vogue Business – and former executive editor of the now-defunct Style.com – Phelps, 53, is a longtime Condé Nast insider who is both unflappable and well regarded.

A Wesleyan University graduate with a degree in women’s studies, she is also a confident public speaker who knows the fashion industry inside out, having cut her teeth at WWD and W Magazine before joining Vogue in 2004. With 100,000 Instagram followers and years of digital-first expertise, she is certain to be in contention.

The stylist – Edward Enninful

Enninful’s name was bound to be in the mix: Wintour hand-picked him to succeed Alexandra Shulman at British Vogue, which he led from 2017 to 2024. Rumours of a rift with his former boss are wide of the mark – it’s less a case of bad blood than bad timing, even if Enninful, 53, was once thought to covet the role. Rather than wait in the wings for Wintour’s abdication, he has built his own fiefdom. In May, he announced the launch of EE72, a media and entertainment company co-founded with his sister, Akua.

Next month brings the debut issue of a glossy magazine, staffed largely by former Vogue employees. “Edward would never cede EE72 for a job at Vogue,” says a source. “Especially when he stands to make so much revenue. Vogue is old media; EE72 is new.” Indeed. Where Condé Nast’s rules around lucrative brand consultancy work remain opaque, as head of his own company, Enninful can set the terms – and make a fortune in the process.

The newspaper journalist – Jo Ellison

A former fashion features director at British Vogue, Edinburgh University-educated Ellison, 45, ticks every box on the Wintour Approvability Chart: the right experience (including extensive event-hosting of the kind Vogue increasingly needs to monetise), the right look (tall, sharp cheekbones, a wardrobe heavy on old Celine) and the right character (dry wit, little patience for fools).

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She also has the right job. As deputy editor of the Financial Times and, more pertinently, editor-in-chief of HTSI (formerly How To Spend It), the FT’s weekend lifestyle supplement, Ellison enjoys unfettered access to luxury’s highest echelons – not to mention almost any A-list name she chooses to feature. Crucially, she avoids the pressure of generating robust news-stand sales, since HTSI is not a standalone magazine. Why would she trade all this for the headaches of Vogue? Unlikely.

The wild card – Lauren Sanchez Bezos

Could she? Would she? For many Vogue readers, it would be the stuff of nightmares. While Sanchez, 55, holds a journalism degree from the University of Southern California (pre-Bezos, she worked as a newsroom anchor and TV host), she is unlikely to be in contention for this particular role – not least because her sights may be set elsewhere.

If rumour is to be believed, her husband is plotting an acquisition of Condé Nast – a move that would change everything, should he succeed. After her cover appearance in Vogue’s June issue, sources even claimed Bezos was considering buying Sanchez the title as a “wedding gift”. Katy Perry on the cover in a space suit? Brace, brace.

The Telegraph, London

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