Anna Wintour

I was absolutely enchanted with her, Lieberman would say.

His problem, Mirabella was successfully running Vogue.

So his solution was to create a fake job, creative director, a made-up title that made Anna second on the masthead with deliberately vague responsibilities.

And I took it.

She wasn't a number two person, but she also understood chess.

She would change tactics, but not her dream.

For three years, she was officially Marabella's deputy.

Actually, she was Lieberman's protege.

Learning the operation, building the relationships, waiting, preparing.

Marabella later wrote that Anna would sit in meetings shaking her head, obviously disagreeing with everything I said.

Anna wasn't being insubordinate, she was being inevitable.

In 1985, British Vogue editor Beatrix Miller stepped down after 21 years.

Anna was offered the job.

She's pregnant.

She hesitates a little bit and then she takes it.

She needs to prove that she can run something.

Anna walks into British Vogue and detonates, fires most of the staff, demands shorter skirts, injects an energy that had been missing for decades.

The British press nicknamed her Nuclear Wintour.

She doesn't care.

Circulation climbs, profits soar, British designers get discovered.