Anna Wintour
👤 PersonAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
No unnecessary words.
Assistants arrived at 7.30 to prepare for her entrance when orders would rain down without pause.
There's an elevator story that captures it perfectly.
Rumor said Anna banned others from riding with her, but the truth is people avoided the elevator because she'd immediately start issuing orders they'd need to write down.
Impossible while moving.
One assistant would meet her at her car to collect the AW bag, her papers from home.
Not because Anna was lazy, because she understood every second carrying bags was a second not spent thinking.
She wouldn't learn assistants' names until they proved they could last.
Most burned out in weeks.
Here's the paradox.
The survivors became fanatically loyal.
They weren't just filing expenses.
They were watching Anna negotiate with billionaires.
They saw how she made split-second decisions that moved markets.
They built relationships with every power player who walked through Vogue.
One former assistant summed it up really nicely.
The demands weren't personal.
When you're affecting billion-dollar industries, there's no room for casual execution.