Front Row: Anna Wintour - Hardcover

Oppenheimer, Jerry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312323107 ISBN 13: 9780312323103

Publisher: St Martin's Press, 2005

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Just Desserts: Martha Stewart: The Unauthorized Biography comes a scrupulously researched investigative biography that tells the inside story of Anna Wintour's incredible rise to power

From her exclusive perch front row center, glamorous Vogue magazine editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is the most powerful and influential style-maker in the world. Behind her trademark sunglasses and under the fringe of her Louise Brooks bob she determines whether miniskirts are in or out, whether or not it's politically correct to wear fur. She influences designers, wholesalers, and retailers globally from Seventh Avenue to the elegant fashionista enclaves of L'Avenue Montaigne and Via della Spiga. In the U.S. alone a more than $200 billion fashion industry can rise or fall on Anna Wintour's call. And every month millions of women-and men-read Vogue, and are influenced by the pages of the chic and trendy style wish-book that she has controlled with an iron hand in a not-always-so-velvet glove since fighting her way to the most prestigious job in fashion journalism.

Anna Wintour's fashion influence extends to celebrities and politicians: because of it, Hillary Clinton underwent a drastic makeover and became the first First Lady to strike a pose on the cover of Vogue in the midst of Monicagate; Oprah Winfrey was forced to go on a strict diet before Wintour would put her on Vogue's cover. And beauties like Rene Zellweger and Nicole Kidman follow Anna Wintour's fashionista rules to the letter.

Now in her mid-fifties, as she nears her remarkable second decade at the helm of Vogue, comes this revealing biography that will shock and surprise both Anna's fans and detractors alike. Based on scores of interviews, Front Row unveils the Anna Wintour even those closest to her don't know. Oppenheimer chronicles this insecure and creative powerhouse's climb to the top of the bitchy, competitive fashion magazine world, showing up close, as never before exposed, how she artfully crafted and reinvented herself along the way.

She's been called many things-"Nuclear Wintour," by the British press, "cold suspicious and autocratic, a vision in skinniness," by Grace Mirabella, the editor she dethroned at Vogue, and the "Devil" by those who believe she's the inspiration for a recent bestselling novel written by a former assistant.

Included among the startling revelations in Front Row are:
* Anna's "silver spoon" childhood spent craving time with her father.
* Anna's rebellious teen years in London, obsessed with fashion, night-clubbing and dating roguish men.
* Anna's many tempestuous romances.
* Anna's curious marriage to a brilliant child psychiatrist, her role as a mother, and the shocking scandal that led to divorce when she had an affair with a married man.

About this title

Review:

"Gleefully vicious biography of a New York fashion icon." --Kirkus

"The revealing unauthorized biography unveils the Anna Wintour even those closest to her don't know....If you liked The Devil Wears Prada, get your gossip fill with Front Row...we couldn't put it down." --Complete Woman

"Better than fiction." --New York Post

"For inquiring minds, it's a juicy, tabloidesque read." --Houston Chronicle

"A fast-paced biographical romp... Mr. Oppenheimer uses Front Row to ladle out dish--just as he did in Just Desserts, his 1997 biography of Martha Stewart. What he serves up is pretty juicy." --New York Observer

"Filled with gossip and scandals and peppered with celebrity names and tales...[A] fascinating read about one of the great queen-bee bosses and her mission to determine and define fashion." --Booklist

"Schadenfreude enthusiasts will enjoy Oppenheimer's latest, Front Row, which offers Anna Wintour in extreme close-up." --Los Angeles Times

Synopsis:

She's ambitious. She's a perfectionist. She's insecure and needy. But most of all she's extremely successful. She's Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, the most powerful arbiter of fashion and style in the world. This is the inside story of the public and private worlds of the enigmatic icon often hidden behind dark sunglasses and under the fringe of a Louise Brooks bob, a style she's been wearing since she was a teenager obsessed with fashion in "Swinging Sixties" London. A dropout at 16 from a tiny private school, Anna Wintour grew up in a home dominated by a powerful and icy British newspaper editor father and a cold and critical American heiress mother who had a scandalous marriage. Anna Wintour has been called many things over the years: "Nuclear Wintour" by her fearful subordinates at British Vogue, "cold, suspicious and autocratic, a vision of skinniness" by Grace Mirabella, the editor-in-chief whose job she grabbed at American Vogue, and "The Devil" in a recent bestselling roman a clef, written by Wintour's assistant.

In her mid-fifties, nearing her second remarkable decade at the helm of Vogue, her story is part Cinderella, part Horatio Alger: an ambitious fashionista arrives here - from London in the mid 70s and fights her way to the top of the bitchy and very competitive fashion magazine world, artfully rafting and reinventing herself along the way. Front Row is also the scrupulously researched story of this ingular woman's personal passions and needs, of her loves lost and won, of her battles and feuds, and of her incredible achievements.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0312323107
• ISBN 13: 9780312323103
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288