Anna Wintour selects Marc Jacobs to be first US Vogue guest editor

Anna Wintour has chosen Marc Jacobs as the first guest editor in US Vogue’s history.

Editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has passed the reins to designer Marc Jacobs to edit the December 2024 issue of the prestigious publication. Feeling overwhelmed by the contentious US presidential election, Wintour found herself uncertain about how to approach the December issue.

“I thought, it’s going to be a very emotional time,” she said in an interview with the New York Times. “I think we should all take a step back.”

The British and French editions of the magazine have had guest editors before. Wintour revealed that the 1985 French Vogue issue, edited by David Hockney, was a key inspiration behind her decision to try something new in the US.

She offered Jacobs the role over one of their regular lunches at the New York City staple, Balthazar.

“I was kind of shocked,” the designer recalled to the NYT, describing how, mid-conversation, Wintour pulled out an envelope with a mood board for the upcoming issue. The idea of editing US Vogue felt daunting at first.

“I was very scared, I really was,” he said. “There’s no other way to say it. I have this terrible habit of listening to these voices in my head, which are like: “You can’t do this. You don’t know how to do this.” But I thought the worst thing would be to regret not doing it.”

“There was never anyone else in my mind,” Wintour explained. “If he had said no, I would have gone a different route, not to another person.

Over lunch, they delved into a wide array of ideas—from art and music to cinema and theater influences Vogue could incorporate—but they hit a few snags, “one very minor and one major.”

One of these was Wintour reminding Jacobs that creating a magazine is a different challenge than producing a fashion show, with the magazine needing to cater to a broader audience whose tastes may not align with those of dedicated fashion insiders.

The other was that Jacobs initially had the idea to have Wintour on the cover. “My first thought was Anna,” he recalled. ”And Anna just looked at me and she said, “Move on.”

In the end, both covers featured Saturday Night star Kaia Gerber, daughter of Cindy Crawford. One cover was created by artist Anna Weyant, while the other, photographed by Steven Meisel, shows Gerber wearing a dress from Marc’s latest collection.

This issue marks a bold departure from typical Vogue content, bringing fresh voices and artistic perspectives to the forefront.

Contributors include playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who explores the discomfort of wearing a corset, and artist Gregory Crewdson, who, for the first time in any magazine, captures Marc Jacobs in his Frank Lloyd Wright home, cloaked in Hitchcockian shadows.

When asked if this shift in creative direction suggests Wintour plans to step back further in the future, she quickly dispelled any such notion

“No. Absolutely not,” she said. “I love my job. I love all aspects of it and hope to be able to do it for a long time to come.

The December issue of US Vogue will hit news stands on November 26.