Famed Editor Spills Tea on Anna Wintour’s Mean Girl Behavior

Anna Wintour’s intimidating persona isn’t just for Fashion Week—it extends to schoolboy runway shows too, according to former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter.

“As much as I liked her, I found Anna’s efforts to seem intimidating and powerful almost comical,” Carter said in a recent interview with The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

He recalled watching Wintour, clad in her signature sunglasses, in the front row at a private Manhattan boys’ school fashion show, looking every bit as severe as if she were judging Paris Couture Week.

“I almost burst out laughing and had to turn my back,” Carter writes in his new memoir, saying Wintour’s ever-present shades seemed designed to throw people off their game.

Carter also spilled on Wintour’s rigid dining habits. The Vogue boss, known for her precision, always orders a rare steak—and as soon as she eats the last bite, the check is called for, no matter where her companions are in their meals.

“More often than not, after a meal with her, I’ve stopped off on the way home to get something to eat,” he quipped.

The two longtime media titans apparently coexisted peacefully at Condé Nast, their magazines' shared publisher, until Wintour’s promotion to Condé Nast Artistic Director in 2013.

Carter said he was left “speechless” when she decided to take control of half his staff: “I have great affection for Anna, but she took to power rather than being the cozy, conspiratorial friend she used to be.”

Wintour, for her part, didn’t take the bait. Reached by The New York Times over email, she offered only pleasantries: “It was wonderful having Graydon as a colleague, first at Vogue and then at Vanity Fair. We had great times together. I look forward to reading the book, and wish him nothing but the best.”