On May 12th the 92nd Street Y in the Upper East Side of New York City hosted a Gucci sponsored conversation between Jonathan Tisch and Anna Wintour. Imagine “Inside the Actors Studio,” but replace James Lipton with Jonathan Tisch, and a hyperactive Robin Williams with an elegant Anna Wintour, and that’s exactly what it was. Everyone in attendance knew of the rarity of this appearance and was excited to take it all in.
The night began with a simple question: "What does the fashion industry mean to you?" Anna Wintour began her reply by stating that there are a multitude of meanings, but she had not even finished her first sentence before a rowdy group of PETA demonstrators leaped up, threw a massive banner over the balcony, and started ranting on Anna's poor track record with fur before breaking into the chant "fur shame, fur shame, fur shame." I thought I was imagining what was happening in front of me, but was rapidly reassured that this was actually happening when three secret service caliber men ran down the isle to contain the two demonstrators.
The audience once again turned to the stage, wondering how the revered Anna Wintour would respond. "As I was saying, fashion means different things to different people." The entire room shook with laughter and the evening continued without interruption.
The conversation touched upon Anna’s beginnings, her public persona created in part by “The Devil Wears Prada,” the skill sets she looks for in her employees, what keeps Vogue feeling fresh, her thoughts about moving NY Fashion Week to the Lincoln Center, and a lot of talk about the current economic recession.
"When things started changing so dramatically last fall, there's no question that some of the retailers panicked. They had way too much stock that they didn't know how they were going to unload. There was, in my opinion, too much discounting. Nobody understood what their value was anymore.
I think that that period is over. We had a meeting with seven of the biggest stores in New York just this week. There was no question that they feel that that time has passed, obviously they've bought much more carefully, they've invested much more carefully, and it doesn't pay for them to discount things. I don't think that we'll go back to the sort of panic situation that we saw over the Christmas months."
In all, it was a delightful evening that in part helped ease concerns about the times we’re living in. This too shall pass, but everything Vogue stands for is here to stay.
~Written by Guillermo Moncada
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