Entertainment

Vouge’s Anna Wintour appreciates the support of the Obama administration

Laura Donovan Contributor
Font Size:

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour idolizes first lady Michelle Obama, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Wednesday profile on the British fashionista.

For the past few years, Wintour has fought against rumors that she’s leaving Vogue to work in Washington. WSJ’s Joshua Levine wrote on the political buzz surrounding Wintour, “This speculation has fed on Wintour’s enthusiastic fund-raising activities for Barack Obama and her open admiration for the First Lady – Michelle Obama is one of the first names Wintour mentions when asked whom she most looks up to.”

In 2008, Wintour teamed up with designer Calvin Kline to host a Manhattan fund-raiser headlined by Michelle Obama. Soon after, artist Annie Leibovitz photographed Michelle Obama for a spread that ran in Vogue’s January 2009 issue. The first lady was Vogue’s March 2009 covergirl and gave an exclusive interview to the magazine.

Wintour said of the first lady in 2009, “She emerged during the campaign as this enigmatic and strong woman with such great personal style. I think at the beginning, she had quite a hard time capturing the hearts of America, and it was interesting to all of us to see how that changed…Mrs. Obama loves fashion. She isn’t, like some people in Washington, frightened of it. She believes, as we do at Vogue, that to be an independent, working woman doesn’t mean that you have to walk around with a brown paper bag on … We always felt that Washington rather looked down on us or didn’t understand us or wasn’t quite ready for us, and now we have an administration that supports us.”

A known fashion mogul, Michelle Obama has sported dresses crafted by major designers like Sarah Burton, Alexander McQueen, and Jason Wu among others. The first lady has also been slammed by Oscar de la Renta for not wearing an American-made gown to this year’s China state dinner.