With new hirings and shock firings, we explore the transformation under way at British Vogue

A ‘post class’ revolution that’s booted out the old ‘Vogue Way’ in the hallowed halls of Condé Nast - and behind it all is a London power couple, owners Jonathan Newhouse and Ronnie Cooke
(L-R) Deputy Editor Emily Sheffield and Editor Alexandra Shulman have left Vogue, while Edward Enninful and Kate Moss take on new roles

One of my favourite stories about Condé Nast - the publishing home of Vogue, GQ and World of Interiors - is from a staffer who was asked in her job interview, “Do you have a trust fund?” She replied that she did not. And was later thrilled to discover that the disadvantage had been taken into account in her salary.

Actually, that is my second favourite. Top still is the editor who threatened to climb out of the window when they were fired, saying that if they couldn’t continue at Condé Nast they may as well jump - if only because it illustrates how seriously people take fashion magazines and how histrionics are part of the scenery at Vogue House.

Or at least that’s how it was. Change is afoot. And that’s not just because magazine publishing is feeling the pain of falling readership and advertising revenue. The whole culture and machinery of Condé Nast - with their manners, methods, nepotism and codes of conduct - is rusting. “At Vogue - and Condé Nast in general - there’s a certain polish, a certain way of doing things, hiring, firing, writing emails. There’s a slickness to it.”

But Vogue’s Way is under threat. Why? Because the real powers in Condé Nast International are the two London-based owners, Jonathan Newhouse and his wife Ronnie Cooke, and they have decided that Vogue’s Way is the old way.

Ronnie Cooke and Jonathan Newhouse
Dave Benett

For the uninitiated, the Newhouse family are the New York family who have owned Condé Nast since 1959. Jonathan is the next generation. In appearance he is unassuming - “you might mistake him for a nerdy banker in a baseball hat” - and his varied interests randomly include the Stoics Epictetus and Seneca (recommended to him by pop philosopher Alain de Botton).

His wife runs the agency House and Holme, which is behind campaigns for brands including Lanvin, Moncler and Comme des Garçons and was responsible for the Louis Vuitton show in Paris. “Their marriage informs the way they operate,” says an insider. “Her brands marry into his magazines.”

Her vibe - Céline and black frames - is “intellectual creative”, as opposed to “hardcore fashionista” or “ice queen.” And she has her own unusual role models: “Clint Eastwood. He’s a do-er, not a talker, he never backs down from a confrontation, and he looks his enemies right in the eye. That’s a good role model for a woman.”

Together the Cooke-Newhouses are shaping a potent new social position. “There’s been a lot of rhetoric about how there’s entitlement-bashing and the posh girls at Condé Nast are being punished. It’s not that. They cross society in so many ways. They will mix with the Kardashians as well as the Clintons; they are at home in warehouses or in palaces.”

The Newhouse new world order is “post class”.

A close friend says: “They are the most extraordinary couple. They are a proper power couple, proper players. They are bringing forward all the people who have been running the fashion industry from behind the scenes. It’s a tight-knit group of very visionary men and women. For example, Camilla Lowther, the photographic agent, is a good friend of Ronnie’s - her daughter is Adwoa Aboah and she runs the agency that looks after Katie Grand."

"They are proper grown-ups. It’s all about business and success, which is not very British. They are impressive and intimidating. They know everyone.”

One industry observer adds: “Ronnie is always in the company of a mega-star like Pharell Williams,” And two weeks ago in the front row of the shows it was Naomi Campbell and Edward Enninful. Ah, yes, Edward, “the boy from Kensal Rise” who was plucked from W magazine and hired as the new editor of Vogue by the Newhouses.

Edward Enninful - in pictures

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He is by reputation a creative “genius” but also happens to be one of Ronnie’s best friends, and her Instagram is plastered with photographs and messages declaring their mutual affection in words and emojis.

Friends in their set describe Enninful as the Newhouses’ “child” and say that conversations about his succession at the magazine have been in the ether “for years”.

Edward Enninful and Jonathan Newhouse
Dave Benett

His approach reflects the Newhouse new world order. His lack of Vogue Way finesse is perhaps typified in his constant reference in social media handles to his OBE.

“He’s gentle,” says a colleague. “Not a rambunctious big character but he is well-connected in youth culture and the Instagram generation. He’s part of the LA celebrity scene. He’s certainly not old school and he represents the new mood at Condé Nast.”

He couldn’t be more different to Alexandra Shulman - who reigned as Vogue editor for 25 years - and is described by colleagues as “a literary journalist”.

Alexandra Shulman's leaving party - in pictures

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Enniful, pointedly, is “not a journalist.” This, of course, is the point.

“As chaotic as it all might seem - the exits and the arrival - I do think they know what they are doing. The Newhouses have a vision they are playing out,” says an insider.

This week Lucinda Chambers was “asked to retire” (the company’s form of words) from Vogue after 36 years at the title, with 25 of those as its fashion director.

She claimed this conversation took “three minutes” and then in an interview that read like the casual carpet bombing of both Condé Nast and the entire fashion industry, she revealed no one actually read the magazine - not even her.

Iconic Lucinda Chambers Vogue covers - in pictures

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Next to leave was the highly-talented Emily Sheffield, who had the dual title of Shulman’s deputy and sister-in-law to David Cameron. She was thought by many to be the editor-in-waiting.

Her exit (dubbed Vrexit) was elegantly choreographed in the most Vogue Way of ways — instead of announcing her departure she sent everyone an invitation to her leaving party in a couple of weeks.

Emily Sheffield at London Fashion Week
Dave Benett

Sheffield is said to be leaving once she has finished editing the October issue

But Chambers’s candour signalled the moment for the unleashing of a thousand pent-up frustrations with the firm. “Already structural changes have kept editorial and management at loggerheads for months,” says an insider, “Now there’s an entire cultural change. The whole building is in shock.”

This was encapsulated at couture earlier this week where, in the half-hours before the shows began, editors across the board congregated “with blank-eyed terror”, saying to each other, according to one member of editorial staff: “What the actual f**k?”

But others within the company are keen to dampen down the flames. “I’m assured that these are the only changes Enninful wishes to make,” says one senior figure.

“Those are the only ones that are going and he will be keeping about 85 per cent of the team. Although,” the source adds, “for a lot of people it will make them question what their own long-term plan is.”

Junior employees in the company say there have been extraordinary scenes - screaming, swearing, thundering tantrums - of a sort extreme even for Condé Nast.

When I ask if these scenes have played out on the executive floor, until now a perfumed and wood-panelled haven of relative serenity, I am assured in silky tones that “No, no. There is not anything vaguely approaching such an idea.”

But the rumours persist. “Edward is an amazing man,” says one veteran Vogue staffer. “He does not have a reputation for being a misogynist and yet there are all these rumours flying around about him - patently untrue - saying he didn’t want any more ‘tall blonde Sloanes’. A few hours later that rumour had grown into him not wanting ‘tall blonde Sloane mums’ working there. But then he has hired Venetia Scott to replace Lucinda, and she is a tall Sloane.”

Just this morning, Vogue released a statement confirming a series of high-profile contributing editors including Enninful’s long-time friend Naomi Campbell, model Kate Moss and artist Steve McQueen. American Vogue’s creative director-at-large Grace Coddington has also been announced as a contributor.

The desperation to put a lid on the situation is perhaps because mass sackings are so not how things are done at Condé Nast. “People don’t ‘lawyer up’,” explains a staffer. “It’s awkward and embarrassing."

“The way Condé Nast works is very much like a Richard Curtis movie. It’s all being a bit British and a bit ‘Four Weddings and a Sacking.’ The idea is you go quietly, without lawyers - even if it is out of the window.”

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