Follow my lead Anna Wintour surveys the catwalk.
Photo: AP
It is reassuring to discover that, even at the most elevated of social gatherings, the question of small talk is still troublesome. In the foyer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on a warm spring night in New York, Drew Barrymore, Gisele Bundchen and Charlize Theron mill stiffly about in the early stages of a party, trying to her neck.
"I'm five foot two!" says Barrymore. Theron declines to state her height, but looks gravely into the middle distance and swishes her dress like a crocodile straightening its tail.
Close by Kate jeans (" said they didn't work with the shirt, but I tell you what, they fackin' did").
This is the launch party for AngloMania, an exhibition devoted to the history of British fashion. Small talk shouldn't matter here since the hostess, famously, doesn't indulge in it.
All eyes turn to Anna Wintour when she shoots through the lobby.
begin to explain the phenomenon. The 56-year-old has edited the title for the past 18 years, but she stopped being regarded as a journalist long ago and became, instead, a proxy for the entire meeting her, she is variously imagined to be brilliant, stupid, an artist, a bully, a hero, a scapegoat, an empowerer and the reason why women suffer from eating disorders.
The only thing everyone can agree upon is that she is above fashion because she is fashion.
"I don't want you to get the wrong idea," she says. This is four Vogue, in New York.
"I'm not the curator, I'm the facilitator. I help with the sponsorship [of AngloMania] and putting the party together. I'm in the background.
" She smiles.
It can't be terribly relaxing for Wintour, meeting new people. If she is awkward, it is partly a reflection of how awkward people are with her.
Wintour's manner doesn't do much to alleviate this; she speaks in a bored tone, as if on sufferance, although she has always said she is shy, not aloof.
When I ask if she is trying to make Vogue more political, the Queen, she doesn't dirty the hands with actual opinions. She does, however, make a passionate speech about how wrong it is for "Washington is frightened of fashion.
I think the British frivolous. And they don't want to look too elitist or too silly, or whatever it may be. And, frankly, it makes me extremely angry, country, and I feel that politicians should embrace it, rather than step away from it.
Street. I know that Blair did that at the beginning and, I think, serious, and I feel that is so insulting to the industry, because it does so much for Britain. There are all these huge talents coming out of the country; they ought to be celebrating it.
"
to the cause. Her enthusiasm for British designers - in this case Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano and Stella McCartney - and the regarded, by the non-fashion press, as evidence of a resident evil: that their sympathies lie with advertisers more than readers.
Wintour won't be bullied, as her dealings with the anti-fur activists have shown, and there is a story that goes around about how, when the Armani company suggested it might reconsider its were used more liberally on the pages, the only editor to tell it to naff off was Wintour.
You're a hero, I say. She smiles tightly.
"It's a great story.
"
"Mmm, well, it's water under the bridge."
"You were the only one who stood up to them."
No answer.
"And they crumbled."
The smile fixes.
"Did it give you satisfaction to have won?
"
"Well, I'm happy that Giorgio is coming to the exhibition So. That was all a long time ago."
women feel bad about themselves.
She looks thoroughly martyred.
"I think that's nonsense. It wants to celebrate women.
And I a woman feels bad about herself, then there's something more seriously wrong with that woman than the fashion industry."
Behind the armour of Wintour's public image, it is impossible to imagine what she is like off-duty. She has no apparent sense of humour - certainly no sense of the ridiculous, although you do wonder when you see pictures of her wearing a big fur coat, out of which her head protrudes, like someone surfacing through a manhole.
interview, when she is reviewing the exhibition. She stalks through Suddenly, she charges over.
"Do you have everything you need?
" she asks, but before I can finish answering, she has turned on her heel and walked briskly away.
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