She's ambitious. She's a perfectionist. She's insecure and needy. But most of all she's extremely successful. She's Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, the most powerful arbiter of fashion and style in the world. This is the inside story of the public and private worlds of the enigmatic icon often hidden behind dark sunglasses and under the fringe of a Louise Brooks bob, a style she's been wearing since she was a teenager obsessed with fashion in "Swinging Sixties" London. A dropout at 16 from a tiny private school, Anna Wintour grew up in a home dominated by a powerful and icy British newspaper editor father and a cold and critical American heiress mother who had a scandalous marriage. Anna Wintour has been called many things over the years: "Nuclear Wintour" by her fearful subordinates at British Vogue, "cold, suspicious and autocratic, a vision of skinniness" by Grace Mirabella, the editor-in-chief whose job she grabbed at American Vogue, and "The Devil" in a recent bestselling roman a clef, written by Wintour's assistant.
In her mid-fifties, nearing her second remarkable decade at the helm of Vogue, her story is part Cinderella, part Horatio Alger: an ambitious fashionista arrives here - from London in the mid 70s and fights her way to the top of the bitchy and very competitive fashion magazine world, artfully rafting and reinventing herself along the way. Front Row is also the scrupulously researched story of this ingular woman's personal passions and needs, of her loves lost and won, of her battles and feuds, and of her incredible achievements.
She's ambitious. She's a perfectionist. She's insecure and needy. But most of all she's extremely successful. She's Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, the most powerful arbiter of fashion and style in the world. This is the inside story of the public and private worlds of the enigmatic icon often hidden behind dark sunglasses and under the fringe of a Louise Brooks bob, a style she's been wearing since she was a teenager obsessed with fashion in "Swinging Sixties" London. A dropout at 16 from a tiny private school, Anna Wintour grew up in a home dominated by a powerful and icy British newspaper editor father and a cold and critical American heiress mother who had a scandalous marriage. Anna Wintour has been called many things over the years: "Nuclear Wintour" by her fearful subordinates at British Vogue, "cold, suspicious and autocratic, a vision of skinniness" by Grace Mirabella, the editor-in-chief whose job she grabbed at American Vogue, and "The Devil" in a recent bestselling roman a clef, written by Wintour's assistant.
In her mid-fifties, nearing her second remarkable decade at the helm of Vogue, her story is part Cinderella, part Horatio Alger: an ambitious fashionista arrives here - from London in the mid 70s and fights her way to the top of the bitchy and very competitive fashion magazine world, artfully rafting and reinventing herself along the way. Front Row is also the scrupulously researched story of this ingular woman's personal passions and needs, of her loves lost and won, of her battles and feuds, and of her incredible achievements.
Jerry Oppenheimer is an investigative reporter and TV news and documentary producer. He has been writing definitive, bestselling biographies of American icons since the mid-80s, including Rock Hudson, Barbara Walters, Ethel Kennedy, Martha Stewart, the Clintons and Jerry Seinfeld.
""Front Row" is a fun book...To Oppenheimer's credit, the book
charts a series of seismic shifts that Wintour-for good and
ill-helped navigate: the shift from written to visual culture; the
triumph of style over content; the transfer of power from the
mature to the young....how Wintour, the single-minded diva, schemed
and screamed her way to the top of the fashion-magazine world."
- "New York" magazine
"A fast-paced biographical romp... Mr. Oppenheimer uses "Front Row"
to ladle out dish--just as he did in "Just Desserts," his 1997
biography of Martha Stewart. What he serves up is pretty juicy....
"Front Row" is an entertaining chronicle of Ms. Wintour's life...A
study in power."
- "New York Observer"
"A fascinating read about one of the great queen-bee bosses and her
mission to determine and define fashion."
- "Booklist"
"Gleefully vicious biography of a New York fashion icon....An
in-depth look at Anna's 'bitch-eat-bitch' world."
- "Kirkus"
"Must read...gripping tales about one of fashion's most powerful
players."
- "The Daily Telegraph"
"A blistering new biography. The most eagerly awaited unauthorized
biography...Better than fiction."
- "New York Post"
"Oppenheimer combs his subject's past...dotting his pages with
catty stories...fun dish"
- "Publishers Weekly"
"Whether you love fashion or dissections of the sort of
cold-blooded creatures who inhabit it, Jerry Oppenheimer's "Front
Row" is for you: an equally cold-blooded portrayal of the reigning
queen of a world defined by frivolity...and abject fear."
- Michael Gross, author of "Model and Genuine Authentic: The Real
Life of Ralph Lauren"
""Front Row is a fun book...To Oppenheimer's credit, the book
charts a series of seismic shifts that Wintour-for good and
ill-helped navigate: the shift from written to visual culture; the
triumph of style over content; the transfer of power from the
mature to the young....how Wintour, the single-minded diva, schemed
and screamed her way to the top of the fashion-magazine world."
- "New York magazine
"A fast-paced biographical romp... Mr. Oppenheimer uses "Front Row
to ladle out dish--just as he did in "Just Desserts, his 1997
biography of Martha Stewart. What he serves up is pretty juicy....
"Front Row is an entertaining chronicle of Ms. Wintour's life...A
study in power."
- "New York Observer
"A fascinating read about one of the great queen-bee bosses and her
mission to determine and define fashion."
- "Booklist
"Gleefully vicious biography of a New York fashion icon....An
in-depth look at Anna's 'bitch-eat-bitch' world."
- "Kirkus
"Must read...gripping tales about one of fashion's most powerful
players."
- "The Daily Telegraph
"A blistering new biography. The most eagerly awaited unauthorized
biography...Better than fiction."
- "New York Post
"Oppenheimer combs his subject's past...dotting his pages with
catty stories...fun dish"
- "Publishers Weekly
"Whether you love fashion or dissections of the sort of
cold-blooded creatures who inhabit it, Jerry Oppenheimer's "Front
Row is for you: an equally cold-blooded portrayal of the reigning
queen of a world defined by frivolity...and abject fear."
- Michael Gross, author of "Model and Genuine Authentic: The Real
Life of Ralph Lauren
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