CANNES — Vogue editor Anna Wintour took a shot at Donald Trump while talking about creativity in Cannes, saying, “Politics is not traditionally a creative industry, but in America it’s currently being dominated by people with very active imaginations.”
The Conde Nast creative director spoke about fashion and media on Tuesday at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, but couldn’t resist a few witty political jabs.
Wintour, a prolific fundraiser for the Democrats, also poked fun at Bernie Sanders. While describing a wildly popular GQ story about a hermit, she said, “Hermits are not publicity seekers, unless of course you count Bernie Sanders,” whom she also described as “as old and as snow-capped as Mont Blanc.” But she said his popularity with younger voters is because “He seemed to say what he believed. Audiences respond to people who dare to be different.”
Not even Hillary Clinton escaped Wintour’s wit, even though the fashion icon has hosted fundraisers for the presumptive presidential nominee. When discussing a recent hack on the Vogue systems that resulted in pictures of Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik being leaked online, Wintour dryly added she was not afraid of being personally hacked because “I keep all my documents on a private server.”
Wintour, who oversees Conde’s portfolio of titles including Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Glamour and GQ, spent a lot of time discussing journalism in a digital age, but added that simply chasing clicks was “unimaginative … old hat.”
She explained, “I hear the same anxieties over and over again. Everything is too fast, everything is too precarious, we have more access than ever to the people we are trying to reach thanks to social media and mobile technology, and more information than we know what to do with … How to address this, how to engage audiences while still keeping our work relevant and original is the part of the puzzle we are all trying to solve.
“We’ve been thinking a lot about these questions at Conde Nast … we’ve been stressing about it … how does Conde Nast expect to set itself apart in the digital age, when its strengths, a stable of high-profile magazines, a big circulation base, and some of the most iconic print and photography journalists of the era must now face off against ‘Ten surprising facts about Donald Trump’s hair,’ or ’15 irresistible photos of morbidly obese cats.’
“All of these questions have the same answer … finding your way doesn’t mean surviving, just as pleasing an audience doesn’t mean twisting your editorial around search engine optimization and Facebook algorithms. For one thing, everybody is doing that, it’s unimaginative, it’s old hat. For us, creativity means thinking about the lives of our audience and how to connect with them.”
She continued, “Aim high. It is true that a lot of people are easily distracted online, as a result, too many of us have given up on digital audiences for ambitious work, and this is a mistake. The circle of weak effort is vicious, creative people in turn spend less time and less energy, making their work less polished … Then we are surprised when audience are distracted? I want to make the case for grander ideas, big investments of time and heft.”
She cited Lawrence Wright’s investigation into Scientology for the New Yorker, which took more than a year of investigation, was published in print and online at 25,000 words, and was the most read story on the publication’s website.
Another big idea she cited was Vanity Fair’s Caitlyn Jenner cover, which she described as “what will probably be the most-discussed cover of the decade.”
She concluded, “It would be ridiculous to ignore the speed and possibilities of the digital landscape — you absolutely need to have fast-moving news online, but if you want to build a large audience over time, you absolutely have to take a risk on the big challenging stuff. More than ever, if companies invest in it, effort and attention will pay off … You can’t cut your way to creativity.”
Mentioning Beyoncé’s “Lemonade,” an album that was accompanied by a video as long as a feature film, Wintour added, “It is truly an amazing empowering piece of art, unless of course your name happens to be Becky.”
She also talked about the speed of the fashion world. Discussing the upcoming couture shows in Paris, “For a lot of people in our industry, they are also occasions of acute stress … millions in sales depend on the outcome and it all unfolds in front of a global corps of instantaneous media. The intense pressure is relatively new and often blinding. I’ve been thinking a lot about the speed and spectacle in today’s fashion industry, because they seem to mirror stresses in other creative fields.
“Fashion, which often seems to be on a path to be bigger, more Instagram-ready, can also achieve its best through sincerity … personally driven collections can just as easily become blockbusters as high-powered corporate extravaganzas.” She praised Demna Gvasalia, the new creative director of Balenciaga, who took the reins of a storied fashioned house, but produced a collection: “Demna’s first show felt sincere and of the moment.”
Wintour also cited John Galliano’s collection in Paris in the fall of 1994. “Out of the brilliance of his mind, he created a show with just 18 pieces, all in black, which permanently altered the way women looked at clothes, it sent the ’80s power suit packing once and for all, offering something more feminine and romantic.”
With characteristic Wintour disdain, she continued, “Contrast that with a show that I saw last winter, studded to the hilt with flash, and iPhone-ready showmanship. I almost didn’t get to see the clothes at all, because some B-level, actually she was C- or D-level celebrity, I honestly don’t know even who it was, had dragged in a horde of paparazzi to photograph her holding various provocative signs right in front of the Vogue group.
“That show had nothing to do with creativity on the runway, nobody had given any thought as to why we were there, except to photograph the tired imagery of the brand, it was as if the lights and the people were there to distract us from the lack of creativity on the runway.”
She concluded, “Dare to be different. In fashion, in advertising and certainly in journalism, there is always the pressure to produce, the market always seems to want a little bit more.
“We live in an age that prizes authenticity. Just look at our current Vogue cover girl Amy Schumer, whose success is built on a raw, unfiltered and very human person. Bringing personal experience and emotion to the table resonates with audiences … audiences respond to people who dare to be different.”
