A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

The end of De Minimis has already redefined global commerce - and most businesses aren’t navigating it alone. A recent Swap study found 88% of companies are already seeking partners to adapt cross-border strategy, mitigate tariff exposure, and protect profitability.

Swap’s latest tariff turmoil report gives leaders the playbook to stay compliant, defend margins, and unlock global growth in the new trade era.

👉 Download the full report

And now, the big Vogue news…

Anna Wintour is clear-eyed, determined, and optimistic, but rarely daring. The formula for Vogue hasn’t changed all that much during her decades of leadership. Her tenure in the Condé Nast corporate suite has been defined by choosing editorial leaders whose visions would largely fit within hers. And this balance influenced her search for the next editor of American Vogue—now called the head of editorial content.

During the process, Wintour told candidates that she was looking for a journalist whom she could empower to transform the brandinto a live-action content machine while she spent more time abroad mentoring regional editorial leaders who were struggling to attract both advertisers and audiences in their respective markets. In the end, she settled on the practical, reasonable, rational choice and hired Chloe Malle, who currently runs Vogue.com, as her replacement to run American Vogue’s daily operations. Malle was my bet from the beginning, though I don’t say that with a told-you-so smirk. Wintour doesn’t aim to provoke. She seeks solutions, and Malle is the path of least resistance. Wintour is slated to make the announcement as early as Tuesday. Reps for Condé Nast and Vogue did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Malle did not respond to a direct request for comment.

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

The end of De Minimis has reset the rules of global trade. Every U.S.-bound shipment now faces tariffs, higher costs, and compliance pressure—making margin protection more critical than ever.

Swap’s latest tariff turmoil report gives businesses the blueprint to adapt quickly, reduce risk, and turn disruption into growth.

Inside, you’ll learn:
🌍 Impact of the De Minimis suspension on global commerce
💸 How businesses and customers are adapting to rising costs
⚠️ Risks of inaction for margins and loyalty
🚀 Five strategies to protect profits and fuel growth

👉 Download the full report

There were, of course, a range of candidates, a handful of whom were taken seriously enough to meet multiple times with Wintour and Roger Lynch, Condé Nast’s oft-misunderstood C.E.O. The duo made it clear to contenders that they were looking for someone with an opinion, who would push back on them, and who also understood that this was a business that needed to be more than a magazine—a worker bee who could showboat a little, too.

The names that were still being floated near the end were largely insiders: Malle, W magazine editor (and longtime Wintour acolyte) Sara Moonves, and Nicole Phelps, who runs the tradesier Vogue Runway and Vogue Business. Moonves may be Wintour’s rightful heir apparent, with her vision and authority and connections, but returning her to the fold would have required extracting her from a company that she partly owns and placating her partners, and Wintour doesn’t like tricky. (Moonves is also said to have flat-out turned the position down because, fundamentally, it isn’t an editor-in-chief job. She did not respond to a request for comment.) Phelps was the longest shot, but will be a valuable asset to Malle as she assumes more responsibility. The only real outsider that I’m aware of was Stella Bugbee, the editor of the Styles section at The New York Times, and I’m told she pulled out of the running in mid-August. Bugbee, an iron-willed former art director, would have been the most provocative choice—but it’s unlikely that Roger and Anna would have really gone for a foreigner.

I presume that Malle’s first responsibility will be a bit of high-touch housekeeping that requires a fair amount of institutional knowledge: to sprinkle in a new generation of talent while sunsetting some of the old guard, all done with the tacit approval of Wintour but without implicating her. She’ll likely introduce some new creative juice as many of the magazine's stalwarts—including global creative director Raúl Martinez—lurch toward retirement. I suspect that a creative partner—someone like fast-rising stylist and creative director Carlos Nazario, who I’m told was interested in the head-of-content position—will be recruited to refresh the visual language.

Malle’s appointment seems like a simulacrum of Mark Guiducci’s ascent at Vanity Fair—both are loyal, longtime Wintour surrogates who manifested some glamour in a meat-grinder age—but they actually have different remits. Guiducci needs to attract new advertisers and cover over a disastrous and elongated experiment, while Malle needs to not mess up relationships with advertisers and gingerly transition many of her longtime colleagues out of roles that are no longer pertinent to the business. Malle’s management of the Lauren Sánchez cover—cajoling sources to give up additional details while managing the shoot and logistics—was a good example of how the brand can balance the whims of clients and the internet in this multichannel world.

The fashion industry will support Malle in this position, and her pedigree will add to the allure. The child of Candice Bergen and the late auteur director Louis Malle, she arrives with pop culture bona fides. She’s also obviously smart and capable—and even funny, as displayed via her dogged (no pun intended) pursuit of Dogue, a canine sendup of the magazine, which she’s already published twice (probably once too many).

Young consumers may never grasp the profundity of Murphy Brown in the history of pop culture, or the cutesy life-imitating-art twist from Bergen’s later turn as a Vogue editor on Sex and the City. But the fact that Malle springs from the world that made Nora Ephron and Mike Nichols famous will be compelling to the media and the industry.

To wit: I first learned of Malle when I, too, was a little girl. My aunt, an art director in New York, was an avid reader of W magazine and couldn’t stop talking about this 1988 cover story on Bergen, just as she was about to be catapulted into the zeitgeist by Murphy Brown. I remember my aunt calling up my mother and going on for ages about how Bergen was appalled by the tacky gold shirts that the 3-year-olds were wearing at her daughter’s fancy nursery school. Also, my aunt added, Chloe was only given one present for Christmas, per the article. This display of patrician rebellion against the nouveau riche of the 1980s was easy to admire. Malle has a similar charm.

As for Wintour, her step back—or aside, or up, however you want to characterize it—does mean something. Whether Malle will truly succeed her in the big chair is anyone’s guess. (A refresher: Wintour’s Vogue title is now global editorial director; she is also Condé Nast’s chief content officer.) I can guarantee that there is no one in that building, or beyond, who knows how that more consequential transition will get sorted out—not even Wintour. Perhaps Malle will take to the position and prove she is ready to forge a post-Wintour path. But Lynch and, more likely, the Condé Nast board will have to know what they want that path to be.

Our guy Bernard Arnault’s family holdco, Financière Agache, acquired Cap Estel in Èze, on the Côte d’Azur, for a reported €200 million. We are back, baby. [Monaco Life]

Haider Ackermann and his Tom Ford crew did Venice right. [Vogue]

Malique Morris investigated how the tariffs tipped Ssense over the edge, forcing the family-run, Montreal-based retailer to file for bankruptcy protection. As in the U.S., this kind of filing allows Ssense to restructure and clear debts, but doesn’t necessarily lead to liquidation. If it does come to that, my assumption is that Ssense would offload a majority of the goods to the off-price market, as Barneys did, so don’t expect a crazier sale than normal. (Not that anyone in the U.S. would want to bother, given…the tariffs.)

As for employee reports of mismanagement: The same could be said for every other retailer—and company, for that matter. I know the Atallahs made a lot of mistakes, and a few brands will certainly close because of the money they’ll lose in this bankruptcy, but the fundamental “mistake” is the instability of the wholesale business model. [BoF]

Everyone is freaking out that J.Crew used A.I.-generated photography on their Instagram. It’s weird, yeah, and not the right approach. (It also distracted from the very good fall women’s campaign, styled by Camilla Nickerson.) The true misstep here, though, was that they didn’t disclose it. The rest is about to become commonplace. [Blackbird Spyplane]

From the U.S. Open: I barely know who Pierce Abernathy and Lindsay Vrckovnik are, but they look great. [Getty Images]

Giorgio Armani on How to Spend It obviously wins the September magazine cover wars. [Financial Times]

Marie Claire hired a bunch of Substackers to write columns, which makes common sense. A few other Substackers are freaking out about it, and I still don’t understand why. Like all the best editors, Nikki Ogunnaike is good at identifying talent. This is an exchange of ideas more than anything else: Magazines did this with “bloggers” back in the day. Then, influencers. It’s a fine idea, and also not a big deal. It’s not going to make anyone rich or poor. [Feed Me]

There are also plenty of top Substackers who used to be magazine editors, or still are. Jane Herman tapped several of them—including Nikki’s boss, Hillary Kerr, plus Lucky’s Andrea Linett, and the Plum Sykes—to share their favorite jeans right now. It’s a fantastic mix. [Jane on Jeans]

Here’s a list of 30 countries that have “suspended or restricted shipments to the U.S.” [USA Today]

Until tomorrow,
Lauren

P.S.: We use affiliate links because we are a business. We may make a couple bucks off them.

Need help? Review our FAQ page or contact us for assistance. For brand partnerships, email ads@puck.news.

You received this email because you signed up to receive emails from Puck, or as part of your Puck account associated with {{customer.email}}. To stop receiving this newsletter and/or manage all your email preferences, click here.

Puck is published by Heat Media LLC. 107 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10006