Anna Wintour Quotes about Fashion

If you can't be better than your competition, just dress better.

It’s always about timing. If it’s too soon, no one understands. If it’s too late, everyone’s forgotten.

If you look at any great fashion photograph out of context, it will tell you just as much about what's going on in the world as a headline in the New York Times.

Fashion is not beautiful, neither is it ugly. Why should it be either? Fashion is fashion.

Fashion's not about looking back. It's always about looking forward.

Fashion is a reflection of our times. Fashion can tell you everything that's going on in the world with a strong fashion image.

I'm interested in seeing just the girl on the street because she is unlike any other. I'm inspired by whatever it is she might be wearing.

Fashion goes in only one direction -forward- and I am a firm believer in thinking that way too.

Just be true to yourself, and listen as much as one is able to to other people whose opinions you respect and look up to but in the end it has to come from you. You can’t really worry too much by looking to the left and the right about what the competition is doing or what other people in your field are doing. It has to be a true vision.

You either know fashion or you don't.

I look for strong people. I don't like people who'll say yes to everything I might bring up. I want people who can argue and disagree and have a point of view that's reflected in the magazine. My dad believed in the cult of personality. He brought great writers and columnists to The Standard.

Even if I'm completely unsure, I'll pretend I know exactly what I'm talking about and make a decision.

There is something about fashion that can make people really nervous.

I'm an ice queen, I'm the Sun King, I'm an alien fleeing from District 9 and I'm a dominatrix. So I reckon that makes me a lukewarm royalty with a whip from outer space.

With all the new media outlets out there, with all the noise, a voice of authority and calm like Vogue becomes more important than ever. The more eyes on fashion, the more opinions about fashion, the more exploration of fashion around the world, the better it is for Vogue. Vogue is like Nike or Coca-Cola—this huge global brand. I want to enhance it, I want to protect it, and I want it to be part of the conversation.

Vogue' is the best of everything that fashion can offer, and I think we point the way. We are, you know, a glamorous girlfriend.

I think what I often see is that people are frightened about fashion. Because it scares them or makes them feel insecure, so they just put it down. On the whole people that may say the mean things about our world I think that’s usually because they feel, in some ways, excluded or, you know, not a part of ‘the cool group’ so as a result they just mock it.

It's important for young women and men coming out of the fashion schools to think seriously before starting their own collections.

[The democratization of luxury] means more people are going to get better fashion. And the more people who can have fashion, the better.

People constantly make the mistake of comparing London with New York, Milan and Paris and that's not what it's about. London has its own fashion identity. You come here to find the next Alexander McQueen or John Galliano.

We are devastated to learn of the death of Alexander McQueen, one of the greatest talents of his generation. He brought a uniquely British sense of daring and aesthetic fearlessness to the global stage of fashion. In such a short career, Alexander McQueen's influence was astonishing - from street style, to music culture and the world's museums. His passing marks an insurmountable loss.

The notion that Anna would want something done "now" and not "shortly" is accurate.

They (fashion editors) have always been our secret weapon.

I saw young women in the street dressing in a way that I thought was influencing the designers. Fashion was being influenced by all sorts of different people, and culture and also across the street. So I saw more as a trickle up, than a trickle down influence. When I came to Vogue, that's what I wanted it to reflect.