16:01

Trees caught everyone's attention at their

16:03

table and others nearby. She

16:05

looks around the room in feigned astonishment.

16:08

New Jersey! Can

16:10

you imagine? The

16:12

editor of Vogue is from New

16:14

Jersey. Mirabella feels

16:17

as if her face is on fire. She

16:20

thinks about how someone told her that

16:22

Warhol said Vogue promoted her because they

16:24

want to go middle class. The

16:27

East Coast elite looked down on

16:29

Mirabella's middle class roots. But

16:31

indeed, that's exactly why she was

16:33

chosen as the new editor-in-chief. She's

16:37

determined to remake Vogue for 9-5 working

16:40

women who happily buy American sportswear.

16:43

Her redesign features articles from feminists

16:45

like Gloria Steinem. It

16:48

also features less coverage of high

16:50

society New York parties and

16:52

more office appropriate wearable affordable

16:54

fashions. And

16:56

it's a home run. By

16:59

the end of the decade, Vogue's circulation more

17:01

than doubled. And gross revenue nearly

17:03

triples from $9 million in 1973 to $27 million by 1980. But

17:11

designers like Oster de la Renta

17:13

complained that Mirabella's fashion is boring.

17:16

And Vogue still hasn't caught up

17:18

with Cosmopolitan's massive readership of over

17:21

$1.7 million. If

17:24

Mirabella doesn't get with the razzle dazzle

17:26

and conspicuous consumption of the 1980s, Cosmo

17:30

will push pedestrian Vogue right

17:32

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17:35

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more. It's

18:50

a sweltering afternoon in August 1983

18:52

in Midtown. Vogue editorial

18:55

director Alex Lieberman sits at his usual table

18:57

in the grill room of the Four Seasons

18:59

restaurant. He's a spry 70 years old, his

19:02

once dark hair and mustache now white.

19:05

He turns to his lunch date,

19:07

New York Magazine's fashion editor, 33-year-old

19:09

Anna Wintour. Miss Wintour,

19:12

I thoroughly enjoyed your photo spread

19:14

in the current issue. What a

19:16

great idea to invite artists to

19:18

create paintings inspired by the fall

19:20

collections. Oh, fabulous work.

19:23

You know, it reminded me of the kind

19:25

of pieces we used to feature in Vogue

19:27

when we had geniuses like Salvador Dali guest

19:29

edit issues. Ah, you

19:32

know, the magazine felt like a trip

19:34

to a world-class museum back then. Wintour

19:37

picks at her stake with her

19:39

fork. She's decided not to wear

19:41

her trademark oversized sunglasses for this

19:43

all-important first lunch meeting with the

19:45

man known as the creative force

19:48

behind Vogue. She's on her best

19:50

behavior too. Before she landed

19:52

the job at New York Mag, she'd

19:54

been fired by Harper's Bazaar for

19:56

being too headstrong, sexy and fashion

19:58

forward. If she blows

20:00

this opportunity with one of the most

20:02

powerful men at Conde Nast, her

20:05

career could be over. She

20:07

ducks her head and looks up at Lieberman from

20:09

under her long bangs. Thank you.

20:13

Lieberman smiles at the seemingly shy younger

20:15

woman in her red Dior suit with

20:17

the trendy large shoulder pads. I'd

20:19

like to see more of that kind of riding at our

20:21

shop. Have you ever

20:23

considered working for Vogue? Winter

20:26

puts down her fork. She's

20:28

got a hunch Lieberman will like her

20:30

dishy story about Vogue's current editor-in-chief. Actually

20:34

Mr. Lieberman I met with Grace Mirabella two

20:36

years ago, before I went to New York mag. I

20:39

think she found me a bit too... too

20:41

direct for her taste. Lieberman

20:44

picks up his glass of scotch and leans back

20:47

in his chair. He's intrigued.

20:50

Mirabella is as straightforward as a glass of milk.

20:53

In fact Lieberman finds her a bit

20:55

too predictable. And the soft-spoken

20:58

young Brit in front of him hardly

21:00

seems pushy. What makes

21:02

she say that? Winter pushes

21:04

away her plate. She's barely touched

21:06

her food. Grace asked me what

21:08

position I'd be interested in at Vogue, and

21:11

I told her the truth. I said I

21:13

wanted her job, of course. I

21:16

wish I'd been a fly on the wall at that meeting. I

21:19

can just imagine how that went over. But

21:23

my dear, we need some fresh

21:25

blood at the magazine. And I

21:27

think we can figure out a way to ease you

21:29

in without Grace putting up too much of a fuss.

21:32

First I want you to meet my wife at our place

21:34

in Connecticut. We can talk more then.

21:39

Lieberman is enchanted by

21:41

Winter's honesty, sense of humor, and

21:43

air of mystique. He

21:46

creates a new position at Vogue,

21:48

creative director, just for her. His

21:51

plan is to let the two women compete

21:53

against each other for the top job. Mirabella

21:56

is powerless to overrule him, and

21:59

she'll soon be blamed. blindsided by

22:01

an even bigger foreign threat. It's

22:11

1987 in Manhattan. Company

22:14

Chairman Sy Newhouse, Alex Lieberman and

22:16

Grace Mirabella sit at

22:18

the long table in the boardroom of Condé

22:20

Nast headquarters near Grand Central Station. At

22:23

60, Newhouse looks a decade younger in

22:25

his casual khakis and polo shirt. He's

22:28

still rather socially awkward, but

22:31

he has the self-assurance of a man who

22:33

knows what he's worth. Along

22:35

with his brother, he now runs an empire worth

22:38

upwards of $7.5 billion. But

22:42

today, he sounds worried. We've

22:45

got to come up with a strategy for how to

22:48

deal with Elle magazine. They

22:50

only launched the US edition last year, but

22:52

they already have over 800,000 subscribers. And

22:55

with Rupert Murdoch's billions behind them, there's no telling

22:58

how high that number will go. I

23:00

see them as a direct threat to Vogue. Elle

23:04

launched in 1945 in Paris and

23:06

grew into one of Europe's foremost

23:08

fashion publications. In 1985, French

23:11

company Hachette Publications partnered with the

23:13

media mogul Rupert Murdoch to put

23:15

out a US edition that is

23:18

now catching on like wildfire. And

23:20

every month adding more ad pages. The

23:23

magazine's aimed at younger women

23:26

with features on chunky accessories,

23:28

streetwear, and avant-garde designers. Its

23:31

circulation and revenue already eclipse

23:33

Harper's Bazaar. And now it's

23:36

catching up to Vogue. But

23:38

Mirabella is calm. Si,

23:41

we have a new record of 3,200 pages in advertising this year.

23:46

More than any other monthly magazine in the country.

23:50

Our readers are women of money and

23:52

taste. Elle caters to the

23:54

lowest common denominator, the MTV crowd. Not

23:56

on market at all. It's

23:59

trendy, cartoony, and with almost no

24:01

text and full of jokey young girl

24:03

models. It's so cute.

24:07

It'll burn bright and then fade out when

24:09

everybody gets tired of huge hoop earrings and

24:11

neon pink tutus. Newhouse

24:14

flips through some pages in a file folder in

24:16

front of him on the table. Like

24:18

the late Conde Nast, the company's founder and

24:21

namesake. He's a big believer in

24:23

research. But, Grace, this report

24:25

says that elves' readers are younger and

24:27

more affluent than the average Vogue reader.

24:30

Elves' position to siphon away our advertisers

24:33

one by one. Lieberman

24:35

has already decided. He wants

24:37

Wintour at the top of Vogue's masthead. He

24:40

sees an opportunity to pilot on Mirabella.

24:43

I'm afraid I'm with Psy. We're

24:45

vulnerable, Grace. I

24:48

know you like sophisticated minimalist fashion,

24:50

but 20-somethings are wearing bright graffiti

24:52

prints and tons of cheap necklaces

24:54

and cone-shaped bras like a what's-her-name,

24:57

that singer, Madonna. Everything's

24:59

younger and faster and flashier now. You're

25:01

aiming at women more like yourself. Stayed

25:05

career-oriented types. And I

25:07

gotta tell you, the book shows it. I

25:09

hate to say it, but it looks

25:12

tired. Mirabella

25:14

gathers her notepad and stands up.

25:17

She's clearly rattled. She

25:19

really can't stand the shallow 1980s conspicuous

25:23

consumption culture. I'm

25:25

sorry, but I have an editorial meeting. I'll

25:27

work on loosening up or lightening up or

25:29

whatevering up the pages. But Vogue isn't Vogue

25:31

if it's not classy. She

25:34

doesn't know it yet, but

25:37

Newhouse is even more enthralled with

25:39

Wintour than Lieberman. Compared

25:41

to Mirabella, the young Brits, the epitome

25:43

of everything stylish and of the moment.

25:46

And just like Psy, Wintour doesn't

25:49

do small talk. In fact,

25:51

she hardly talks at all. Meanwhile

25:54

at Cosmo, Pelle and Girly Brown barely

25:56

has time to be threatened by Elle.

26:00

are going south for other reasons.

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a frigid, gray morning in January 1988 in mid-town.

32:00

I have no idea, no idea at all. I'll call you

32:02

back as soon as I know anything. In

32:05

a daze, she stumbles into Alex

32:08

Lieberman's office. He's her direct

32:10

boss at Vogue, but also a close friend.

32:13

She and her husband have often spent time with

32:15

the Liebermans at their home in Connecticut and visited

32:17

them in Europe on summer vacations. He's

32:20

sitting at his desk, doing nothing, as if

32:22

he was waiting for her. Grace,

32:25

I know why you're here, and

32:27

I'm afraid it's true. I'm

32:29

sorry, I tried to stop it, but I'm

32:32

just too old. Mirabella points

32:34

a shaky finger at him. What's

32:36

that supposed to mean? Don't go

32:38

hiding behind your age or mine either.

32:40

I'm only 59, I don't

32:42

deserve this. When I started

32:45

here, our ad pages were in the toilet.

32:47

Now they're worth 80 million a year.

32:49

El doesn't clear half that. And

32:52

you don't even have the courtesy to tell me to my face? Lieberman

32:55

shrugs. It wasn't my idea.

32:57

I gotta

32:59

tell you, I had nothing to do with it. And to

33:01

be fair, I warned you that

33:04

your endless covers of close-ups of models with

33:06

perfect blush and perfect hair were just too

33:08

predictable, and that you should have

33:10

cultivated more of a relationship with Psy, but

33:13

you avoided him. Anyway,

33:17

you should go talk to him now. Mirabella

33:20

turns on her heel and numbly rides

33:22

the elevator back to her floor. She

33:25

knows talking to Psy will do no good.

33:28

She's never had any rapport with him. And

33:31

he's famous for avoiding confrontations, too.

33:34

He makes other people do his dirty work. And

33:37

everyone at the magazine knows the tragic story of

33:39

a woman who worked at Vogue for more than

33:41

40 years. She found

33:44

out she was fired when she walked into her

33:46

empty office one day to find it empty. Overnight,

33:49

movers had packed it up and put all her

33:51

things in storage. Not long

33:53

after, she jumped out the window of her studio apartment to

33:55

her death. And now, despite having a lot of fun, I'm

33:57

not going to be able to tell you what happened. having

34:00

tripled circulation and gross revenues during her

34:02

17 years at the top of the

34:04

masthead. Mirabella is out,

34:07

and Wintour, the quiet young

34:10

Brit in Chanel suits, has

34:12

finally got her dream job. November

34:22

1988. A printing

34:24

supervisor stands in the middle of the factory floor

34:26

and examines the cover of the November issue of

34:28

Vogue. It's hot off the press. He's

34:31

been in charge of the Vogue account for

34:33

years now, but this cover looks like nothing

34:35

he's ever seen. It resembles

34:38

something his teenage daughter might read,

34:40

like 17. He

34:44

weaves his way through the plant to his

34:46

cramped office in the back, picks up the

34:48

phone and keys in the number for Vogue's

34:51

production manager. Hey Joe, what's up? Everything okay

34:53

with the print? I'm

34:55

not sure. I'm calling to check we got the right

34:57

cover. It looks like a mistake. I'm

35:00

afraid we screwed up. It's so, well,

35:04

not Vogue. The

35:07

cover photo shows a young woman wearing a

35:10

$10,000 black silk Christiane Lacroix

35:12

sweater emblazoned with a large

35:14

brightly colored bejeweled cross and

35:17

a pair of low-slung gas jeans. She

35:20

has wind-tossed messy hair, a toothy grin

35:22

and a bare midriff. It

35:24

looks like a candid shot snapped on a city

35:27

street. Headlines including men

35:29

the new himbos and fashion,

35:31

hope but not haughty, surround her

35:34

in a blizzard of bold fuchsia

35:36

print. It's Anna

35:38

Wintour's debut issue. The

35:40

high-low mix of designer fashion with

35:43

mall brand denim and

35:45

the eye-catchingly busy graphics could

35:47

not be more different from Mirabella's

35:50

spare close-ups of studio models with

35:52

every hair shellacked into place. And

35:55

the new design is a warning shot

35:57

across Elle magazine's bow. it

36:00

creates massive buzz. Cy

36:03

Newhouse sends Anna a note that reads,

36:06

You knocked it out of the park, Anna.

36:08

I'm so proud. Winter

36:11

takes full advantage of Newhouse's

36:13

goodwill to ditch staffers and

36:15

photographers she considers out of

36:17

fashion, including persuading him

36:19

to spend nearly half a million dollars

36:22

to buy out the remainder of Richard

36:24

Avedon's contract. And she

36:27

doubles down on youth and trendiness with

36:29

a cover shoot featuring Madonna. It's

36:32

a risky move in an age when

36:34

fashion magazines rely on models rather than

36:36

celebrities. Harper's Bazaar

36:38

looks more dated than ever in

36:41

third place behind newcomer Elle and

36:43

a resurging Vogue. But

36:45

they're also betting on a Brit to

36:47

restore them to their former

36:49

glory. It's

36:57

1992 in the Hamptons. Harper's

37:00

Bazaar new editor-in-chief Liz Tilbaris

37:02

kneels on the floor of

37:04

her family's beach rental. She's

37:07

44, tall, and hardly

37:09

looks the part of a fashion diva. Her

37:11

blunt cut hair is prematurely gray and she

37:13

wears a size 14 dress, which

37:16

the British press snidely loves to point

37:18

out. The fashion industry

37:20

at large stubbornly thumbs its nose at

37:22

anyone who doesn't conform to a waif-like

37:25

silhouette. The final proofs

37:27

of Tilbaris's first issue are neatly laid out

37:29

on a grid on the terracotta tile. She

37:32

points to the cover page at the top left

37:34

and looks up at the magazine's managing editor and

37:37

art director hovering on either side of her. What

37:39

do you think? Does it work? The

37:42

cover shows supermodel Linda Evangelista

37:45

surrounded by white space. Her

37:47

black lace-clad arm is raised and

37:50

hides half her face. Her palm

37:52

playfully nudges the letter A and

37:54

the word bizarre out of kilter.

37:57

The only color is the bright red of her lipstick.

38:00

The cover line reads, Enter

38:02

the era of elegance. Tilbaris's

38:05

colleagues' eyes are red with exhaustion.

38:08

They raced here from New York as soon as the proofs

38:11

came in from the printer. They've

38:13

put in weeks of 10-hour days

38:15

assembling an all-star issue. It

38:18

features articles on multicultural education and

38:20

medicine's neglect of women, alongside

38:23

first-ever photos of model Kate Moss

38:25

in an American magazine, wearing

38:27

edgy fashions. The

38:29

graphic design of the whole issue is

38:31

an homage to Bazaar in

38:34

its arty, sophisticated, smart, post-war

38:36

heyday. A return

38:38

to the Bazaar that former editor-in-chief

38:40

Carmel Snow called a

38:42

magazine for well-dressed women with well-dressed

38:45

minds, and which ran

38:47

neck-in-neck with Vogue for decades. The

38:50

art director places her hand lightly on

38:52

Tilbaris's shoulder. Liz, I wouldn't

38:54

change a thing. It's perfect. Tilbaris's

38:59

career started at British Vogue when she

39:01

won an internship in college. She

39:04

worked there for over 20 years

39:06

and succeeded Wintour as editor-in-chief. Now,

39:10

she's taking everything she learned at Vogue and

39:13

using it against them. The

39:15

new Harper's Bazaar causes a

39:18

sensation. But Bazaar

39:20

hasn't bested their rival yet. Vogue

39:23

is back on the top of the

39:25

ad-page rankings with Harper's Bazaar in the

39:27

number two spot and Elle, which blazed

39:29

like a comet for three years and

39:31

then dragged during the 1991 economic

39:33

downturn, placing in third. But

39:37

new competition is brewing that will

39:39

change the glossy game for

39:41

good. It's

39:47

1994 in Midtown. InStyle

39:49

magazine editor-in-chief Martha Nelson sits in

39:52

her spare corner office in Time

39:54

Inc.'s headquarters across from Radio City

39:56

Music Hall. She's dressed in

39:58

a simple black t-shirt and... can't

44:00

replicate heart.