What to Make of Vogue's New Editor, Chloe Malle

What is the significance of the editorship of Vogue—a role hitherto occupied by a woman so fearsome and polished they made a movie about her—passing to, well, a sort-of-normal-ish person? 

Chloe Malle will be the first new editor of American Vogue (or head of editorial content, as the role is now known) in 37 years. Malle is 39, has been at Vogue since 2011, and describes herself as a “proud nepo baby” (her parents are the actress Candice Bergen and the French movie director Louis Malle). She enjoys Lego and perhaps most curiously appears to be almost the fashion antithesis of her predecessor, Anna Wintour. 

While Wintour is known for her trademark bob, sunglasses and buttoned-up style, the picture of Malle accompanying Vogue’s announcement shows her in a loose-fitting shirt, with un-blowdried curls and (shocker!) jeans. Malle says she is more of a journalist than a fashion insider, and while Wintour’s Instagram is a series of polished shots; Malle’s is a collection of “photo dumps,” many featuring her kids. (Though admittedly she is rocking high-end designer clothes in most of them.) 

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Malle’s appointment comes at a moment when Vogue faces an identity crisis. Where once it defined trends, these days it is competing with social media. 

Malle has dropped hints on her editorial sensibility during her tenure so far: She has spearheaded a 30% increase in Vogue’s wedding coverage since 2023. (Her decision to put Jeff Bezos’ new wife Lauren Sánchez on the cover garnered death threats according to the New York Times.) Her time running Vogue’s website coincided with the launch of “Dogue,” a cover contest for dogs, and she says she wants the brand to give “original, witty, irreverent, joyful points of view on things.”

Wintour isn’t leaving—she will be, as Malle put it “down the hall with her Clarice Cliff pottery,” in her role as chief content officer, under which she will oversee the output of all 27 international editions of Vogue.

But at a moment of reckoning for the brand, Malle, with her more relatable approach, might be just what the doctor ordered.