Anna Wintour: the personality and success of the high priestess of fashion.

The Wall Street Journal

*(You'll want to read my previous post -- "The September Issue" -- before this one).

The name is Anna Wintour.

If you are anybody in the world of fashion and you are not in her inner circle, you are terrified. To those of us who have never been acquainted with her, she is the petite woman with the signature blonde bob behind the dark, round Chanel sunglasses sitting in the front row at fashion shows.

"Anna Wintour has this no nonsense personality," Brie Colangelo said. "She's cutthroat and says exactly what she thinks. She is the goddess of fashion because she is so brutally honest."

Wintour was born in 1949 and became editor at Vogue in 1988.  Though her reign over the fashion world did not begin until later in her life, she has always been connected to the world of journalism through her father, who was an editor of a London newspaper.

"I think my father really decided for me that I should work in fashion," Wintour recalls in "The September Issue."

With the help of her father and the connections of her journalist boyfriends, she quickly rose to the top in the fashion magazine industry.

Though she is known for her signature look and for being the best in the industry, most know her for her "ice princess" personality.

"At some stage in her career, Anna Wintour stopped being Anna Wintour and started being 'Anna Wintour,' at which point, like wings of a stately home, she closed off large sections of her personality to the public," The Guardian reported.

There have always been rumors of her volatile outbursts and her unrealistic requests. Hence, the birth of "The Devil Wears Prada."

"She is the editor of one of the most famous, if not the most famous, fashion magazine in the world," Colangelo said. "If she was easy going and indecisive people wouldn't respect her as much, work as hard to earn her approval, or respect her opinion."

Perhaps Colangelo has a point. Would Wintour be as worshiped by her army if she did not rule as a dictator? Vogue is definitely the Associated Press of the fashion world, being the most credible source, but would the publication still be so if it were not for the cutthroat personality of Wintour?

Jocelyne LaFortune, an aspiring journalist, agrees that Wintour's strong personality has played a large role in establishing Vogue as the bible of fashion.

"It's hard to imagine someone who isn't as strong willed being successful in an industry that is so cutthroat and competitive," LaFortune said.

Afterall, Wintour is quoted as saying: "You either know fashion or you don't."