ANNA WINTOUR & VOGUE MAGAZINE

Look at the fashionistas listening to her, seeking surety in their subjective, perception-is-reality world. Wintour’s attractively peeved authority is truth enough for them. The sheer banality -- and mediocrity -- the abstraction -- of everything she’s saying becomes weighted and freighted with wisdom.Now think hard. Where have you seen this act before? Who has also used sunglasses, distinctive hair and a combination of inscrutability and banality-as-wisdom speak to affect a whole industry?
I’ll give you a clue. He even shares Wintour’s initials. A free tomato soup can to anyone who guessed Andy Warhol.The key ingredient for both A.W.’s is the aforementioned inscrutability. Why? Because it creates mystique. And mystique can move mountains where reality can’t. With his fright-wig mien, Warhol built an entire ersatz world view. He knew it. And most smart people knew it.

The Wrap
Sept 10 2009