Vogue has named Chloe Malle — the daughter of actor Candice Bergen and filmmaker Louis Malle — as its new head of editorial content.
She takes over from legendary editor Anna Wintour, who announced she was stepping down in June after leading the publication for 37 years.
“Fashion and media are both evolving at breakneck speed, and I am so thrilled, and awed, to be part of that,” said Malle in a statement. “I also feel incredibly fortunate to still have Anna just down the hall as my mentor.”
“At a moment of change, both within fashion and outside it, Vogue must continue to be both the standard-bearer and the boundary-pushing leader,” said Wintour. “Chloe has proven often that she can find the balance between American Vogue’s long, singular history and its future on the front lines of the new. I am so excited to continue working with her, as her mentor but also as her student, while she leads us and our audiences where we’ve never been before.”
Malle, 39, was previously the editor of Vogue.com and host of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast. Her new role is effective immediately ahead of New York Fashion Week, which runs from September 11 to 16.
The appointment marks a seismic change at the magazine as Wintour’s tenure over nearly four decades redefined both Vogue and fashion publishing.
The 75-year-old will remain as Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and Vogue’s global editorial director.
Malle has risen through the ranks of the fashion Bible — from social editor to podcast host and editor of Vogue.com. The staffer who landed Naomi Biden’s 2022 wedding at the White House, and a Lauren Sanchez interview ahead of her nuptials to Jeff Bezos, will soon shape the fashion world.
Malle’s early childhood was spent in Los Angeles, where her mom relocated them from New York when Malle was only three to shoot Murphy Brown. Her father, the Academy Award-nominated director Louis Malle, lived in France because he “didn’t like living or working in Hollywood,” Bergen said in a 2015 interview with Dallas News. The director would travel between Paris and L.A. every other month to visit his wife and daughter.
After briefly considering a career in public health, Malle landed an internship at the New York Observer and was later hired to cover real estate. From there, she became a freelance writer, filing pieces for The New York Times Style section and landing bylines in Vogue. Then her big break came in 2011 for the social editor role.
“I was hesitant when I was interviewing, because fashion is not one of my main interests in life, and I wanted to be a writer more than an editor, but I was so seduced by the Vogue machine that I couldn’t resist,” Malle said.
According to Puck, other frontrunners for the position included Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch, W magazine editor Sara Moonves, and Nicole Phelps, who runs Vogue Runway and Vogue Business.
Wintour’s reign as editor-in-chief saw Vogue reestablish itself as the leading voice in fashion in the 1990s, holding off competition from the likes of Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Mirabella. Wintour developed a reputation for a hands-on and painstaking approach to Vogue photoshoots, giving her personal approval to all outfits and set-ups. Since 1995, she has also presided over the exclusive guest list for the annual Met Gala.
The best-selling 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada was written by former Vogue writer Lauren Weisberger, whose time as an assistant to Wintour is believed to have inspired the story and the character of domineering editor Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep in the 2006 film adaptation).
“I actually love working with Anna, because I love someone telling me exactly what needs to be done and exactly what she thinks about something,” Malle once said of her boss. “There’s no indecision. There’s no ambiguity.”
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