Secondhand September meets The September Issue...
Anna Wintour's replacement at US Vogue is arguably a next level Nepobaby & should we even care?
September is the month of the largest fashion magazine editions, and when the international fashion shows for Spring Summer 2026 start in New York. So it’s no surprise that the story of the day is a fashion one. Anna Wintour, who is herself arguably what is now termed a ‘nepobaby’ - her father Charles Wintour was the Editor in Chief (EIC) at The London Evening Standard - her brother is a renowned political journalist (apparently it was her father who chose fashion as a career for his daughter Anna, as she revealed in the September Issue documentary). She has today announced her replacement as the Editor in Chief of US Vogue, Chloe Malle. Chloe, in some kind of reality-meets-movie symphony, is the daughter of actress Candice Bergen, who played the EIC of Vogue Enid Frick, in Sex and the City, and film director Louis Malle. Anna meanwhile, remains Condé Nast's global chief content officer and Vogue's global editorial director, meaning every single EIC from all the Conde Nast staple reports to her; so how much influence a Vogue editor has, is questionable.
Anna herself told HM King Charles iii that she will never stop working when she received a Companion of Honour Award at Buckingham Palace in February. She said, “The last time I was here the Queen gave me a medal and we both agreed that we had been doing our job a very long time, and then this morning His Majesty asked me if this meant I was going to stop working and I said firmly, no."
I asked legendary FROW doyenne and CEO of A Shaded View on Fashion, Diane Pernet, for her thoughts and she said: “In a way it is not so much of a surprise but she says she really wants to change things and make her stamp on Vogue to create less issues and by themes. Considering how the magazine is going maybe that is a good approach but I really question how much freedom anyone in that position would have.”
From the BBC to Bloomberg, the story has seen widespread international coverage and Karen Binns, Fashion Director for Fashion Roundtable alongside 10 and 10 Men wonders why: “It’s only important to Anna Wintour who she decides to give it to! Simple as that.”
Karen Binns, Diane Pernet, Bay Garnett
Fashion Weeks are the biennial fashion calendar highlights when fashion press, buyers, and industry, travel from country to country seeing hundreds of fashion shows and choosing collections for shoots and shops for the season ahead. The show system has changed less quickly than both fashion editorial and fashion buying, which with the growth of digital and influencers as marketplaces for styling, shopping and fashion direction, has resulted in the sharp decline of fashion print media sales - around a 10% decline in print media in the US in 2022 according to Gitnux - with an average reader age of 45.
So what is the carbon footprint of all these fashion shows? In 2020, B2B fashion business platform Ordre.com and the Carbon Trust collaborated on Zero to Market for a report that quantified carbon emissions produced from travelling to the international fashion shows. According to the report, the travel undertaken by buyers and brands resulted in about 241,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year. That’s equivalent to enough energy to light up New York’s iconic Times Square for 58 years.
i-D magazine has been bought by model turned entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, banking on a Gen Z print media revival, alongside a global digital identity rooted in the DIY aesthetic of it’s founder, Terry Jones. The National Portrait Gallery told the Guardian visitors to its exhibition celebrating 1980s and 90s iconic independent magazine, The Face, in its opening month received more than 28,000 visitors, 14% of whom were aged under 25. Whether this stems the tide in the decline in print media is questionable. I think what we will see is the survival of niche independent magazines such as Encens, a biennial magazine published in Paris and Beyond Noise published by my friend, the former i-D fashion director, Sarah Richardson, but very much a multi-layered approach. When Edward Enninful drops 72 Magazine on the 12th September, expect a global media and cultural cross-pollination.
Fashion Buying, still a popular course at fashion colleges, has similarly changed. Many consumers now buy direct from their phones, or wait for their labels of choice to be sold secondhand on Vinted. The monopoly of the fashion buyer doyenne determining the future prominence of a New Gen brand by showcasing them in their shop window, as Mrs Burstein famously did with John Galliano’s graduate collection at Browns on South Molton Street, is over. SMEs saw their average sales revenue drop by a third in Q4 of last year, from nearly £524,000 to £352,000, according to figures from inventory management software provider Unleashed. The number of purchase orders (POs) placed also fell by half from 790 to 399, while lead times were up from 23 days to 25. The research also shows that sales revenues were down by almost 3% compared to the same period last year, and POs by over 8%.
Interestingly the Business of Fashion x McKinsey and Co’s ‘The State of Fashion 2025’ report says, “Brands are also reevaluating which consumer cohorts to pursue. While the fashion industry has historically prioritised younger shoppers, the “silver generation” of over-50 customers is growing as a proportion of the overall population—and fashion spending. In 2025, brands will benefit from courting these oft-overlooked customers.”
But perhaps in light of September also being the month for OXFAM’s Secondhand September celebrations, this quote from their report is the most timely: “Finally, the climate crisis will remain a potent force across fashion supply chains and in driving consumer behaviour. Even though shoppers have proven less willing than hoped to pay extra for planet-friendly products, making the business case for sustainability less obvious to executives among other competing priorities, the mounting cost of climate change, and government action to combat it, mean sustainability must remain at the top of the agenda. Those who choose to approach sustainability with a long-term mindset even while battling short-term problems will be rewarded with more efficient business operations and a competitive advantage.”
In the UK the British Fashion Council (following on from Berlin Fashion Week), announced earlier this year that their minimum sustainability requirements will be piloted for London Fashion Week (LFW) throughout 2025 with brands that are part of New Gen. This talent initiative already has mandatory sustainability criteria for brands to be admitted, along the lines of Copenhagen Fashion Week (currently the gilt standard in sustainability fashion show targets).
But the elephant(s) in the room has to be: do we need more clothes, are customers interested in brand loyalty or value for money, and as the secondhand market expands (according to Statista.com the global market for second-hand apparel and resale is now worth circa $177bn USD today and will double to $351 billion USD by 2027), are sustainability targets in New Gen and luxury companies alike, going to allow us to consume our way out of a climate crisis? Does changing the metric truly change the climate crisis?
What is Secondhand September and how can you participate? OXFAM’s partners ranging from M&S to Sainsbury’s are accepting donations to either be resold, reused or recycled. Former Vogue Fashion Editor and fellow secondhand shopping lover, Bay Garnett, who I interviewed for our Front Row to Front Bench podcast co-founded Secondhand September in 2019, and styles their LFW fashion show later this month, turning the whole fashion show waste debate on its head, said this: “The show is not just to highlight the style, power, and sustainability of secondhand, BUT to help raise much needed funds for conflicts, droughts, and poverty around the world.”
If we cannot see impact, or joy, are clothes of value to us in our lives? When we know there is a climate emergency, is the hiring of one ‘nepobaby’ over another, really important? Isn’t it better to reduce our carbon emissions, stem the tide of waste being dumped, and see the value in cherishing talent, extending the life of our clothes, all while raising funds to lift others with less, out of poverty? This seems a solution which not only raises awareness, but also has real influence.