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The most coveted role in fashion media has officially found its new occupant. Chloe Malle, a longtime Vogue staffer and 39-year-old journalist, has been named head of editorial content at American Vogue, filling the seat left vacant after Anna Wintour announced in July that she would be stepping back from day-to-day leadership.
Malle, who has worked across Vogue’s digital and editorial platforms since 2011, takes on the role with immediate effect. Known for her editorial instincts and ability to balance celebrity culture with Vogue’s polished legacy, Malle represents a shift in tone: less the archetypal fashion insider, more a journalist with breadth, who once admitted she never saw herself as a “fashion person.” Her resume includes stints at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire, and Architectural Digest, before joining Vogue’s features department fifteen years ago.
Her promotion signals both continuity and change. Wintour, who has steered the magazine for over three decades, will remain in control as Condé Nast’s chief content officer and Vogue’s global editorial director, but for the first time in its history, the world’s most famous fashion magazine no longer has an official editor-in-chief. Instead, Malle will oversee editorial strategy, live content, and marquee events such as the Met Gala and Vogue World, while Wintour retains her influence at the highest level.
Malle’s rise within the Vogue machine reflects Wintour’s tendency to reward trusted deputies—similar to Mark Guiducci’s recent move to Vanity Fair. Her career highlights include leading Vogue.com, co-hosting The Run-Throughpodcast, and producing offbeat editorial projects such as the satirical Dogue (a tongue-in-cheek dog fashion issue). More recently, she secured high-profile assignments like the Jeff Bezos–Lauren Sanchez wedding feature, which cemented her reputation as a safe pair of hands when it comes to high-stakes cultural moments.
Her background is equally storied: a graduate of Brown University, she is the daughter of actor Candice Bergen and French director Louis Malle, and her birth was famously noted in People magazine. With such a pedigree, her trajectory into cultural commentary seems almost inevitable.
The appointment comes after months of speculation, with bookmakers throwing out names from Chioma Nnadi to Kim Kardashian and even Victoria Beckham as contenders. Ultimately, insiders always saw Malle as the frontrunner, a move that underscores Wintour’s grip on succession planning.
For Condé Nast, the shift arrives at a moment when glossy magazines are under intense pressure. Circulations are falling, digital-first strategies have disrupted traditional editorial autonomy, and readers are questioning the future of fashion publishing. Yet with Malle at the helm and Wintour still calling the bigger shots, the message is clear: Vogue wants to evolve without losing control of its legacy.
This new power structure doesn’t just reshape American Vogue; it marks the beginning of an end of an era for print culture, where the symbolic weight of an “editor-in-chief” has finally given way to something more fluid, digital, and global.
Ph. Courtesy of Condé Nast