Breaking Fashion News: Anna Wintour Smiles, but Off with Their Heads

How important is the front row? Well, apparently it’s not as important as it used to be. At the Valentino show during Paris Fashion Week, Vogue editor-in-chief and Conde Nast creative director Anna Wintour was seated in the second row; horror of all horrors!! And to make matters even a little stickier, Wintour’s Vogue confreres creative director Grace Coddington and fashion editor Tonne Goodman were seated in the front row.

Something is fishy in Paris!! In New York City, the front row doesn’t hold the same value that it once held. With the exit of pop stars and Hollywood celebrities from Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, the front row is now the final resting place of fashion posers, wannabees, and the occasional washed-up, desperate-for-attention reality TV stars. Only the runway shows of Anna Sui, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, and few notable others merit the presence of Anna Wintour.

However, London, Milan, and Paris are another matter.  Is Wintour’s seat demotion the result of a twitter tiff with Giorgio Armani? It seems that Wintour opted out of Armani’s show in Milan for shows in Paris.

“She took an airplane, dumped me and went to Paris,’ said the 79-year-old, whose brand is a major advertiser in Vogue. ‘It’s not professional. She is influential and powerful. But, perhaps, I’m influential as well.”

Or is this much ado about nothing? According to Valentino’s spokespeople Vogue’s seat assignments were cut dramatically this season and Wintour opted to sit in the second row so that Vogue columnist Sarah Mower, who was reviewing the show, could have better sight vision.

In the words of Gertrude Stein, “there is no there, there.”  Hmm, or is it?

—William S. Gooch