Anna has built her own kingdom. And the world’s most beautiful, most powerful people are living in it. The rest are just looking on.

Anna’s hours always amazed Bowles. When they attended Paris Fashion Week together in the early 2000s, he had stayed out late at an after party, returning to the Ritz between 4 and 5 a.m. As he swung through the doors, Anna was on her way out to play tennis an hour outside the city. “Good morning,” she said, laughing, as they passed. By 9 a.m.,

There was no question that being a “Vogue brand” had value in the industry. As Scott Sternberg, who launched the clothing line Band of Outsiders (for men in 2004 and women in 2007), said, “Vogue was the pinnacle. Vogue was, depending on how you look at structure, either at the top of the pyramid or the entire foundation of the whole thing. Like,

This was never her goal, said close friend Anne McNally: “She sees it as part of her job. She’s very conscious that this is a persona that is existing at the moment because she has that job, and the minute she doesn’t have that job, she knows it’s going to be different.”

The impact the movie had on her image was incalculable. She was running Big Vogue, her magic touch all the more reason for Condé Nast to put out yet another spinoff, Vogue Living, which would launch before the end of the year. She finished the year 2006 as one of Barbara Walters’s Most Fascinating People, and became a mainstream celebrity, like

Even two years into Project Runway’s existence, after it had become a massive success, Anna stood firm on her decision. Speaking at a conference, she said, “Resist any cheapening of the brand, however popular and lucrative it might be in the short term”—referring to Vogue passing on the show. “Vogue is not in the business of making entertainment

In the wake of the attacks, it was easy to see a focus on fashion as vain and oblivious to the tragedy that had just occurred. Yet for Anna, and many others, fashion at its best represents optimism about the future.

But Anna also wanted to mix everyone up so that business deals could happen. She might seat an emerging designer next to an investor, or a model next to a cosmetics executive. She broke up couples on purpose to encourage what seemed like these serendipitous moments. “Anna wanted people to meet other people, and that’s where a lot of business came

Representatives for the Kardashians called trying to get them in. “The Kardashians had zero style, and their whole reason for who they were was nothing that tied to Vogue,” said Winston Wolkoff, a significant knock against them being, in Anna’s eyes, that they weren’t known for “making a difference.”