Credit: NPR
Chloe Malle, 40, is the new Head of Editorial Content at American. It’s her job to figure out how to keep Vogue relevant for a new generation.
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The daughter of actress Candice Bergen and the late filmmaker Louis Malle, she started at 15 years ago in a role known as “social editor,” overseeing a weddings‑and‑parties section that once struck her as too frothy for a serious journalist.
Now, in a time when trends are accessible on your phone at any hour of the day, Malle told NPR’s Michel Martin that she believes people still care about
“There are so many ways that we are being inundated with things that we should be paying attention to,” Malle said. “I actually think that makes ‘s authority more important. And I think that having so much noise coming at us all the time, there is a real need for an authority and an authenticity.”
Under Malle’s leadership, the magazine’s summer issue published in June focused on celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States. One shoot, in Texas’s Big Bend National Park, was planned as the government weighed building a wall through the park, a debate Malle says reflects the urgency of what chose to showcase.
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“We had many conversations about whether in this moment of presidential hubris, we wanted to be celebrating America as the only thing we were celebrating,” Malle said, “and I felt very strongly that it was.” The summer issue out now represents the first time in over 130 years that Vogue featured only American designers. “We support this industry,” Malle said, “and we are here for American fashion.”
In a moment when media institutions are facing accusations of bias and “fake news” coming from the White House, declining web traffic because of AI, and layoffs throughout the industry, Malle said she’s not worried about fallout from the editorial direction she’s pushing .
“As long as is representing people that we really passionately believe in, if some people don’t like that, then that’s a choice we’ve made.”
Malle sat down for an interview with NPR’s video podcast ahead of ‘s summer issue. She discussed how the of today is different from the one her mother first subscribed to, why Vogue still matters and how legacy media is evolving.
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