Anna Wintour Says it Was Not Vogue’s ‘Intention to Diminish the Importance’ of Kamala Harris’s Victory with Casual Cover of the VP-Elect in Sneakers

Anna Wintour on Monday responded to outrage over a Vogue cover featuring Vice President-elect Kamala Harris that viewers deemed to casual.

2. In the cover that they expected, Vice President-elect Harris was wearing a powder blue suit. That was the cover that the Vice President-elect's team and the Vogue team, including Anna Wintour, mutually agreed upon…which is standard for fashion magazines.

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 10, 2021

4. Here is the Vogue cover Kamala Harris’ team thought would be released.

I’m told this cover on the left will be the digital cover, but the much maligned cover on the right has already gone to print and will be the cover available for sale and sent to subscribers. pic.twitter.com/5eWjPMTbdP

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 10, 2021

The NYT reports: “In a multiday social media maelstrom, a leaked cover photo that Anna Wintour originally described as ‘joyful,’ ‘casual’ and ‘accessible’ was deemed ‘disrespectful’ by Twitter. According to people familiar with the matter on both sides, although there had been no contractual cover approval agreement in place, the cover image was not what the vice president-elect’s team had expected. The day after the first photo leaked, a second — more formal — digital exclusive cover was also released.”

Said Wintour to Kara Swisher in a follow-up statement to the NYT Sway podcast: “Obviously we have heard and understood the reaction to the print cover and I just want to reiterate that it was absolutely not our intention to, in any way, diminish the importance of the vice president-elect’s incredible victory.”