Who is Vogue's new editor Chloe Malle, and how does she intend to put her own stamp on the magazine?

What's the to the highest degree of import thing you demand to live virtually Chloe Malle, the woman taking over from legendary Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour?

Is it that she's a "proud nepo baby" (her words), the child of late film director Louis Malle and Oscar nominated, Emmy winning actor Candice Bergen — who, coincidentally, graced the cover of Vogue herself and played fictional Vogue editor Enid Frick on Sex and the City?

All great topics for your next Vogue trivia night, of course, but perhaps the most important thing to know is that Malle brings an extensive digital publishing background to her new job at a time when magazine sales continue to slump, something not even Vogue has been able to avoid.

When Wintour took the helm of Vogue in 1988 at age 38, she ushered in a new era and look for the revered glossy. Now, though Wintour will still be around — more on that later — all eyes will be on 39-year-old Malle, who's taking over as head of editorial content at U.S. Vogue.

"Fashion and media are both evolving at breakneck speed," Malle said in a statement announcing her new role. "Vogue has already shaped who I am, now I'm excited at the prospect of shaping Vogue." 

So here's what we know about Malle and what could be in store for the fashion bible. 

Wintour's exit as Vogue editor-in-chief comes at 'very perilous time' for magazine industry, says Jeanne Beker

Malle wholeheartedly acknowledges that she "benefited from the privilege" of growing up in Beverly Hills with famous parents. 

"It has been a goal for a lot of my life to prove that I'm more than Candice Bergen's daughter," she said in an extended interview with The New York Times on Monday. Her French filmmaker father died when she was 10 years old.

After Malle graduated from Brown University in 2008, according to her LinkedIn profile, she began her career in journalism. 

Following a two-year stint as a reporter at the New York Observer, she joined Vogue in 2011 and began to rise through the ranks. 

She first served as a social editor for five years, in charge of all leading all wedding and social coverage, before becoming a contributing editor to the magazine, writing features and overseeing special projects. 

She launched the podcast The Run-Through with Vogue in 2022, along with co-host Chioma Nnadi, who is now British Vogue's head of editorial content. And in 2023, Malle became the editor of Vogue.com, where she was viewed as a "key player in Vogue's expansion into new forms of storytelling."

Malle has already hinted at what lies ahead for Vogue as she assumes her new role

"Placing my own stamp on this is going to be the most important part of this being a success. There has to be a noticeable shift that makes this mine," she told the Times. 

That stamp could be a seismic shift that includes further reducing the magazine's print editions. Vogue already reduced the number of physical issues in 2023, going from 11 to 10 per year.

But according to the Times, rather than publishing almost monthly, Malle wants the physical magazines that Vogue does produce to be considered collectible editions.

Vogue publisher Condé Nast claims 12.4 million print readers, according to a 2025 media kit. Meanwhile, direct traffic to Vogue.com doubled under Malle's leadership, according to the statement on her appointment, and it now consistently reaches 14.5 million unique visitors monthly.

A digital shift has been underway at Vogue, and across its parent company's other publications, for almost as long as Malle has worked there. Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch declared in 2022 that the company — which also publishes Vanity Fair, GQ, The New Yorker and Wired — was "no longer a magazine company." 

But Malle may also be poised to take Vogue's digital presence in new directions, suggesting she wants to target "a more direct, smaller, healthier audience" rather than trying to jump on trending topics. 

It's clear from the woman she's succeeding that Malle has her blessing to shake things up.

"Chloe has proven often that she can find the balance between American Vogue's long, singular history and its future on the front lines of the new," Wintour said in the statement, calling her one of the institution's "secret weapons."

And Wintour, 75, will still technically reign over the Vogue universe.

She's now in the expanded role of chief content officer for Condé Nast, she's the global editorial director of the magazine's flagship U.S. Edition and the 27 other editions around the world — and she'll be keeping her office.

"The truth is that no one's going to replace Anna," Malle told the Times.

Senior Writer

---

---