Remember Anna Wintour’s shocking first Vogue cover?

CNN By the present day s standards the front cover of American Vogue s November edition seems typical enough Beside the text the real cost of looking good Israeli model Michaela Bercu gazes past the camera her windswept hair brushing across the shoulders of a bejeweled Christian Lacroix couture jacket Yet the cover signaled a revolution at the storied fashion bible It also marked two essential and related firsts This was the first Vogue cover produced by editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and the first ever to feature a pair of jeans London-born Wintour who on Thursday stepped down from the role after years she will remain as Vogue s global editorial director and publisher Cond Nast s global chief content officer had been hired to shake things up The magazine s previous editor Grace Mirabella oversaw a surge in readership but was by her own admission increasingly out of step with the s zeitgeist Cond Nast executives were reportedly worried the title was losing its edge Mirabella had famously repainted former editor Diana Vreeland s red office a shade of beige which became a metaphor for her reputation as being too unadventurous Practically every American Vogue cover from to had been taken by Richard Avedon a fashion photographer known for his stark minimalist style Models were usually shot against plain studio backgrounds in heavy makeup and report jewelry The covers were self-consciously elegant standing aloof from the more mainstream women s weeklies they shared newsstands with By contrast Wintour s debut was warm and easygoing German photographer Peter Lindbergh held the shoot outdoors rather than in a controlled studio Bercu s eyes were neither fully open nor looking directly at the camera As a product she came across as a glamorous everywoman Wintour s unpretentious approach was seemingly epitomized by another coverline on that first issue Paris couture haut but not haughty It looked easy casual a moment that had been snapped on the street which it had been and which was the whole point Wintour recalled in a Vogue feature marking publication s th anniversary Then there were the jeans These were not a high-fashion label s take on Americana they were stonewashed denim pants straight from Guess Having launched less than a decade earlier the denim brand s highest-profile moment at that point had come courtesy of Michael J Fox who wore a pair of Guess jeans as Marty McFly in s Back to the Future As such both in style and styling Wintour s first cover was a major declaration one that set the tone for hundreds of issues to follow She went on to forge an editorial identity her predecessors might have looked down on from spotlighting pop lifestyle icons to featuring a man on the cover Richard Gere who appeared alongside then-wife Cindy Crawford But there was an element of luck behind her debut issue too Wintour has since revealed that the jeans were a last-minute decision forced upon the shoot s stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele by unforeseen circumstances Bercu was initially wearing a full Christian Lacroix suit comprising the beaded jacket which Wintour described as all very Like a Prayer and a skirt but the latter didn t fit properly Bercu had been on vacation back home in Israel and had gained a little weight Wintour recounted in the Vogue feature before qualifying Not that that mattered In fact it only served to reinforce the idea to take couture s haughty grandeur and playfully throw it headlong into real life and see what happened Related Articles Anna Wintour is seeking a new Vogue editor-in-chief but will maintain editorial control Levi Strauss agrees to sell Casual Friday staple Dockers for up to million No nudity New Cannes dress code forces Halle Berry to change outfits Photos Best and worst looks from the Met Gala For Black men fashion has been a tool of self-expression and a way they ve been judged Wintour has since recalled that the magazine s printers were so surprised by the front cover that they called to see whether it had been sent in error The veteran editor also played down the intention behind the image though she surely knew better than majority of that magazines are judged by their covers Afterwards in the way that these things can happen people applied all sorts of interpretations It was about mixing high and low Michaela was pregnant it was a religious announcement But none of these things was true she noted I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change And you can t ask for more from a cover image than that The-CNN-Wire Cable News Architecture Inc a Warner Bros Discovery Company All rights reserved