A Nepo Baby? As The New Head of Vogue? Groundbreaking! Chloe Malle Replaces Anna Wintour.

Photos Courtesy of @Vogue

The ink on Anna Wintour’s farewell letter has barely dried, and already the next chapter of Vogue has a name: Chloe Malle. The daughter of Hollywood legend Candice Bergen and French filmmaker Louis Malle will take over as editorial director of the American edition, ushering in a new era for the magazine that defined fashion for nearly four decades under Wintour’s reign.

Malle didn’t shy away from the most obvious narrative. In her own words, she called herself a “proud nepo baby” - a phrase that has ricocheted across culture in recent years as a shorthand for inherited privilege in creative industries. Where some children of famous parents have dodged or dismissed the label, Malle embraced it outright. And in doing so, she crystallized what feels like a larger generational shift in fashion media: from the myth of the self-made gatekeeper to the unapologetic era of legacy leadership.

Wintour: The Self-Made Standard

When Anna Wintour took the helm of Vogue in 1988, she did so without a famous surname or Hollywood lineage. She carved her way to the top with discipline, clarity of vision, and an almost mythical ability to dictate taste. Her first cover — Michaela Bercu in jeans and a Lacroix couture top, shot by Peter Lindbergh - was, to say the least, more than a magazine cover. It was a manifesto.

Wintour’s nearly forty years at Vogue proved that a single editor could reshape culture. She elevated unknown designers like Marc Jacobs and John Galliano, brought celebrities like Madonna and Serena Williams into fashion’s front row, and transformed a glossy into a cultural institution. She was, in every sense, the last great “editor-as-monarch.”

Photos Courtesy of @Vogue

Malle: The Legacy Successor

By contrast, Chloe Malle arrives with a different story - one that begins at the very center of the cultural elite. As the child of Candice Bergen, star of Murphy Brown, and Louis Malle, the Oscar-winning French director, she has never had to knock on the door of the fashion world. The door was already open.

To her credit, Malle has forged her own path as a writer and Vogue contributing editor, with sharp cultural essays and profiles. She has also built a career beyond the masthead, writing for The New York Times and The Paris Review. But her appointment reflects a larger truth about 2025: legacy, now more than ever, is power.

The “Proud Nepo Baby” Moment

Malle’s candid declaration - “I’m a proud nepo baby” — signals something important. In previous generations, nepotism was a whispered accusation. Today, it’s often a label worn with irony, or even pride. Stars like Lily-Rose Depp, Hailey Bieber, and Zoë Kravitz have all faced the “nepo baby” tag; Malle’s choice to embrace it rather than reject it shows a generational comfort with transparency, even when the truth is uncomfortable.

But it also raises questions:

Does acknowledging privilege make it any less potent? Or does it simply normalise a system where access is inherited rather than earned?

What This Means for Vogue - and the Industry

Under Anna Wintour, Vogue became the cultural bible of fashion, a place where power was centralized and taste was dictated from the top down. Under Chloe Malle, the challenge will be different. She steps into a media landscape where influencers like Emma Chamberlain, Alix Earle, and Wisdom Kaye shape cultural conversations as much as - if not more than — glossy covers.

For Vogue to remain relevant to a generation raised on TikTok, it will need to reconcile two forces: the allure of legacy and the demand for authenticity. Malle’s background gives her unparalleled access, but access is no longer enough. Audiences want vulnerability, relatability, and openness - qualities that don’t always align with old-school media hierarchy.

The Torch, Reframed

The handover from Anna Wintour to Chloe Malle isn’t just a staffing change. It’s a symbolic passing of the torch from the last great self-made editor to a new kind of leader - one who embodies the contradictions of our time: privilege and self-awareness, legacy and ambition, heritage and reinvention.

The Nepo Baby Era has arrived at Vogue. The real question now is whether this moment will entrench the power of the few - or whether it will open the door to a broader, more inclusive future for fashion media.

Either way, the world is watching.