4 days ago
The British woman who could be crowned Anna Wintour's successor at US Vogue: She tells the French how to dress and is a wellness guru. So is Claire Thomson-Jonville eyeing up her mentor's old job?
It is a grey rainy day and I have just entered the offices of French Vogue in the heart of Paris. I am here to meet Claire Thomson-Jonville, the magazine's editor – or head of editorial content as we must now call it – hand-picked by Anna Wintour, who less than a year into the role is being mooted as one of her possible successors at US Vogue.
It has been a decade since I last worked for Vogue – I was a contributing editor at the British edition for more than quarter of a century and cut my teeth at fellow Conde Nast publication Vanity Fair in New York – but there is something about being here in this whitewashed rabbit warren of a space, having to manoeuvre between all the bulging garment rails, which immediately brings it all rushing back.
