The new Vogue cover featuring Meryl Streep, star of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Anna Wintour, former Vogue editor in chief, turned global chief content officer and artistic director at Condé Nast, feels more like a masterclass in image making than a film promo - one in which the true authors are Grace Coddington and Annie Leibovitz.
Together, Leibovitz and Coddington create an image that operates on multiple levels at once: portrait, homage, a bit of gentle subversion and a whole lot of fun.
As you'd expect from the legendary photographer of Annie Leibovitz: Women: 2025 our two-volume collection of portraits of women in all of their diversities, and Annie Leibovitz At Work, Leibovitz, long attuned to the subtle theater of power, resists the temptation to over exaggerate the parallels between fiction and reality.
The photograph acknowledges the mythology surrounding the character of Miranda Priestly (based on Wintour) without becoming beholden to it. Instead, it reframes the narrative, allowing Wintour to remain herself while Streep inhabits an echo of Wintour's persona.
The lighting is precise while the framing allows both women space to exist side by side without competition. In Leibovitz’s hands, the image becomes less about showbiz pizzazz, more about presence.
Grace Coddington, meanwhile, the author of two Phaidon books Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue and Grace: The American Vogue Years, provides an interpretative stylish undercurrent. The choice of Prada obviously will have been mandatory, but the contrast of softness against structure, and fluidity against precision, feels unmistakably Coddington, with Wintour’s scarlet gown all controlled drama, and Streep’s tailored suit leaning into the authority of Miranda Priestly.
Meanwhile, the decision to echo Wintour’s signature sunglasses across both women introduces a nice touch of wit, as well as a subtle blurring of identity.
The backstory, inevitably, enriches the moment. The oft-repeated anecdote of Wintour telling the then 70s and 80s Vogue editor Grace Mirabella she wanted her job is part of fashion folklore, and a neat encapsulation of the ambition that is the modus operandi of the fictional Priestly.
What lingers, ultimately however, is the craftsmanship behind the image. Leibovitz’s ability to distil personality into composition, paired with Coddington’s instinct for narrative through dress, elevates the cover way beyond its original filmic premise, and makes it truly a meeting of two – make that four - female icons.
Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep photographed by Annie Leibovitz. Fashion Editor: Grace Coddington. Vogue, May 2026.
