Chloe Malle, the 39-year-old new top Vogue editor with the daunting task of succeeding veteran fashion icon Anna Wintour, has described herself as a “proud nepo baby.”
Malle, the daughter of Murphy Brown actress Candice Bergen and My Dinner With Andre director Louis Malle, was confirmed on Tuesday as the new head of editorial content at Vogue as Wintour steps aside from her role as editor-in-chief after 37 years.
In an interview with The New York Times, Malle—who previously was editor of Vogue.com and co-hosts the magazine’s podcast The Run-Through—acknowledged that her family connections and nepotism played a role in her rising through the ranks.
“There is no question that I have 100 percent benefited from the privilege I grew up in,” Malle said. “It’s delusional to say otherwise.
“I will say, though, that it has always made me work much harder. It has been a goal for much of my life to prove that I’m more than Candice Bergen’s daughter, or someone who grew up in Beverly Hills.”
Malle, who assumes her new role immediately, emphasized in a statement that hard work during her 14-year career at the company also contributed to success.
“I’ve spent my career at Vogue, working in roles across every platform—from print to digital, audio to video, events and social media,” she said. “Vogue has already shaped who I am; now I’m excited at the prospect of shaping Vogue.”
Although Wintour will no longer serve as editor-in-chief, she will continue to oversee large parts of the magazine she has controlled for four decades. She remains Condé Nast’s chief content officer and global editorial director, and will directly supervise Malle in the newly created role of head of editorial content. Wintour will not even be moving out of her office, noted the Times.
“I am so excited to continue working with [Malle], as her mentor but also as her student, while she leads us and our audiences where we’ve never been before,” Wintour said in a statement.
Malle told the Times she is “very happy” with the unusual arrangement and with having Wintour still “down the hall” in her new job.
Elsewhere in the interview, Malle revealed one of the risks she took while editing Vogue’s website—a digital cover story on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ bride, Lauren Sánchez Bezos—resulted in her receiving death threats, but that she does not regret it.
“I do think there is an element of endorsement with a Vogue cover, and I do think that it is worth taking a calculated risk,” she said. “You want something to be a moment, and that was a huge moment for us. That was what everyone was talking about. And we had that, and we owned it.”
Malle was also asked whether she would take a similar risk by putting first lady Melania Trump on the cover of Vogue—a move reportedly being pushed by Vanity Fair’s new chief editor, Mark Guiducci—but declined to answer.
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