The Not-So-Discreet Charm of Graydon Carter The Not-So-Discreet Charm of Graydon Carter
The New York Times
An editor from the heyday of glossy magazines dishes about Anna Wintour and recounts his long-running feud with Donald Trump.
After our interview, Graydon Carter emailed me.
“Oh God, did I do okay yesterday? Too boring? Too indiscreet? Drank too much? Didn’t drink enough?”
This was something I had failed to notice about Mr. Carter during his plummy, powerful quarter-century astride a glittering Vanity Fair. This one-time social arbiter, who ran a wildly successful magazine in the peak era for glossies, has social anxiety.
How could the man who caused so much social anxiety, when he mercilessly decided who was in and who was out for the most exclusive parties on the planet, including his white-hot Oscar parties, have social anxiety?
“I’m not cool — I’m the squarest person you’ve ever met,” he says, unconvincingly.
We both started at Time magazine in the early ’80s, a louche era of bars in offices, clouds of cigarette smoke, cascading illicit affairs, sumptuous dining carts of roast beef rolling down the halls and expense accounts so lavish that a top editor would think nothing of sending someone from Paris to London to fetch a necktie he had left in a hotel room.
The 29-year-old fashion photographer Tyler Mitchell had his own ideas about how to shoot the catalog for the museum’s spring Costume Institute show.
Sofia Gubaidulina’s work, with its thorniness and religious themes, put her at odds with the Soviet government.
A new exhibition at the Jewish Museum explores the cult of Queen Esther, whose story won the hearts of Dutch Masters and some artists today.
With a revival starring Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran in Brooklyn, a look at the carefully weighted balance that actors playing Blanche and Stanley need to strike.
Dario Vitale will be the brand’s new designer.
Broadway is almost back, and pop music tours and sports events are booming. But Hollywood, museums and other cultural sectors have yet to bounce back.
And more of what everyone is going to need next season, from Miu Miu, Saint Laurent and Hermès.
The Duchess of Sussex caused a stir on “With Love, Meghan” when she said Sussex was her last name. But does that break from royal tradition?
Desire comes a distant second to violence in a Brooklyn revival of the Tennessee Williams classic.
In dance, a wordless art, an improvised language of rhythmic noises helps communicate the shape and feel of movement.
There was mystery. There was Jamie Dornan. And there were great clothes.
A fashion show in Paris was staged against a backdrop of 200 people playing Fortnite together. It was a distraction, at best.
It’s the wrong moment for the fashion theatrics of Valentino, McQueen and Dior. But Balenciaga got it right.