The Breakfast Club - Anna Wintour is stepping down and Diddy’s defense does not rest

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

Anna Wintour is taking a step back after 37 years, but will continue to oversee content at Condé Nast. Loren takes a look back at the immense contributions that Wintour and Vogue have made to culture at large. Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, Beyonce, Naomi Campbell… to name just a few, have graced her covers and the nimbleness of Vogue has guided the industry for decades. In a trial update the Combs team denies sexual assault allegations and points to the prosecution’s past missteps in trials of this nature.YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart podcast. I'm the homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody. You hear that exclusive? You know she don't lie about that, right? Lauren came in hot. Hey, y'all, it's Lauren LaRosa. And this is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is everything pop culture, entertainment, news, exclusives, and all of the conversations

that shake the room. Now starting off with the behind the scenes of the grind check-in, because low riders, y'all know how we do. We be moving, moving, moving, grinding, grinding, grinding, and don't ever take a second. Don't ever take a beat for ourselves. The really tap in, feet on grass, see how we feelin'. This morning or today, if I'm checking in behind the scenes of the grind, I am feeling rest or anticipation. Maybe it's an anticipation of rest because we do have a break coming up for the holiday, for the 4th of July holiday,

which means I will not have to wake up every morning to come into the Breakfast Club. So that 330, 4 a.m. alarm, baby, shut off! I am so excited for that. So I'm anticipating being able to have, I'm still gonna have an alarm because you know I got things going on during the week, we'll still be in court until jury deliberations are over, but it won't be no 4 a.m. God is good! Can we put a little church shout right here? Some tambourine, some something? Because God is so good when you get a week to not wake up at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning. Lord, I am so grateful.

But God, you know I'm going to enjoy this break. Now getting on into the latest huge story yesterday, major story. Anna Wintour. Oh my God. Ladies, a huge story yesterday, major story. Anna Wintour, oh my God, Anna Wintour is stepping away or stepping down from her position at Vogue as editor-in-chief after 37 years in this position. Man, the queen of fashion, the queen of fashion houses the queen of fashion editorial,

Anna Wintour, style icon, Anna Wintour Man, the queen of fashion, the queen of fashion houses the queen of fashion editorial in a winter, style icon in a winter, has decided after 37 years of running the fashion world with her trailblazing vision and all of the resources and the direction that she's been able to provide via Vogue, she's gonna take a step back. Now she's not gonna completely be doing like nothing, right? Like this is, I don't think a person that has been as active

and you know, as influential as an anawantor could honestly just take a step back fully, like fully retired, do nothing type of thing. So of course it wasn't a surprise to hear that she won't just be doing anything right. So what she's going to actually do is she is going to remain as Conde Nast global chief content officer. You know she still will also be Vogue's global editorial director so she'll still have a hand in things and a

hand in the game a bit but it will be very different than how we've been used to seeing her. Now what that means for all of the people who are not into fashion, who you know this has nothing, y'all like, why does this have anything to do with us, right? This means that as content, as chief content officer, she will oversee various different brands under Conde Nast. So Conde Nast is like the parent company. Condé Nast is like I Heart for radio stations, right? So it's the parent company.

Under Condé Nast, you have Wired, you have Vanity Fair, you have GQ Magazine, you have Condé Nast Traveler, you have Glamour Magazine, Allure, and a few other outlets. So she'll still be overseeing content across all of those platforms under Conde Nast, which is the parent company. But she just will no longer be editor in chief at Vogue. Now people are like, what is an editor in chief's role?

If you're the editor in chief, you are like very highly ranked. Now there is very much so a ranking system in the fashion world and baby the people respect it. Editor-in-chief is the highest ranking editorial professional at a publication. So you oversee the entire editorial process and team. Everything from you know what will the clothes be in the stories we tell to what are the stories to who are the stories to how we're telling the stories to in the stories we tell, to what are the stories, to who are the stories,

to how we're telling the stories, to what the art looks like. The art is like the photos. And putting that full vision together of the magazine and how it is conveyed for the month to your readers. But also, you know, there's vogue.com as well, too. So then there's that digital element of that as well. Same thing. What's the story?

Who's the story? Why are we doing the story? What are the assets, the photos, the videos, the feeling, the texture of the story? Anna Wintour has been able to put a lot of big name celebrities on the cover of Vogue. And there have been a lot of lists coming out of different people she's put on Vogue.

So September, 1989, you have Naomi Campbell on the cover of Vogue. November 2001, Britney Spears on the cover of Vogue. You have April 2008 with LeBron James and Gisele Bunchkin who used to be married to Tom Brady. A lot of people forget that Gisele was such a big model on the cover of Vogue. Michelle Obama in 2009 on the cover of Vogue, which was a big deal because, first of all,

the cover read Michelle Obama, the first lady the world's been waiting for, because, you know, Barack Obama, first black president, and then you have Michelle Obama sitting next to him. But Michelle Obama was heavily critiqued and criticized for her choice of fashion while in the role of First Lady. So Vogue standing next to her was a big deal.

This is the go-to fashion platform. So that was a really big deal as well. And Michelle Obama actually did the cover two more times after that as well. She also in a winter put Kanye West and Kim Kardashian on the Vogue cover in April of 2014, which was a really big deal because for a long time, people in the fashion world, especially Vogue magazine distanced themselves from people like Kim Kardashian.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have talked about this. Kanye West has talked about a lot, being able to put Kim Kardashian next to Anna Wintour and what that did for Kim Kardashian, because people looked at Kim Kardashian as like, oh, she's just a reality star. They looked down on her because of it, because reality TV was looked at as something

that wasn't as valid at the time, or it was very low brow, you know, given a little bit of a ratchet, given a little of the NAS, not class. But Kim Kardashian, who was trying to carve her own lane in the fashion world, she would try. She was trying to attend these shows. She was trying to be within these inner circles. She was trying to wear these different brands and they would be told no very often. She would not be invited to shows.

There were even rumors that at one point in time when Kim Kardashian would come into these elements into these high fashion events and things of that nature, people would literally leave because they didn't want to be seen with her, especially because before the reality show part of Kim Kardashian, you know, the sex tape was the predecessor, right? So people didn't want to be seen with her. So again, Vogue putting Kim and Kanye on the cover stamped it. Changed Kim Kardashian's life standing ex and it went to her via Kanye West. Nicki Minaj has been on the cover recently.

Beyonce was on the cover in 2018. And Beyonce's cover was a big deal too because she worked with a young photographer named Tyler Mitchell. I believe Tyler Mitchell was like 23, 24 at the time. He was 23 years old at the time when he shot Beyonce. And he was a black photographer, or he's a black photographer, not was, because he's still around. He's a black photographer, 23 years old,

shot Beyonce, cover of Vogue. Again, it's just like an official stamp. Now the fashion houses, you know, things have began to change so much over the last like decade, I would say. I used to work in fashion, so I used to work with Cosmopolitan magazine. And during that time, when I was there, this was a long time ago. Fashion houses and major fashion publications like a Vogue and things of that nature were so regarded that they didn't just throw their stamp

on anybody as they shouldn't, but that was a good and a bad thing. It was a good thing because, you know, if you can keep the brand regarded, people always aspire to be a part of it, to want to read it, to want to understand it. But it was a bad thing because it shut a lot of people out. It shut a whole lot of people out.

And when I say people, mainly people of color, black people. And this is why, you know, in 2025, even when you talk about the fashion weeks, a lot of people will say fashion week is not what fashion week used to be, where it's like you got to wait for these highbrow couture house invites in order to be considered or deemed someone important moving throughout Fashion Week. Now you have the brands like the Laquan Smiths and, you know, Telfars and all these other black designers who decides war that are doing

their own shows and not in the fashion tents. The fashion tents is this area in New York that is coveted for Fashion Week shows. And those are the shows that you want to go to. If you are on that official Fashion Week list as a designer, and you're under the fashion tents, at one point in time that made or broke your career and your brand. Nowadays, things are so much different.

And I think Vogue was really good at shifting, even when they leaned into the dot com and started standing next to artists. Like I remember there was photos of Ice Spice I think Vogue was really good at shifting, even when they leaned into the dot com and started standing next to artists. Like I remember there was photos of Ice Spice in a winter, sitting front row during the time that Ice Spice was, you know, moving around and doing her thing.

There were recently photos of Tyla in a winter, you know, and seated together as well. Like she, in a winter, and the team around her has been really good at understanding when things are changing and being able to Move move with the change to be honest with you So I don't know what is to come next because of this but because she's doing this stepping away And just focusing on other things something is to That like, she's a very strategic woman who's been very successful at influence

and branding and marketing and storytelling and positioning of the magazines and the brands that she's worked with, but also of people for a very long time. So I kept asking my friends yesterday, like all of, you know, my chat where we talk fashion, they were having a conversation about it. And I'm like, but why?

Like, why? What is happening? Because when something like this happens, she ain't doing it for no reason. So what's about to happen? A lot of people think that Edward Ennifold may be coming in and stepping over and taking her place. Edward Ennifold is the ex editor-in-chief of British Vogue,

which was a big deal because he was a black man. So people think that he may be stepping in, but there's been rumored like tis-tis between the two. But I guess we'll have to like wait and see. It wouldn't be a bad thing for her to put a person of color, a black person, in this position. It would honestly be something that would be very on brand for her and how she's been able to understand and not be tone-deaf when things are happening, even though people speak otherwise of the of the outlet, right, to each his own opinion. But anyway, that's how it seems brand wise. So we'll just have to wait and see. For all my non-fashion people,

I know y'all are like, who even knew? Big deal. This is like Beyonce saying she's retiring from music, y'all. This is literally the equivalent of that. All right. So I'll keep you guys posted on what comes up next. I am headed to court today. We about to take y you out of court.

This is the second day of closing arguments. The defense Diddy's team will be presenting their closing arguments in the midst of Justin Combs, Diddy's son, being sued as well. Now there's a girl alleging that Justin Combs lured him to LA with promises of getting her job in entertainment, but when she got to LA with promises of getting her a job in entertainment. But when she got to LA, she says she was kept in the house for days and she alleges that

she was raped by multiple men, including Diddy, at least, you know, according to this lawsuit. And Diddy's team has come out about this and said that it was BS. They actually said no matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won't change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex traff trafficked anyone men or woman adult or minor We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason Fortunately a fair and impartial judicial process exists for the truth to be found and mr. Combs is confident that he will prevail in court Now her attorney is Tony Busby and you guys know that there has been conversation around the validity of Tony Busby's filings because

of the whole Jay-Z lawsuit dropped and you know all those things. Y'all remember all of that. We talked a lot about that here. So we'll keep you guys posted on that but I think a lot of people even know a lot of outlets did report on this. Kind of had to back away from it because a lot of things with Tony Busby, you know, are allegedly not looking the best as far as like a lawyer and a track record because of how that Jay-Z diddy sexual assault allegation lawsuit went where he claimed that they assaulted this woman back in 2000, another woman at the VMAs. And then Jay-Z came out fighting hard and blew the whole case up, showed so many inaccuracies

and so many inconsistencies that it was just, it was dropped. So thank you guys for tuning in. I'll let you guys know how court goes today. We should have an official start of jury deliberations by the end of today. But again, things are moving, things change. It all depends on timing. But you know, I'll keep you guys abreast of what's going down every step of the way. At the end of the day, y'all could be anywhere talking to anybody about all of these things,

but y'all are right here with me. The latest with Lauren LaRosa, lowriders. I appreciate you guys and I will see you in my next episode. This is an iHeart Podcast.