Last Tuesday, as Democrats regained control of both chambers of the United States Congress, social media was flooded with a Vogue cover. In it, Barack Obama appears alongside New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff and Abdul El-Sayed, newly elected Senator from Michigan. They are dressed for the (supposed) occasion and, to the left of their heads, it reads “The Men of Style.” It was shared by thousands of users, among whom the magazine was not included. Brian Marquis, an American comedian, created it with artificial intelligence and spread it on Instagram, where it accumulated hundreds of thousands of hearts. Some believed (perhaps still believe) that it was authentic and who has asked Vogue to make it a reality.
Without intending to, the image represents the problem that the magazine is going through: its protagonists embody an image of the Democratic Party that is increasingly distant from the media that Anna Wintour has governed since 1989.
Not so long ago, posing for Vogue was a kind of cultural accreditation. In 1998, Hillary Clinton inaugurated the trend, photographed in the context of a Christmas scene by Annie Leibovitz wearing a velvet dress by Oscar de la Renta. Michelle Obama repeated three times during the years of her husband's presidency. The exchange was useful for everyone: politicians approached the universe of cinema and fashion, the magazine approached Washington and acquired the social relevance that fashion could not give it.
Since the early 2000s, Wintour has been publicly involved in funding Democrats. In 2008 she organized Runway to Change, a selection of clothing and accessories signed by designers such as Marc Jacobs and Diane von Furstenberg to raise funds for the Barack Obama campaign, and in 2012 she repeated with Runway to Win. In addition, she organized dinners and became one of the party's main fundraisers. It turned out that attending one of those evenings, specifically the one held at Sarah Jessica Parker's house, cost $40,000 per person.
The exchange was losing effect. Kamala Harris' 2021 cover, in which she appeared wearing Converse, sparked criticism for its informality and the choice of a photograph that, according to her team, was not the one agreed upon. In 2024, another cover, this time by Jill Biden, was published just after the debate that precipitated her husband's electoral withdrawal. Vogue seemed intent on fabricating images of stability when American politics was moving down a different path.
With the passing of the years and the evolution of the media, Wintour's circle has expanded towards large technological assets. The digital cover that Vogue dedicated to Lauren Sánchez Bezos for her wedding in Venice in 2025 ignited the anger of many readers, a fire that gained strength when, months later, Jeff Bezos and his wife became the main sponsors of the 2026 Met Gala and the exhibition celebrating the event. The couple, who had occupied a prominent place at Donald Trump's inauguration, found a place in the front row of the cultural institution controlled by Anna Wintour. The audience noticed how the editor, one of the Democratic Party's great fund-raisers, moved equally comfortably among Obama's donors and the billionaires who got along well with Trump.
Among those who did not turn a deaf ear to the inconsistency was Zohran Mamdani, who declined the invitation that same event, claiming that he had more pressing matters, including ensuring that New Yorkers could afford to live in their own city. On Thursday the museum announced that Instagram, owned by Meta, will finance the 2027 Costume Institute exhibition, from which it can be deduced that the mayor will also be absent on this occasion and that the money from the platforms already occupies a stable showcase in the museum's programming.
It is not the only place where you seek to relate to fashion. Monday's Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards were sponsored by Amazon Fashion, and Google wrote a check for her name to appear in the award for best emerging designer. In her usual discussion during the event, Wintour took the opportunity to remember that she had attended a fundraiser with Tory Burch for James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the Senate from Texas. The publisher is still Democratic, what has changed is the origin of part of the money and prestige it distributes: companies against whose influence its candidates campaign.
The protagonists of the dream cover do not share the same ideology. Obama, who has not held public office since 2017, represents the Democratic establishment; Mamdani aligns himself with the socialist wing. Ossoff and El-Sayed have different backgrounds, although both have criticized the influence of money in Washington. In the image, its diversity disappears under the idea of political renewal, as would occur in any editorial production that needs to convey a clear idea in a second.
