Vogue just gave another nod of approval to the tech world

Vogue World is coming to San Francisco adjacent twelvemonth — possibly different denotation that tech billionaires person go leaders successful the manner zeitgeist.

Of course, the announcement of the tremendous fashion/art/music lawsuit doesn’t accidental that. Instead, Anna Wintour wrote that Vogue believes successful celebrating cities and “San Francisco is simply a metropolis similar nary other.” 

“It’s a spot of divers communities surviving broadside by side, a spot that loves the arts, loves creativity, and isn’t acrophobic of change.” She besides noted the city’s past of rebelliousness and innovation.

“I emotion that San Francisco has ever stood up for values and the things it believes in,” Wintour wrote. “Vogue World volition enactment San Francisco’s originative minds and fortify the full ecosystem — and it volition connection different accidental to amusement San Francisco is connected the rise.”

There were rumors that Vogue World would caput to San Francisco aft Winter was seen having meetings with the city’s mayor, Daniel Lurie.

Plus, successful the past year, Wintour has cozied up to the astir almighty names successful tech, culminating successful this year’s Met Gala, which saw Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, service arsenic pb sponsors for the event. Google’s Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg were besides spotted astatine the event (the latter’s first, that is). In fact, OpenAI bought a table, arsenic did Meta and Snap (for $350,000 a pop). It’s existent that TikTok, Apple, and Instagram antecedently sponsored the event, but the beingness of the tech assemblage this twelvemonth was truthful overmuch that the Met Gala this twelvemonth was dubbed the “tech gala” successful immoderate places.

Last year, Vogue enactment Lauren Sanchez on the screen of the mag after her wedding to the Amazon founder. To the manner world, this was Wintour’s stamp of support — not conscionable for Sanchez’s ascent into the manner world, but that tech and its leaders were worthy of taste recognition.

Though Bezos and Sanchez reportedly unrecorded successful Florida (and Amazon is, of course, headquartered successful the Seattle area), determination is nary metropolis much associated with tech than San Francisco. By locating Vogue World there, this is different denotation of Wintour’s approval.

Vogue, arsenic a media publication, is ever pursuing the money, and arsenic a taste bible, is ever looking for ways to enactment relevant. Turning toward the worldwide office of AI, bully oregon bad, is superb for concern (and Wintour is thing if not brilliant). 

But Vogue World was antecedently held in New York, London, Paris, and this year, Milan. Maybe due to the fact that I unrecorded successful an East Coast bubble, but I’ve not heard anyone successful caller years notation to San Francisco arsenic a beacon of benignant to fertile alongside these different cities.  

While the metropolis has a estimation arsenic the onshore of the free-spirited bohemian, tech and its workers person a estimation for hoodies, Patagonia vests, and costly diversion shoes, if they adjacent formal up that much.

For instance, billionaire Alexandr Wang, who is present moving Meta’s all-important Superintelligence Labs, conscionable did an interview with Y Combinator’s Garry Tan successful beforehand of a packed stadium wearing a faded Nintendo T-shirt and what looked similar a brace of Crocs. Comfy? Yes. High fashion? Decidedly no.

But possibly that’s changing. Wang’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, who erstwhile ever appeared successful a plain grey T-shirt and jeans, has made efforts successful caller years to go much fashionable. Zuck and his woman Priscilla Chan were spotted front enactment astatine a Prada show this season. The caller run for Meta Glasses has a slew of celeb ambassadors and looks similar it could beryllium a Saint Laurent oregon Balenciaga ad.

OpenAI and Palantir person precocious released merch collabs, playing connected the minimalist benignant of tech workers (the merch enactment of the latter, I would argue, looks inspired by Virgil Abloh’s Off-White).

I concede that creatively determination is overmuch to beryllium done with the understated, Northern California style. Surrounded by beauteous quality and cooler temperatures, plentifulness of manner designers could beryllium motivated by San Francisco’s tech industry. I look guardant to seeing Claude-inspired terra cotta-colored gowns and Vogue-emblazoned quarter-zips soon.