Anna Wintour’s net worth: Does the Met Gala contribute to her wealth? | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Ever mysterious yet instantly recognizable, Anna Wintour has been a powerful force in fashion for over three decades: As editor-in-chief of Vogue, she has influenced trends, discovered new designers, and introduced couture to countless new audiences, significantly increasing the publication’s revenues in the process—and earning millions in net wealth herself.

Sporting her trademark, oversized sunglasses and sleek bob hairstyle, Wintour is an imposing presence in the front row at fashion shows, but her influence extends far beyond designer showrooms, as she also has an impact on what celebrities wear, both on and off the red carpet, and has even helped to shape the cultural landscape.

What does Anna Wintour do at the Met Gala?

Active in philanthropic causes for almost as long as she’s been running Vogue, Wintour is the main organizer and co-chair of the annual Met Gala, the annual fundraising gala for the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has transformed it from a New York-themed charity event into the most sought-after party on the planet, one that draws major celebrities from fashion, movies, and music, such as Rihanna and Beyoncé, as well as the biggest names in tech and business, like billionaire Michael Bloomberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The New York Times reported that Met Gala tickets in 2025 cost $75,000 each and $350,000 for a table—but anybody can’t just show up; you need to score an invite from Wintour herself in order to attend.

💵💰Don’t miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet’s free daily newsletter 💰💵

Does Anna Wintour get paid for The Met Gala?

Not only have Wintour’s efforts have raised the profile of The Met Gala, she’s also raised a ton of money for the museum: A whopping $223 million over her three decades as Met Gala co-chair, to be exact.

To show its gratitude, The Met even named a wing of its building in her honor in 2014: The Anna Wintour Costume Center, which houses the Costume Institute’s collection.

However, Wintour is not responsible for deciding the Met Gala’s theme; that job goes to the Costume Institute’s curator, Andrew Bolton, who aligns the party with the Costume Institute’s Spring exhibition. The theme of 2025 is “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which takes inspiration from the 2009 book by Barnard professor Monica Miller “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity.”

This year’s Honorary Met Gala Chair is basketball royalty LeBron James, while its guest Co-Chairs include Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, A$AP Rocky, and Pharrell Williams.

Contrary to popular belief, Wintour does not approve of Met Gala attendee looks. When Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan asked if she did, she simply laughed and said, “Many call and ask our advice, so we try and help some of them as best we can. Some, no idea.”

And in case you’re wondering, all the time and effort Wintour puts into the event is purely a labor of love—she does not get paid for organizing and co-chairing The Met Gala.

So, how does Anna Wintour make her money?

A fixture in the front row of designer fashion rows, Wintour has had a huge influence over global fashion as Vogue’s longtime editor.

Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

What is Anna Wintour’s net worth in 2025?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Anna Wintour has a net worth of $50 million in 2025. Her annual salary as Vogue’s longtime editor is $4 million, but that’s not the only publication she manages.

In 2013, Condé Nast promoted her to be the brand’s Artistic Director; in 2020, it made her their Global Chief Content Officer, which expanded her influence across their dozens of other popular magazines, including The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Condé Nast Traveller, GQ, Glamour, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Pitchfork, Wired, and Bon Appétit, which have a combined total of 1 billion readers.

In fact, Wintour is so powerful that in 2017, Queen Elizabeth II named her Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

View the original article to see embedded media.

Anna Wintour’s early life and career

On November 3, 1949, Anna Wintour was born in Hampstead, the northwestern borough of London, England. You could say journalism was in her blood: Her father, Charles, was the editor of the Evening Standard newspaper while her mother, Eleanor “Nonie” Trego Baker, was a film and TV critic who also edited scripts for Columbia Pictures. She is a descendant of George Grenville, a former Prime Minister of the U.K. as well as the novelist Lady Elizabeth Foster.

Wintour has four brothers and sisters; her older brother, Gerald, tragically died in a car accident as a child. Her parents divorced in 1979.

Wintour’s interest in fashion began by watching the British TV show “Ready Steady Go!” and reading copies of Seventeen magazine. After attending private school at North London Collegiate School, she got her first job at the iconic fashion boutique, Biba. And her famous bob haircut? She’s had that since she was 14 years old.

In 1970, Wintour was hired as an editorial assistant at Harper’s & Queen magazine where she raised the magazine’s profile by working with trendsetting photographers on innovative photo shoots; one such shoot recreated the works of painters Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Édouard Manet—only the models wore go-go boots, which were fashionable at the time.

It was also where Wintour developed a reputation for being aloof and difficult; disagreements with the magazine’s editor caused Wintour to quit her job and move to New York with her boyfriend, Jon Bradshaw, a writer for Esquire.

Wintour brought her groundbreaking editorial approach to Harper’s Bazaar; a few years later, she became fashion editor for New York Magazine, where she perfected her mix of couture meets celebrity culture. In 1983, she was hired as Vogue’s first creative director, which doubled her salary to $50,000 (adjusted for inflation, that’s $160,541 today).

In 1985, Wintour replaced Beatrix Miller as editor of British Vogue, realigning the magazine to have more of a straightforward, American aesthetic that appealed to her target market: Upscale professional women with little time to shop. She implemented so many changes in the process that she earned the nickname “Nuclear Wintour.” In 1987, Wintour returned to New York to take on the top job at House & Garden, famously filling its pages not only with fashionable homes, but people, too. Her experience at these publications earned her the editor-in-chief position at Vogue in 1988, a role she retains to this day.

Wintour’s groundbreaking work included changing the style of cover photos, replacing the tight compositions of well-known model’s faces to more naturalistic images, often set outdoors, that featured up-and-coming models wearing a mix of high and low fashion. For instance, for her first cover, the November 1988 issue, Wintour featured model Michaela Bercu wearing $50 faded jeans and a Christian Lacroix shirt worth $10,000.

Wintour’s efforts increased Vogue’s circulation from 1.2 million readers in 1987 to 12 million readers in 2025, according to The Business of Fashion.

Is ”The Devil Wears Prada” based on Anna Wintour?

Many believe Lauren Weisberger’s novel about an assistant to a powerful fashion editor is inspired by her time working for Anna Winter. However, the book is categorized as a work of fiction, and while Weisberger insists that “nothing was based on Anna,” the book certainly didn’t help to defrost Wintour’s image. It spent six months atop The New York Times’ bestseller list and inspired the 2006 hit film of the same name, with Meryl Streep famously portraying Vogue’s infamous editor.

As for Wintour? She told The New York Times she “hasn’t decided whether I am going to read it or not.”

View the original article to see embedded media.

Why does Anna Wintour always wear sunglasses?

Wintour wears her dark Chanel sunglasses all the time: At night, during dinners, awards shows—even reportedly when she was telling employees of the music magazine, Pitchfork, that they were losing their jobs.

“Well, they’re seriously useful,” Wintour told 60 Minutes’ Morley Safer, “I can sit in a show and if I am bored out of my mind, nobody will notice … At this point, they have become, really, armor.”

Does Anna Wintour pay for her own clothes?

Safer also reported that Condé Nast picks up the bill for Wintour’s hair and makeup “every day of the week.” She reportedly received an annual $200,000 clothing allowance when the 60 Minutes’ story aired in 2009; adjusted for inflation, that would be $298,129 a year today.

More fashionable personalities:

Anna Wintour’s personal life

In 1984, Wintour married child psychologist David Shaffer. They share two children: their son, David, who was born in 1985 and has a career as a physician, and their daughter, Katherine “Bee,” who was born in 1987 and is a film producer.

Anna Wintour and second husband Shelby Bryan attended a White House State Dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron on March 14, 2012.

Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Wintour and Shaffer got divorced in 1999; while she was still married, she was rumored to have have started an affair with venture capitalist Shelby Bryan. They reportedly got married in 2004 and remained a couple until 2020.

Anna Wintour’s real estate portfolio

In 1992, Wintour purchased a historic Greek Revival townhouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York. The circa 1899 residence offers 3,690 square feet of open concept living and has four bedrooms and five baths. Realtor.com estimates its value has soared to $11.4 million in 2025.

In addition, Wintour owns an expansive, 42-acre estate on Long Island, in the town of Mastic, New York. Yahoo! reports that she purchased that property in 1998, adding adjoining properties in the intervening years in the hopes of creating her own, secluded retreat.