Anna Wintour is smart-working from home too

UPDATE: The news of Anna Wintour's quarantine turned out to be a only partially founded rumour. The Vogue editor-in-chief was spotted at the Grand Palais in Paris on Tuesday for Chanel's FW20 show. Wintour, WWD says, is now in London both taking a break after the long month of women's fashion weeks that has recently ended; both actually complying with the 14 days of cautionary quarantine required by Condé Nast's guidelines. 

It's nice to know that there are things that, as human beings, make everyone equal. In the face of the coronavirus anxiety that has overwhelmed the world in the last month, for example, social differences have not held up. Politicians and nurses, drivers and business leaders, big directors and humble employees: all have taken their own precautions. And even Anna Wintour isn't immune to it. Since returning from Milan Fashion Week, Vogue's editor-in-chief and fashion system's most powerful woman has self-isolated in her home at 170 Sullivan Street in Manhattan, and will keep smart-working until next Monday. Just like the rest of mere mortals. 

This is a precautionary measure, however. The shadow of a viral influence will certainly not bring down the same woman who dissed with fierce passive-aggressiveness First Lady Melania Trump in a podcast for The Economist last July. And the self-imposed quarantine has relegated not only Wintour home, but also Elle's Nina Garcia, InStyle's Laura Brown, Harper's Bazaar's Carol Smith and Marie Claire's Aya Kanai. However, if fashion publishing is not the sector most damaged by this health emergency, it is at least the most prudent, once again confirming that famous saying of Montaigne that "even on the highest throne in the world, you sit on your own a**".

One only has to wonder what outfit Wintour chose to work from her living room, whether pyjamas or a tailleur, or whether even in the comfort of her apartment she gave up her sunglasses. Who knows, then, if the director does not have a trusted assistant who every night comes to her house, equipped with every protection, to deposit on her desk the highly-classified menabot of the next issue, à-la-Andy Sachs. It's also sad that Mrs. Wintour will have to give up her weekly tennis match, maybe she and her friend Roger Federer, who is also unable to play but for more serious problems, will be able to console themselves by texting from their respective sofas. If there's a mystery that torments the entire fashion system it's like Anna Wintour spends her free time. Frankly it's quite hard to imagine her binge-watching on Netflix or giving herself a second hand of nail polish. We will remain in doubt.