The devil may wear Prada — but she’s no longer the queen of fashion.
Influential style icon Anna Wintour is stepping down as editor-in-chief of Vogue’s US edition after 37 years of running the fashion world with her trailblazing vision and icy perfectionism, a source close to the magazine’s owner Condé Nast told The Post Thursday.
The sunglasses-and-bob-sporting industry powerhouse announced she’s seeking a new “head of editorial content” for American Vogue during a staff meeting Thursday morning, according to a company spokesperson.
Wintour, 75 — who has a reputation for being cold, controlling and intimidating — will retain some of her power at the publication by hanging onto two key positions, the spokesperson said.
She’ll remain as Condé Nast’s global chief content officer and Vogue’s global editorial director, with the magazine’s new editor-in-chief reporting directly to her.
“When I became the editor of Vogue, I was eager to prove to all who might listen that there was a new, exciting way to imagine an American fashion magazine,” Wintour, the Briton who took the helm of US Vogue in 1988, told the magazine in a staff meeting Thursday.
“Now, I find that my greatest pleasure is helping the next generation of impassioned editors storm the field with their own ideas, supported by a new, exciting view of what a major media company can be,” she said.
But the tastemaker — who inspired the diabolically shrewd fashion magazine editor played by Meryl Streep in the film “The Devil Wears Prada” — made it clear she’s not hanging up her hat at the esteemed fashion bible.
“[I’ll be] paying very close attention to the fashion industry and to the creative cultural force that is our extraordinary Met Ball, and charting the course of future Vogue Worlds, and any other original fearless ideas we may come up with,” she said.
Wintour’s reputation as an ice queen exploded in 2003 with the publication of the “Devil Wears Prada” by Lauren Weisberger, which went on to become a hit film in 2006.
The story is believed to be based on the author’s nightmarish real-life experience working as a personal assistant to the demanding Wintour.
In her role as editor-in-chief of Vogue, she was just as cold in real life, a former Joe Biden White House official said.
Wintour appeared somewhat frequently at events such as state dinners and East Room ceremonies, where she was unfriendly, the source said.
“She didn’t speak to anyone and we were instructed to not approach,” the source said.
“We did work with her team for the Obama-Clinton-Biden event in New York and her team had a ‘vision’ for how it would go and pushed back on everything we tried to adjust. But she’s a perfectionist and got all the people with money to show up so [it] made sense,” the source added.
“[She] wouldn’t allow people to set up [cameras] and just wanted things done their way. Didn’t agree with where press was positioned,” the source said.
She refused to let press be in front of the stage at the event and was, “just incredibly particular.”
But the source said it was “not worth the fight by the end of it.”
The elegant London-born editrix kickstarted her career by dropping out of finishing school at 18 and joining Harper’s & Queen magazine as an assistant in the late 1960s, later working for a series of New York magazines.
Before earning the title of editor-in-chief, she served as Vogue’s creative director in 1983.
She later led British Vogue, before rejoining American Vogue as the top boss in 1988.
She came in with a bang, stirring controversy with her first cover in November 1988, which featured a model wearing $50 acid-wash Guess jeans – taboo at the time for high-profile fashion magazines like Vogue.
Wintour landed strong star power throughout the 1990s for the front cover, from Madonna, Cindy Crawford and Renee Zellweger to Oprah Winfrey and Ivan Trump, helping the publication lean more into celebrity profiles.
Wintour’s departure as editor-in-chief is the latest shakeup at Condé Nast, after Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Radhika Jones called it quits in April after seven years running the celebrity news magazine.
It’s an unexpected move as Wintour has long squashed rumors about her retirement from Vogue.
In February, as she was made a companion of honor during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, Wintour said: “This morning His Majesty asked me if this meant I was going to stop working and I said firmly, no. It makes me even more convinced that I have so much more to achieve.”
As chief content officer, Wintour oversees all of Condé Nast’s global brands — including Wired, Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour and Bon Appetit — with the exception of the New Yorker.
Her tenure is widely regarded as a transformative one for the magazine, helping to cement US Vogue as a leading magazine in the global fashion industry.
Over the past four years, the responsibilities of her global role have greatly expanded while she has continued running the day-to-day editing of American Vogue, a source close to the matter told The Post.
The addition of the US Vogue editorial role will give Wintour more time to focus on global markets, the source added.
