Anna Wintour defends Vogue cover featuring Kamala Harris

Anna Wintour has defended Vogue’s February cover featuring vice president-elect Kamala Harris after it was unveiled to mostly negative reactions.

The cover, which was leaked over the weekend before it was released by the magazine on Sunday, shows Ms Harris wearing a black suit with a pair of matching converse sneakers and standing in front of a silk pink curtain against a green background.

In the photo, captured by photographer Tyler Mitchell, the future vice president can be seen smiling with her hands clasped in front of her.

A second Vogue cover shot, also taken by Mitchell, sees Ms Harris wearing a powder-blue suit and standing in front of an orange backdrop with her arms crossed, with CNN reporting that Ms Harris’ team originally thought that it would be this photo that would be featured on the cover.

Each cover features the words: “Madam Vice President!”

However, to wide-ranging disappointment of many on social media, the fashion magazine chose the more-casual photo featuring Ms Harris in the black suit for its print cover.

The responding criticism of the cover included that the lighting choice “washed out” Ms Harris, as well as accusations that the quality of the cover was “far below the standards of Vogue”.

Additional critics said that the casual cover was “disrespectful” to Ms Harris, who is the first woman – and the first Black person – to be elected vice president.

Following the backlash, Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour defended the cover, telling The New York Times’ Sway podcast: “Obviously we have heard and understood the reaction to the print cover and I just want to reiterate that it was absolutely not our intention to, in any way, diminish the importance of the vice president-elect’s incredible victory.”

The fashion editor, who was recently named Condé Nast’s chief content officer, also defended the magazine’s decision to choose the photo of Ms Harris wearing the suit and converse for the print cover and said that there was “no formal agreement” between Vogue and Ms Harris’ team about which cover shot would be used.

“There was no formal agreement about what the choice of the cover would be,” she said. “And when the two images arrived at Vogue, all of us felt very, very strongly that the less formal portrait of the vice president-elect really reflected the moment that we were living in which we are all in the midst - as we still are - of the most appalling pandemic that is taking lives by the minute.

“And we felt to reflect this tragic moment in global history, a much less formal picture, something that was very, very accessible and approachable and real, really reflected the hallmark of the Biden-Harris campaign and everything that they are trying to, and I’m sure will, achieve.”

Wintour’s defense of the print cover comes after Vogue issued a similar statement over the weekend, in which the magazine said it had chosen the photo because it “captured vice president-elect Harris's authentic, approachable nature”.

During the interview with Sway, which was recorded before the cover was released, but updated to include a comment about the criticism, Wintour had noted that Ms Harris chose her outfit for the photo shoot and said that the vice president-elect has “a very assured sense of style”.