Being a visionary leader requires creativity, drive, and a relentless adherence to one’s instincts. Vogue’s longstanding editor-in-chief Anna Wintour displays this regularly, and Apple’s late founder and CEO Steve Jobs had it in spades. Each kept aloof from from the public, and their laser-sharp clarity often came across as arrogance, or even cruelty, earning both leaders icy reputations.
Manus ex Machina, a new exhibit about the intertwined history of fashion and technology at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, brings the two firebrands together. Apple and Condé Nast will sponsor the exhibition (in the recently renovated, ahem, Anna Wintour Costume Center) and co-host its opening night gala on Monday May 2.
On the surface, Jobs and Wintour may have little in common, he in his black turtleneck and New Balances, and she in her sunglasses and Prada sling-backs. But both depended on design to create desire, and their leadership has made them respected and reviled in equal measure.
And when you close your eyes, they seem to speak from the same mind. See if you can tell them apart.