Anna Wintour is stepping down as editor-in-chief of the American edition of "Vogue" after nearly 40 years at the helm.

The fashion queen announced to her colleagues that she would personally look for her successor.

It's the end of a nearly 40-year reign at the helm of the world's most renowned fashion magazine. Anna Wintour is leaving the editor-in-chief of the American edition of Vogue , according to several specialist media outlets, Women's Wear Daily , Daily Front Row and The Business of Fashion , Thursday, June 26. The fashion queen announced to her colleagues that she would personally search for her successor. She will, however, retain "her roles as global content director of Condé Nast and global editorial director of Vogue," specifies The Daily Front Row .

The 75-year-old, often referred to as the fashion queen, Anna Wintour took over as editor in 1988, transforming the magazine into one of the most widely followed and influential publications in the fashion world. In her first issue of Vogue , she notably questioned the "real cost of a good look," which shook the industry, before later opening the magazine's front page to celebrities, thus blending the worlds of fashion and show business.

She also served as a muse for Meryl Streep's iconic character Miranda Priestly in the hit romantic comedy The Devil Wears Prada (2006), adapted from the novel of the same name published three years earlier. This film, which was later turned into a musical staged in Chicago and London, helped cement Anna Wintour's status in the public imagination.

Both feared and desired at Fashion Week, Anna Wintour found herself in the hot seat a few years ago during the massive Black Lives Matter protests, accused in particular of not making enough room for Black stylists or photographers in the prestigious magazine. Rumors of resignation then swirled around the woman whom Forbes presented, in 2017, as the most powerful woman in the world in the media and entertainment industry.

But the septuagenarian ultimately remained in charge, after declaring that she "took full responsibility for [her] mistakes" and apologized for "not having done enough" for her Black colleagues. She later claimed that the episode had been "fruitful" because it had allowed her to understand that she "wasn't listening or wasn't listening enough."