The Anna Wintour effect

I reckon the world needs a 'fashion baddy' - someone on whom they can pin the snobbery, obsession with skininess and anti-ageing, as well as all the other things they don't quite get about the fashion industry. Because otherwise I can't really explain the falsehoods that have been printed about Anna Wintour's exploits at London Fashion Week, none more ridiculous than this story that she 'shunned' Alexa Chung and Pixie Geldof for behaving like teenagers in a sixth-form common room than true front-rowers. Now, let's be honest, who'd blame Anna if she did behave like that when confronted with London's annoying-young-things, but I was there sitting directly across from the trio and it didn't pan out like that photo suggests. In reality Anna took her seat on time - she's been punctual throughout the shows - and waited patiently, albeit utterly alone, for the show to begin. When Alexa was ushered to her adjacent seat she smiled and shook her hand - let's not forget by the way that the TV presenter is a new editorial consultant for UK Vogue - and even shared a rolling of eye moment when the show sponsors Samsung tried to shove new phones into both their laps for a quick photo opportunity. Then she concentrated on her job - watching the clothes come down the catwalk. So if you can read anything into her distaste it should be the fact she was the only editor-in-chief at the Twenty8Twelve show (no doubt due to the fact her current cover star is co-designer Sienna Miller) and the collection included Alice Dellal in a denim on denim jumpsuit.

Of course I've read Front Row and lapped up every moment of The September Issue but the one time I met Anna Wintour last time she was in London for Fashion Week she was nothing but professional and courteous, shaking my hand before delivering a well-thought-through and humble speech to the British Society of Magazine Editors audience. In fact, it wasn't her who behaved inappropriately at all, but rather those people who'd come to fawn over her who stepped away from the lift they'd been queuing for because she got in it and circled taking sneaky pictures on their BlackBerry of her half-eaten plate at lunch. If anything, it makes me feel a bit sorry for a woman who, sure, cultivated a myth around herself, but now has to live with it every day.