‘The Times They Are a Changing’:

In the speech she gave to this year’s graduates from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour said, “You are heading out into a different industry than the one I entered. The fashion world is more inclusive than ever and more in demand than ever.”

Well, nothing is more proof positive of this than the column that ran in the Metro section of the Sunday New York Times (“Reflections on War, Peace, and How to Live Vitally and Act Globally”), which highlighted recent commencement speeches around the country. She was part of an illustrious group that included heads of state (Vice President Dick Cheney), a Nobel Prize winner (Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu), the U.N. secretary general (Kofi Annan), and a former President (Bill Clinton). Even Ms. Wintour would agree that this would have been a rather unlikely scenario when she was just entering the fashion world some 30 years ago.

Marilyn Kirschner

I am a long time fashion editor with 40+ years of experience. As senior market of Harper's Bazaar for 21 years I met and worked with every major fashion designer in the world and covered all of the collections in Paris, London, Milan and New York. I was responsible for overall content, finding and pulling in the best clothes out there, and for formulating ideas and stories.