When Anna Wintour’s first issue of Vogue rolled off the press in November 1988, the printers thought they had made a mistake. The cover image, of fresh-faced young model Michaela Bercu, smiling and relatively makeup-free, did not look like a Vogue cover. Bercu was styled in a Christian Lacroix sweatshirt and a pair of blue denim jeans, a sliver of her midriff on display.

But there was no mistake. This was not Vogue as it had been, but it was Vogue according to Anna Wintour, who took the reins of the flagship Condé Nast fashion title in the late 1980s and on Friday announced she would, after 37 years at the helm, be stepping aside (but not, she said, leaving the company altogether – she will remain global editorial director and chief content officer at publisher Condé Nast).