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Anna Wintour, Condé Nast's longtime fashion doyenne, is famous for a unique style trademark – her sunglasses.
In fact, Wintour didn't take off her sunglasses when she met with Pitchfork employees this week to tell them they would be losing their jobs following Condé Nast's decision to fold the music review site into GQ, according to a now-former employee present.
“An absolutely bizarre detail from this week is that Anna Wintour — sitting at a conference table inside — didn’t take off her sunglasses when she told us we were about to be locked up,” said Allison Hussey, a former Pitchfork employee. wrote on X. “The indecency we have seen from senior management this week is appalling.”
It's unclear whether Wintour's alleged decision not to remove her glasses during the meeting was a conscious fashion choice or rather a way to avoid having to look Pitchfork employees in the eyes. Representatives for Condé Nast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Condé Nast told employees Wednesday that Pitchfork, the music news and review site it bought in 2015, will merge with men's magazine GQ. First launched in 1996, Pitchfork is known for effusively praising favorite artists and harshly denouncing those who inspire disapproval. The decision “was made after a careful assessment of Pitchfork's performance and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our music coverage can continue to thrive within the company,” said Wintour, Condé Nast's chief content officer and global editorial director Vogue wrote in a memo to employees.
The fired Pitchfork employees include Editor-in-Chief Puja Patel and Features Editor Jill Mapes, who commented to X: “After nearly eight years, there have been mass layoffs. I'm glad we were able to spend that time making it less Dude-ish, only for GQ to end up taking over.” It's believed that more than half of Pitchfork's staff have been laid off.
The company's changes at Pitchfork come after Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch said last November that the company planned to lay off about 5% of its entire workforce, among other cost-cutting steps.