Ever since the news last week that Alexander Wang is taking the ambitious step into Nicolas Ghesquière's former shoes at the helm of Balenciaga, fashion's rumour mill has found itself in a bit of a slump. Now considering it had been positively thriving ever since early 2011 when John Galliano had an unfortunate incident in a Parisian café and was shown the door at Dior, this sudden lack of activity on the industry merry-go-round has set the gossip-hungry style community adrift.
But, panic over, there's a new rumour in town and it's a big one. Namely that Anna Wintour, the iconic and terrifying in equal measures editor-in-chief of Vogue US will be stepping down from the title to take up a post as an ambassador for Obama's government.
It almost sounds too ridiculous to be true - a woman who essentially spends her life dictating to other women what colour shoe they should be wearing this season giving up her front row seat and being installed in a foreign country as a political diplomat. Particularly when you consider the two embassies she has been tipped for are London and Paris, both big Fashion cities. It's all a bit too convenient.
But Wintour of course was one of Obama's biggest fundraisers, adding some $40 million to his tally, and New York's Mayor Bloomberg has reportedly said the editor is high on the President's list of people to thank. And her reach is impressive - as arguably the most powerful woman fashion Wintour holds considerable influence over many celebrities (presumably winning over unruly politicians will be a doddle compared to taming Kanye) public figures and other ridiculously rich types. I must admit that I know precious little about the actual duties of an ambassador, but if the Ferrero Roche adverts are to be believed it largely consists of hosting parties and events - I doubt many other candidates could put the Met Ball on their resume.
So Wintour it appears is actually a totally valid choice for the post (if you don't mention that time PETA threw a dead raccoon onto her dinner plate to protest her love of wearing fur) the question is would she want to? As mentioned before, the suggested posts she'd occupy are in London and Paris, and Wintour is known not to be the greatest fan of her native Great Britain. In fact, before she landed the coveted US Vogue top job she was editor of its British edition, and insisted on continuing to live in New York throughout her tenure there, commuting back and forth.
And as an Editor, even if you don't believe the borderline cartoonish portrayal of her in The Devil Wears Prada, we've all heard the stories - the scorn for people not decked out in this season's Prada, the omission of influential designer Azzedine Alaïa's designs from her magazine because they had a fall out. Can you really go around behaving like that if you're an ambassador? Particularly if the press are on your case all the time specifically to pick up on things like this?
And whilst we doubt she will ever drop her Front Row status, surely a political career will mean less time for things like attending fashion shows on the arm of tennis player Roger Federer, a preferred activity of Wintour's.
But of course were Obama to make the offer and were Wintour to take it there is the delicious prospect of speculating who might get her old job at the reigns of the world's most famous fashion publication. Would Grace Coddington fancy a stab at it? (Very unlikely since she prefers the more creative duties but still) Would ex-Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld step back into the Condè Nast fold? Would they go left-field and poach a rival, Harper Bazaar's Glenda Bailey or the New York Times' T magazine editor Deborah Needleman? Maybe they'll go for a totally new generation and elect Tavi Gevinson at the helm. Who knows. And for that reason, for the discussion it might bring, I very much hope to see Anna Wintour as an ambassador for the USA.