Who could succeed Anna Wintour at US Vogue?

As rumours that Sarah Jessica Parker will succeed Anna Wintour at US Vogue are shot down, we ask: Who could step into Wintour's Manolo Blahniks when the time comes?

BY Bibby Sowray and Olivia Bergin

Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker

It's possibly the most ludicrous fashion rumour we've ever heard but claims that Anna Wintour has been grooming Sarah Jessica Parker as her replacement at US Vogue got us thinking: who will replace her when she eventually leaves?

Wintour's will be some metaphorically big shoes to fill, she is American Vogue. Here we place our bets...
Victoria Beckham: the chameleon
She's come a long way since her days as a Zig-a-zig-ah-ing Spice Girl and now sits firmly at the top of the international fashion tree. Who's to say she can't morph into a magazine editor next?
Anna Dello Russo: the exchange programme
Can you imagine Vogue in the hands of the woman that brought us 'Fashion Shower'. Wouldn't it be amazing? A stalwart fashion editor, Dello Russo certainly has the vision, even if it is a bit, umm, outrageous.

Victoria Beckham; Anna Dello Russo
Amy Astley: the safe choice
The editor-in-chief of Vogue's little-sister publication Teen Vogue, Amy Astley has worked with Wintour before when she was a beauty editor at Vogue. Well respected in fashion circles, Astley would be a very safe pair of hands to leave big Vogue in.
Natalie Massenet: the business guru
The founder of Net-A-Porter, Natalie Massanet is an omnipotent presence in British fashion as the chair of the BFC. However, she's US-born, used to be a fashion editor at Tatler and she's got Wintour's seal of approval. "Natalie's doing a very good job," said the editor-in-chief of Massenet's impact on London Fashion Week. "She's a very organised person and she's obviously having an impact on where the shows are located."

Amy Astley, Natalie Massenet
Eva Chen: the protegée
When Wintour became artistic director of Condé Nast she immediately bumped former beauty editor Eva Chen up to editor of Lucky, one of Conde Nast's US titles. Chen is very well known, and liked, in the industry meaning the top title at Vogue may well be hers one day.
Marc Jacobs: the curveball
Think about it. "He's opinionated and has some spare time now [that he's left Louis Vuitton]," says Lisa Armstrong, "also a brilliant stylist in addition to knowing what we all want to wear."

Eva Chen; Marc Jacobs
Tamara Mellon: the all-rounder
The Jimmy Choo co-founder has business savvy and a creative mind. Since setting up her eponymous label (in NYC, no less) she knows how to stand up to a boardroom of investors and get ideas off the ground. Plus she's glamorous, supremely well-connected and used to work at British Vogue.
Tonne Goodman: the internal hire
Surrounded by British-born counterparts at US Vogue, Goodman, the magazine's fashion director is like a fresh breath of Manhattan air. Styling tricky celebrities is her bread and butter, and no-one understands the demands of the high-earning American woman better than she.

Tamara Mellon; Tonne Goodman
Roger Federer: the sporty spice
OK, this suggestion is as likely as Andy Murray winning Wimbledon (oh… hang on) but the tennis supremo attends shows with Anna, while she cheers him on from the stands. He certainly knows how to wear a suit, and has probably learnt more than meets the eye from those fashion soirees the two love to hang out at.
John Galliano: the provocateur
A curveball perhaps but it's well known that Anna is a huge supporter of Galliano's. It was her that got him his first post-scandal job at Oscar de la Renta and what better way to bring him back to the top than to seat him in her big, shiny editor's office?

Roger Federer, John Galliano
Lena Dunham: the voice of a generation
Dunham is US Vogue's current flavour of the month, quite literally, as she appears on the February cover - the result of months of wooing by Wintour, apparently. Often dubbed 'the voice of her generation', she would certainly bring a new voice.
Lucy Yeomans: the Brit pick
Yeomans was appointed editor of Harper's Bazaar in the UK when she was just 29 years of age. Now masterminding the launch of Net-A-Porter.com's first print magazine, Porter, fashion journalism runs through her veins.

Lena Dunham, Lucy Yeomans
Meryl Streep: when life imitates art
As The Telegraph's fashion editor Lisa Armstrong comments: "If we're choosing editors based on the fact they once played writers, what about someone who actually played an er, editor - Meryl Streep?" A valid point we're sure you'll agree.
Stefano Tonchi: the editor's choice
Italian-born Tonchi would be a publisher's dream; he's the current editor of style bible W (also owned by Conde Nast) and has previously worked at Esquire, L'Uomo Vogue and edited T: The New York Times Style Magazine. He moves in similar circles to Wintour and would be editorially-focused.

Meryl Streep; Stefano Tonchi
Photos: AP/AFP/Rex/Getty