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Fashion\u2019s biggest night may be just days away, but Tory Burch Foundation\u2019s annual Founders Breakfast has now established the Thursday before as the earliest<\/em> morning<\/em> in May<\/em>. As is now tradition, hundreds of people dutifully set their alarms to ensure they arrived at The Pierre well in advance of the 7:45 a.m. call time. They were in good company. After all, few value punctuality as famously as this year\u2019s Iconic Founder honoree: Anna Wintour.<\/p>\n Among those who turned up bright and early to celebrate the honorees of the 2026 Founders Breakfast was last year\u2019s Iconic Founder recipient Martha Stewart. Guests, including Chloe Malle, Amanda Seyfried, Huma Abedin, Aerin Lauder, and Steven Kolb, took their seats at tables dressed with Tory Burch\u2019s Jardin d\u2019\u00c9t\u00e9<\/em> poppy and mustard flower linens and listened to the class of 2026\u2019s stories of resilience, entrepreneurship, and motherhood. They included Viola Sutanto, founder of bags and accessories brand Maika; Andrea Seymour, who, as the co-founder and CEO of Springdale Custom Builders, is one of the few women leaders in the construction industry, and Pilar Guzman, a community advocate and founder of Half Moon Empanadas.<\/p>\n Burch also took to the stage to present the final Founder\u2019s Award to Jennifer Pitt, granddaughter of Olive Ann Beech. The late co-founder of Beech Aircraft Corporation was a force: she topped the best-dressed lists of her time and<\/em> toppled an attempted coup by the corporation\u2019s all-male board in 1940. \u201cSomething tells me that Anna would have loved Olive Ann. She had a backbone of steel, was a fashion icon and a brilliant entrepreneur,\u201d Burch said. \u201cBut not all entrepreneurs start companies. Some, like Anna, transform institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n With that, Burch invited Wintour, her longtime friend, the chief content officer of Cond\u00e9 Nast, and Vogue\u2019s<\/em> global editorial director, to accept her award. The pair took their seats on stage for a conversation on how Wintour harnessed her early interest in fashion and journalism (sparked by her father\u2019s editorship of London\u2019s Evening Standard<\/em>) to irrevocably shape the American fashion and magazine industries.<\/p>\n The conversation spanned mentoring and hiring wisdom\u2014\u201cMake sure they know what they\u2019re talking about, and make sure that you like them,\u201d Wintour said of the philosophy she inherited from her father\u2014as well as what she\u2019s learned from chairing the Met Gala, a position she inherited from Oscar de La Renta and fondly referred to as her \u201csecond full-time job\u201d of 30 years.<\/p>\n As for honing her eye as an editor and talent scout, she said: \u201cThe secret of a great designer; it\u2019s someone who has studied their craft, studied the business, understands what is happening underneath all the glamour, and is very, very focused on what they can say.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the breakfast concluded, Wintour offered one final reflection on her own recent career evolution. \u201cOne of the great joys of my job is helping others learn their craft and become who they can be,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel so, so lucky that I am in this position now where I have more freedom to focus on my global role, travel more, and look at the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n