'Nuclear' Wintour's nanny wins toxic fumes claim

A former nanny for Anna Wintour, the British editor of American Vogue, settled her case for $2.2m (£1.8m) yesterday after a court heard she was overcome by paint-thinner being used to remove anti-fur graffiti from the magazine executive's house.

A former nanny for Anna Wintour, the British editor of American Vogue, settled her case for $2.2m (£1.8m) yesterday after a court heard she was overcome by paint-thinner being used to remove anti-fur graffiti from the magazine executive's house.

Lori Feldt, 31, said she passed out as cleaners were working to get rid of red paint daubed over the facade and front pavement of Ms Wintour's luxury Manhattan townhouse. Red paw prints had been painted on to the house by the Paint Panthers protesting against Ms Wintour's pro-fur stance.

Miss Feldt testified that she passed out while workers sent by Conde Nast - Vogue's parent company - were cleaning on 2 December 1997. Miss Feldt, who was the only person in the house, claimed the workmen used so much of the toxic paint remover that the fumes drifted inside, causing her to pass out.

Dolvis Morris, a maid, who entered the Greenwich Village house later that day, found her lying on the floor and called an ambulance.

Miss Feldt's lawyer, Carl Lustig, told the court in New York: "The fumes were very, very strong. She said that she went from excellent health and a physically active lifestyle to having headaches, numbness in her face and hands, and memory, balance and vision problems."

About six months after the incident, Miss Feldt was sacked by Ms Wintour, now editor-in-chief of American Vogue, on the ground that she was no longer capable of doing her duties.

Ms Wintour, who was not named in the $50m lawsuit against Conde Nast and the cleaning contractor, was not held responsible under the terms of the settlement, according to her lawyer, Edward Hayes, and Mr Lustig. The settlement came on the seventh day of the trial and Mr Lustig said the names of the paying defendants were sealed.

Miss Feldt was the innocent victim of a bitter guerrilla conflict over the use of fur in the fashion industry. In New York, women wearing furs have frequently been attacked and splattered with paint by anti- fur groups such as the Paint Panthers.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, furs virtually disappeared from the fashion scene and supermodels including Christie Turlington and Naomi Campbell posed naked for the "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" poster for the animal rights charity People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta).

But in recent years fur has staged something of a comeback with Vogue and the London-born magazine editor, dubbed "Nuclear" Wintour by those who have experienced her frostiness, at the vanguard of its rehabilitation.

In one notorious assault, a protester infiltrated the Four Seasons restaurant in New York where she was dining and slapped a frozen raccoon in her soup, reportedly shouting: "This is for the animals, fur hag." Thriving in her reputation for sang froid, she claimed to have coolly ordered a waiter to remove the animal and continued with her meal. Another protester posted her a package of maggot-infested animal guts.

Her passion for furs shows no signs of diminishing as she recently said: "Fur is undoubtedly the number one fashion accessory of this season."

Ms Wintour, who is almost permanently hidden behind sunglasses, is also unapologetic about her meat-eating lifestyle and it is rumoured that she only eats steak to maintain her figure.

On one occasion, she sent out a plate of rare beef to protesters outside Conde Nast's offices. She once wrote in her magazine: "I, for one, don't see any difference between raising animals for hamburgers and farming mink for fur coats."

Miss Feldt, who now lives in Lopez, Washington, refused to comment as she left court.