Mr. Big, "boa wearers," and my epic Vogue makeover
Introducing my new series — Core curriculum: Everything you need to know I learned at Vogue
Have you ever imagined yourself working for the world’s most famous fashion platform? I did. But after I finally landed this almost impossible-to-get job, I found myself on a wild ride. One for which I was not prepared.
What can you say about a place where champagne was its own box on the company’s weekly “office supplies” check list?
Where a six-foot-long hot-pink feather boa styled just so around one’s neck was Monday morning office wear?
A place that had a voice coach on retainer?
One where its Publisher was the real Mr. Big of Sex and the City?
You would call this place Vogue in the late 90s.
Vogue made me over. From the inside out. And, in the process, I accidentally uncovered their secrets for doing so.
It turns out that following American Vogue’s formula for personal transformation leads to success in fashion, and every other industry: finance, technology, education, law, medicine, nonprofit, you name it.
“Everything you need to know I learned at Vogue” started out as a private letter to my (then small) daughter Margaux, and among other things evolved into a four-year, on-campus workshop for students of The Georgetown Scholars Program (GSP) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Moving forward, I’ll share unimaginably colorful stories- complete with critical lessons learned- in chapters with titles like:
“God Protects Drunks, Small Children, and Those Who Stay on Message for Vogue”
“Bed Checks with Mr. Big”
“Meet Vogue’s Voice Coach Mr. How-Now-Brown-Cow”
“My Shipwreck with Sebastian Junger”
“Getting The Job: 10 Things Every Vogue Staffer Knew”.
Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single class.
Here, you will learn how Vogue sharpened the edges of its staffers, and its intense formula for doing so. You’ll find their building blocks for success taken once upon a time — from Vogue’s hallways, cubicles, and corner offices — to help you achieve ingenuity, status, style, and substance in your own life.
Have you noticed how serious global power players all appear in Vogue?
Vogue gives us breaking news on fashion, beauty, and must-have shopping dictates. And it provides of-the-moment insight into politics, health, and cultural movements, while curating the latest in film, music, books, technology, interior design, travel, and food.
Vogue also gives a glimpse into a highly educated and progressive United States mindset, as a window into American innovation; one which shapes our collective cultural curiousness in a way that, in my opinion, has long been enormously underestimated.
And yet, there’s more.
Marketers once asked U.S. consumers to name the best-known American brands. Vogue, Coke, Levi’s, and Microsoft all made the list. But to the most sophisticated marketers, Vogue stood out. Because U.S. politicians and the global elite don’t trip over themselves to align with Coke or Microsoft when they need to: tell their personal story, improve their image, or, you know, bridge international relations.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Queen Rania of Jordan are examples of those who understand the power and impact of this particular close-up.
And while advancing other more substantive agendas, it doesn’t hurt that each one gets to look fabulous while at it. By working with Vogue’s stable of talent, which over the years has included; former Creative Director Grace Coddington, make-up artists like Gucci Westman, and Stephane Marais, and photographers like Arthur Elgort, Bruce Webber, and Mario Testino. All again underscoring The Power of Vogue.
So, together, let’s look for inspiration from Vogue, long at the forefront of fashion, and everything else. Since to succeed at Vogue means mastering the unwritten rules for succeeding within America’s elite institutions.
My days inside American Vogue: how it begins, how it ends.
Low pay, long hours, and awesome perks — I experienced combinations of the three at Vogue in the late 90s.
My job title was Merchandising Editor, and as such my mission was to message on the magazine’s behalf, put a face on Vogue, and bring the editorial content, for that particular season to life; for Vogue’s readers, advertisers, ad agencies, and trade groups in New York, and in cities all across the country.
Always at every event with me: TV crews, print reporters, photographers, and PRs who had previously secured permission from the magazine to interview me. They were there document everything.
So learning on the job, at least for me, meant having my every public move captured and then sent back to Vogue. Where everything I had said and done was then reviewed by Anna Wintour’s office.
I felt ill, often, just thinking about it. Because to have Anna Wintour looking over my shoulder, at every turn, as I learned to communicate on the magazine’s behalf- in what I would argue was my first real job- felt like starring, daily, in my own worst nightmare come to life.
There were so many days when the relentless pace, the punishing politics, and the overwhelming daily workload felt like too much to bear. And when I thought my best move might be to quit.
Quitting often crossed my mind, because in the moment, it seemed like a way to take the power back, in the event they fired me.
But Vogue didn’t fire me. Instead I departed years later — and of my own accord —permanently better equipped to handle everything else in the real world, thanks to the hours that I once logged for them on the inside. I now see myself as the beneficiary of a most unusual, highly desirable, and rather formal education.
I understand its value, and appreciate that few people were fortunate enough to ever experience it first hand. I’m am sad that they no longer invest in their own staffers in the way that they did me. So let’s time travel together back to the late 1990s, back when companies really invested in the skill sets of those who they hired, to look at the qualities that Vogue valued (writ large) in its staffers.
The Lesson: Vogue whipped me into shape, for the real world.
I will tell you how they did it. I will also share with you how I got the job, kept the job, and what I learned about life in surviving inside the world’s most powerful fashion magazine. So you can channel your own inner-Vogue, and pull it off with panache on your own path. Since as it turns out, we can all learn a lot from the world’s most famous fashion magazine.
As you perhaps now see the world as your runway, stay tuned for Vogue’s way of walking it.
Coming this Sunday! Chapter two of “Core Curriculum”: Meeting Mr. Big on a Monday morning, winning the interview to get the job.
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