It’s no small thing, deciding what to wear to a job interview—especially when that interview happens to be at the biggest fashion magazine in the world. In Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, protagonist Andy Sachs has only just come back to life following a terrible bout of dysentery when she ambles into the Elias-Clarke building for a “chat” with HR (or so she thinks), picking out “a jacket and pants that did not match and in no way created a suit,” a “blue button-down, a not-too-perky ponytail, and a pair of slightly scuffed flats completed my look.” (Her final assessment: “It wasn’t great—in fact, it bordered on supremely ugly—but it would have to suffice.”)
But if a position is truly right for you—or if you just happen to be in the right place at the right time, as the case may be—even a regrettable look won’t get in the way of your getting the job. Not only did it happen to Andy at the fictional Runway, but it also happened to me at the very real Vogue. I felt pretty fetching as I dashed to my interview in the fall of 2019, wearing a black Ali Golden jumpsuit with high-heeled Nina Z clogs. It was only when I thought to google “what to wear to Replica Handbag Store interview” during my cab ride to One World Trade that I discovered an all-black outfit was decidedly not it. I immediately got sweaty and nauseous, briefly contemplated rerouting to go home to change... and then? I got the job!
Below, 11 current Vogue employees remember the interview outfits that got them their jobs—or, at the very least, didn’t hinder their hiring.
I was flying back from Europe the day before my job interview, and I headed straight to Barneys (RIP!) from the airport to buy my interview outfit. Luckily for me, there was a big blowout sale going on, and I bought a lipstick-print Prada shirt for a criminally low price. I wore it with my smartest suit—the look was professional but fun. I got the job!
I only had two hours’ notice for my interview with Anna, and when the HR girl called to see if I was available, I had been sobbings on FaceTime with my fiancé about something totally unrelated. The week before, I had four totally different outfits dry-cleaned for just this occasion, but I made a spur-of-the-moment pivot to a 1950s butter-yellow mini dress with a matching jacket and some sort of nude-ish shoe I have never worn again. I got an emergency blowout at Jenna Perry Hair with bags of frozen peas on my face—when I cry, my entire face swells up for hours—and Emily Ratajkowski, who happened to be in the next chair, told me she would be nervous if she were me. While my Oura ring reading from that day confirms that I was under extreme stress for the entire afternoon, I made it out the other side of it all... with the job!
My 4 Times Square meeting with Anna, circa 2013, was the grand finale of a week of interviews (six, including one with OG beauty queen Sarah Brown). Running low on dry-cleaned looks, I ignored misinformation on best practices for the occasion (Spend $20K-plus on designer! Go blonde! Get a blowout! Don’t wear pants!) and went with the logic that it was better to present as myself.
A baker’s dozen years later, I stand by the look. From the bottom up: silver Elizabeth & James heels; cerulean ankle-length cigarette pants traded for at Buffalo Exchange East Village; a white button-down from Moda Operandi’s closet; and a sheer striped Isabel Marant mohair sweater that Laura Vidrequin Roso let me borrow. I pinned my hair into a topknot, did my own makeup with winged Tom Ford eyeliner, pink BareMinerals blush (probably a mood-matching lip), and fluffed my side bangs before I got out of the car a few blocks away and scooted through snowbanks to make it on time—which, at Vogue, is early.
I knew my first interview would be with the head of Replica Handbag Store Weddings, so I got ready that morning like I was heading to a late-August wedding in Charleston: a silk orchid-purple Ralph Lauren Collection midi dress, pink Ferragamo Pola heels, and pearl studs. Grace Coddington tossed me a friendly smile as I was giving myself a pep talk in the hallway, which seemed like a good sign. That reminds me—it’s time to dig out that dress from my closet and wear it again.
I was searching my iCloud archives from October 2015, but apparently I did not document what I wore to my Vogue interviews—yes, plural; I believe I had six total—probably because I was too nervous to think about capturing the moment before catching the Metro-North line to Manhattan. (It was a different time!)
What I do know is that the only real “designer” items I owned then were printed denim trousers I picked up from the sample closet during my college internship at Nicole Miller and a Proenza Schouler PS1 backpack I got at an employee sale the summer after graduation. I was very into long, skinny scarves (à la Hedi Slimane Saint Laurent SS15), so my best guess is I styled my black one from Zara with a blazer and white button-down. Things haven’t changed much!
I wore a pastoral white cotton dress—replete with ruffled sleeves and embroidery on the bodice—that I bought on sale at Banana Republic. I finished off the look with a black velvet hair bow that I thought looked very coquettish. In reality, I probably looked more like Samantha, the American Girl doll.
My job interview took place during the pandemic, so luckily for me, I didn’t really need to dress up. But I did have one issue: because my school had decided we wouldn’t be having a graduation ceremony, my friends and I went straight to Miami. I remember I had a really bad sunburn that stayed with me until September... and no clothes appropriate for a Vogue interview with Nicole Phelps and Steff Yotka, because everything in my closet at that time was either tropical or a bathing suit. The most sensible item I had when Nicole and Steff asked to do a Zoom was a super-colorful sweater vest from Ganni, I think. I was probably also in jean shorts, if I’m being honest. Luckily for me, I got the job at Vogue—but the sweater vest immediately went to The RealReal, where it sold a few days after going up!
I interviewed with Anna not once but twice, because she wasn’t convinced after the first time. She was the last in a long line of interviews I did—a ping-pong game from office to office on the 12th floor of 4 Times Square that included meetings with Hamish Bowles, Mark Holgate, Laurie Jones, Eve MacSweeney, Sylvana Durrett, and Caroline Palmer. By the time I got to Anna, I was exhausted! I didn’t know anyone who worked at Vogue, so I didn’t have anyone to give me the now well-worn advice not to wear black and to talk about theater and tennis.
At 25, I thought black was what chic people wore, even though I rarely wore it myself, so I picked out a black collared cotton Diane von Furstenberg mini-ish dress (with black pumps so forgettable I... can’t remember them) and a gray-and-white striped 3.1 Phillip Lim blazer that I wish I hadn’t given away, because it was great. For my second interview, I wore black ankle-length, skinny-leg J.Crew pants, a cream silk blouse from Zara, and caramel-brown Repetto ballet slippers, which—when I waited for my interview with Sylvana—one of the events assistants noted (I believe with kind intentions): “Oh, I have those shoes. I wear them on Fridays.”
When I started the interview process for my first job at Vogue (on the Shopping team), I spoke to members of the team via Zoom. On the day of my final interview, I was actually in the office at my previous job and had to find a discreet room to take it in (classic!). Considering I was only going to be seen from the chest up, I didn’t put much thought into what I was wearing. Looking back, I’m not sure what I was thinking. That day, I decided to wear a V-neck black mini sundress with little white flowers on it (from Old Navy, of course). It’s still one of my favorite dresses to throw on in the summer, but it wasn’t necessarily chic (or professional) enough for a Vogue interview. Well, nearly four years later, I’ve definitely grown into my sense of style—and I still work here!
To my first proper Vogue interview, I wore a black-and-white polka-dot dress from Rixo and a pair of classic Chanel slingback heels. Growing up, I would always tell my mum that I wanted a pair of Chanel slingbacks for when “I was a grown-up with a job in fashion.” My mum, being the icon she is, surprised me with the heels for my college graduation gift. For the first few years, I hardly wore them (always thinking they were too mature for me)—until my first in-person Vogue interview. It was a true “I made it” moment, and I like to think the shoes played a role in me securing the job. I still pull out the heels on those days when I just need a reminder that I am, in fact, a grown-up with a job in fashion!
I had picked out a black Agnès B. shift dress with a little white blouse underneath that I thought was very clean and very classy—until a friend texted me an SOS: “No black!” I went straight to Barneys (RIP) the next day and told the extremely nice salesman my mission. He helped me find an all-white Maria Cornejo jumpsuit that fit perfectly, which I paired with navy blue A.P.C. pumps. It was maybe too on-the-nose as an about-face (all black to all white), but I went in feeling great.
