Anna Wintour’s Former Assistants Debunk The Devil Wears Prada

Oh, look at these ladies.

[indistinct]

Are we all in our uniforms?

Chelsea said that we each have a uniform.

Oh, you are all in your uniforms!

Welcome, ladies.

Each of you, please introduce yourselves.

Anna's angels. [laughs]

Hi, my name is Sammi,

my current title is director of operations

and content strategy for U.S. Vogue.

I was in Anna's office from August 2023

until October 2025.

A full two years.

A full two years, and left quite recently.

[Chloe] Okay.

Marley Marius, senior editor,

I was in Anna's office from May of 2017

to, like, August of 2018.

Sache Taylor, introduce yourself please.

I'm the director of special events.

When were you in Anna's office?

Oh, well, I didn't come prepared with the dates, but...

Surely you can do this,

it's like the years you were in college.

February 2019 to 2023, 2022?

I was there for four years.

That's crazy, and also, they were during COVID.

Yeah, yeah. But it was good.

[people laughing]

[Chloe] She says convincingly, right?

Podcast over.

[people laughing]

So we are here today for a very important episode

of Fact Versus Fiction, The Devil Wears Prada edition.

You were each assistants to Anna Wintour,

can you tell me how each of you

briefly came to get this role?

Didn't you have some crazy LinkedIn story, Sammi?

Yes, it was a LinkedIn story,

I graduated from college in 2022

from Northwestern University,

which is actually where Andy Sachs

in The Devil Wars Prada went as well.

[Chloe] So true.

In the movie, not the book,

in the book, she went to Brown.

Noted. I noted that.

So after I graduated from school,

I moved to New York 2022,

I started working at CAA,

Creative Artists Agency, here in New York,

I was an assistant in the theater department,

and about 11 months into that I was at dinner one night

and I got a random LinkedIn DM message

from a Condé Nast recruiter

and they were asking me to interview

to be Anna's assistant.

Wow.

They didn't use her name,

they used her full, very long title,

which is global editorial director of Vogue

and chief content officer of Condé Nast, so I didn't...

I like that they thought that was discrete.

[people laughing]

But honestly, I knew who Anna was, but I didn't...

I wasn't in the Replica Handbag Store and Condé Nast world of it all

to know that that was her title,

I assumed it was a level below or something like that,

but I took the interview the next day

with the recruiter, learned it was for Anna,

I had five very quick interviews after that,

the last one being with Anna herself,

and within a week, I got the job.

Wow, and how quickly did you start?

I gave my two weeks as soon as I got the offer,

and so, I started two weeks later.

Wow, I like that in the book, Andy...

They want Andy to start, like, the next day,

and she has to sort of emergency move

from her parents' house in Connecticut.

Yeah.

All right, Marley Marius, how did you get the job?

Yeah, to me, sort of a complicated story, sure.

It's the best story.

And it's so long.

Anna was the commencement speaker

when I was graduating from high school.

A prestigious girl school in New York City

known as Spence.

And I sort of campaigned for that to happen.

[Chloe exclaiming in adoration]

And I, like, wrote a thank you note

and she responded, her office responded...

[indistinct]

Email address, and I sort of kept in touch over the years,

ultimately, I sort of indicated

that I was about to graduate from college,

she forwarded my email to the head of...

Or, like, an HR person at the time...

[indistinct]

And was like, See if Marley

wants an interview for my office.

My...

Interviewed the beginning of May 2017

and I started the week after I graduated from college.

Interesting, so that feels distinctly different

than Andy Sachs, who famously did not know

who Miranda Priestly was.

Oh, yeah, I sure did know who Anna was.

You had a whole Anna Wintour commencement speaker campaign

launched and succeeded.

Indeed.

Sache, how did you get the job?

I started as an assistant in special events

and I was helping out, I think, like, two weeks later,

three weeks later they offered me the position

and I took it.

Who was your first assistant at the time?

Jessie Nichols. She was the best first assistant.

She was lovely.

We love Jessie Nichols.

Yes.

I didn't have a formal interview process,

but I remember, on my first real day with her,

it was when she was coming back from Australia

and it was crazy.

I wanna know what was the most unnerving part

of the interview process with Anna?

Well, I mean, for me,

and I was reminded of this reading the book,

just, like, how quickly everything was happening,

because the first day that I went and I met with HR,

and then, I met with Corinne Pierre-Louie,

who was the first assistant at the time,

and she was there for, like, a year ultimately,

and then, I came in the next day

to meet with Christiane Mack and Jon Gluck,

Jon Gluck at the time was the managing editor,

Christiane was, like, head of content operations,

and I thought I was just meeting with them,

I didn't think I was meeting with Anna,

and then, eventually it was like,

Oh, you're gonna meet with Anna,

so I was just kind of, like, sitting around

for, like, an hour and a half to eventually meet with her.

What were you wearing?

I think I was wearing a...

Like, a navy turtleneck sweater and black pants,

I don't remember what shoes,

I kind of do think they were heels, but yeah.

[Chloe exclaiming in surprise]

I think I wore a dress the first day,

but I didn't wear the dress the second day

because I just didn't think that was gonna happen,

but I wanted...

I knew I needed to be neat anyway, but I did...

But I, like, felt like myself though,

which I think was important.

Did she ask you guys any questions

that you weren't expecting or that threw you off?

She only asked personal questions,

well, like, What do you do on your free time?

What do you read? Which I wasn't expecting.

What about you, Sammi?

Questions were personal,

she made it very clear that it was gonna be an intense job,

which it proved to be,

the night before I was meeting with Anna,

I went to Bloomingdale's

and I just bought, like, bags of dresses,

things that I would never wear myself in a million years,

and then, I ended up just wearing a dress I had from Zara,

but I did try on, like, 10 different outfits

that I soon returned after.

Wow.

I do remember Christiane and Jon

kind of being, like, Anna want...

She doesn't, like, want a career assistant,

like, she wants people in her office

who, like, have interests

and who, like, want to do things, like, with their lives,

like, have lives outside of work hopefully, and sort of...

Yeah, she was...

I remember them being like, She doesn't want a robot,

like, she wants people with, like, personality

and with interests, so I tried to lean into that.

Did any of you read the book

before starting in Anna's office?

No, but I did watch the movie, but I had already seen it,

but I re-watched it before I started.

I did a lot of internships in college,

and the day before...

The night before every internship

I would watch The Devil Wears Prada.

Oh, my god. Okay.

Even though, like, none of the internships were that,

but I never expected that I would be here, really,

but I did not end up watching it

before my interview with...

At Vogue, I don't know why,

it was a weird phone interview, that's why.

Oh. To be in special events?

Yeah, so I was in England when I got the phone interview.

Yeah. Was that with...?

[indistinct]

No, it was with Chara Sanders, now Chara brand.

Oh, love her.

I still am indebted to her

'cause she hired me off a phone call.

That's incredible.

But I met her over the phone,

and then, she was like,

Well, I'd love to meet you in person,

and my dear mother got me a flight back to New York,

and I met her two days later,

I got the job that day, and I stayed for, like, three months

and was paying rent in London, it was horrible, but...

What? Oh, my gosh.

Sammi, did you read it?

No, and I still haven't.

[Chloe] Oh, my god, are you reading it for the book club?

I need to take a copy from your office.

Well, I think you've missed your chance.

Well, I need to ask someone else.

I think there's, like, one left

in the mini library in Chloe's office.

So I will take that, but no,

I had watched the movie only once,

like, a year before getting the interview,

and then, during the interview process

I watched, I think, half of it.

What did you learn from watching it?

Oh, gosh, I honestly learned more...

The night before my interview

I watched Anna's MasterClass that she has,

and I feel like I took a lot from that.

There's a whole section in her MasterClass that says

how to prepare for an interview to be my assistant.

[Marley] Oh, that's so funny.

But I think one of the things

that stuck out to me from that is she just says

she really wants someone to come into her office

and be themselves, and so, similarly to Marley,

I have a background and interest in theater

and I knew that Anna did too,

so that was a main focal point of our conversation,

was theater.

What was your version of Sunday in the Park with George?

What show had you just seen?

Well, I was at CAA

and we were repping a lot of clients

who had chose that season

that I knew Anna was seeing and interested in,

I think we talked about Parade,

that was the year of Parade,

so Ben Platt, Michael Arden,

people who are, you know, often around the Replica Handbag Store world,

they were people who, you know,

we were working on contracts for at CAA too, so...

Interesting.

People keep repeating to Andy in the film

and in the book, A million women would kill for this job.

How did people in your lives actually react

when you got this job?

My friends from home, like, they didn't care

'cause they're not in this world.

I went to fashion school,

so my friends from school were very excited.

Did people ask you questions about the book or the movie?

Yeah, constantly.

The first question is, Is it just like the books?

I mean, The movie? Yeah, yeah,

Is it just like 'The Devil Wears Prada?' Always.

And I feel like the answer was kind of, like, No.

I mean, like...

I say, Yes.

I'm like, Yes with an asterisk.

I mean, I'm kind of, like, not...

Yeah, like, there are shades, but, like, not like...

Like, obviously, it's sort of a different thing,

but yeah, that is the question every time.

But I think everyone gets that,

whether you're in the office or not, right?

Like, you get that. Yes, working at Vogue, yeah.

[Marley] Everyone gets that.

Does she walk around with her sunglasses?

Which also, like, not now,

like, it depends. [laughs]

In the movie, there are two Emilys,

there's almost always two assistants,

there used to be three,

when I started, Anna had three assistants,

AW one, two, three.

When each of you started, usually someone starts as AW two,

and then, graduates into AW one,

what are the difference between those two roles typically?

In my day, it was personal and executive.

First assistant was the executive,

so you were really scheduling things, doing finances.

How...?

What's the relationship between the two assistants?

Is it mentor-mentee?

Is it more peer-like? Does it depend?

When I was, it was very mentor-mentee, I felt like...

It's not like Emily and Andy?

I mean, I never had that experience,

I was very much lucked out with both, who was my first,

and then, both, who was my second.

[Chloe] Who was your second?

Carolina Gonzalez.

But she was great, and it was really nice to kind of,

when you're going into a leadership role,

have someone to kind of impart wisdom on,

for lack of a better word, but I was...

I lucked out with both of my people, I think,

it was a really great experience all around,

but I obviously am very interested in events,

and so, I would...

I wanted to go to all the events with her

and, like, manage all the events that she would go to,

and also just, like... Marley's nightmare.

Manage coordination with the events team as well,

so at a point, I really took whatever I wanted

from the first, 'cause also, Jessie was very flexible

and she was like,

If there's something that you wanna work on,

totally do it.

Yeah, and I would say for the most part,

Anna funnels her communication through the first assistant,

and as do most people in the office too,

and then, the first assistant can decide

what they wanna delegate to the second assistant.

I wanna know,

obviously a big plot arc of the book and the movie

is the sort of unraveling of Andy's personal life

when she's in this intense job,

which I think is not unique to this position,

but I wanna know how your personal lives fared

when you were in Anna's office.

I think everyone in my life at that time

was very supportive of me,

and I think it was kind of a conversation I had to have

with the people in my life at the time of, like,

Okay, if I take this job, this is what it will mean,

you know, for my friends, for my family

and every relationship I had at that time,

and I think people are very excited for you,

and they also like to hear about Vogue

and hear about the world that you're in,

so while your friends might not get to see you as much,

I was very lucky in that I had supportive people in my life

who were able just to come over on the weekends

and sit with me at home

while I just sat on my computer, and you make it work.

I mean, I'll say that, like...

Well, first of all, I didn't...

I don't think I appreciated this at the time,

but I think the fact that I was living at home

the whole time I was in Anna's office

was probably helpful and kind of grounding,

like, there were people at home when I got home

no matter what time it was,

and, like, I'm sure being around my parents

was sort of helpful in some way,

but I'll also say that, like,

and I don't think this is unique to Vogue

and, like, as you were saying,

I don't think it's quite unique

to, like, being in Anna's office,

but, like, I do find that in this job, or, like, in...

When you're working in media

and the job is sort of, like, responding to things

that are happening in the world,

it's very easy for the job just to become your life,

and I don't think that that's, like,

necessarily a bad thing,

like, for me, I'm like, Replica Handbag Store people are my community,

I think that's all just a function

of, like, starting here when I was 22 and now being 31,

so, like, I'm like,

These people are, like, the people in my life,

I don't think of that as being a bad thing,

I can imagine other people not...

Like, wanting kind of more of a separation

between work and life, but, like, for me,

they're just kind of knitted together,

like, that's just fine,

like, that's just kind of what it is,

and, like, my Replica Handbag Store friends are, like, my friends

and I think that's okay, so...

Yeah, I agree.

Oh, yeah, was there anything...?

I found it quite striking in the book

that Andy's roommate

is trying to sign for an apartment with her,

and she feels she can't even say Yes, or No,

on the phone, on a personal call,

what's the vibe in real life?

I mean, reading that, I was like,

Why are you taking a personal call

in the middle of the day?

I'm like, You...

She was looking at the apartment!

But I'm like, You're busy,

and I was finding Lily so annoying,

I was like, Lily, this is not a good time, can this wait?

Or I'm like, Lily, just sign the thing

and figure it out later, you know what I mean?

I was, like, so anti-Andy,

like, throughout the book because I'm like,

She's not taking this job seriously enough.

I was just like, She's not prioritizing this position.

[Chloe laughing]

She has a bad attitude, no wonder she gets fired,

anyway, I mean, I didn't have any experiences like that,

I was just kind of like...

I think everyone knew not to bother me,

if my parents didn't hear from me,

they were like, She's working, you know?

Yeah, it's really something

you have to be okay when you sign up for it,

you know, you're committing 120% to it for X amount of time,

and again, that's why, as one of you said in the beginning,

Anna doesn't have career assistance

in part because of that mentorship component,

but because you do have to dedicate

so much, I think, of your time just to do a good job,

and if you're gonna do this, you want to do a good job.

What is a typical day in the life of Anna assistants?

Something I did find that was quite nice

was, like, there had been so many assistants

in that position that, like, it was pretty...

It was very organized and, like, very prescribed, I found,

like, I had, like, a 21-page, like, handbook,

it was nice to know

that, like, so many people have filled these roles,

so there are very specific ways of doing things,

which I found quite helpful.

Who updates the handbook?

Is it, like, the outgoing first assistant

when they leave?

That's a good question, probably.

I'm not sure that many things get updated,

like, what changes?

I know.

Well, but now, I'm like...

I do feel like things are, like...

[Sache] Oh, completely different now.

Yeah, and, like, just different people are around

and, like, yeah, I do feel like it...

Yeah, the days start really early,

so, like, someone's getting Anna coffee

in the morning kind of thing,

or getting her breakfast and setting up the office.

What does setting up the office include?

I know in the book there's, like, laboriously detailed,

going down to the newsstand,

getting all the new newspapers and things, blah, blah, blah,

that doesn't happen anymore,

everything she's reading early in the morning online, right?

Yeah, I mean, for me,

I think it was just setting up her breakfast

and, like, opening her office doors.

Yeah, it was, like, opening the doors,

setting up the board, putting out the schedule...

What's setting up the board?

An iPad that we use on the...

Like, on the desk where it shows her to-dos that day,

reminders, and then...

It's not printed, it's on an iPad.

It's on an iPad 'cause it changes so much,

so if someone wants to see her...

'Cause in the book, there's a whole thing

about constantly reprinting

and it's, who's fastest to reprint?

Well, you have to reprint the schedule,

and that changes often. We're still...

Anna still prefers to see most documents printed,

the board is probably the one thing

that does live on a tech platform, but all...

Any emails that we help draft or send on her behalf,

she has to review those printed, even if it's a one-liner,

she'll write an edit, and then, it's printed,

so any speeches, people are constantly giving things

to her office to show Anna and all these documents

next to this iPad is something we call the inbox,

and it's, like, a physical paper tray,

and so, throughout that day,

we're constantly adding documents to this paper tray,

and Anna will come back to her desk

in-between her many meetings,

she's typically back-to-back all day,

and when she has a few minutes,

she'll just pick up whatever's in that physical inbox,

write her edits, and then, pass the documents

back to her office to process them.

And when she wasn't at the office,

it was a lot of faxing things,

learning how to fax things to her home.

A lot of faxing.

Yeah, so...

Are we still faxing?

I don't think so.

They fax sometimes to... Do they?

Yes.

I love that, I felt so retro.

Yeah, honestly.

In the film and in the book, there's a lot of...

When her driver calls up to say she's on her way up,

the security guard calls up,

She's coming, gird your loins,

what's the real version of that?

Honestly, it's...

I don't think it's...

It's not as dramatic as that, but it does happen,

usually get a call from her driver

saying that she dropped her off,

and it's usually two to three, five minutes

depending on what time it is for her to get upstairs,

and you do wanna be prepared.

But it's just, like, the people in her...

Like, it's not the whole office...

Yeah, it's not the whole office.

It's just, like, her assistants.

Well, by the time she comes in,

there's no one usually there. [laughs]

Well, that's also true.

She is the first one,

aside from her assistants, in the office,

but I do think that's not even

just specific to Anna and Vogue,

I think, you know, at a lot of companies

where you do have a leader who has a lot of respect

and, you know, people feel that way

when they come up to the office,

you wanna make sure everyone's settled.

I mean, there's definitely still a conversation,

like, Is she in today? Is she gone?

But, I mean, there's not this, like, mass panic

of throwing off your flats and putting on your heels.

I mean, I changed out of my clogs

into more, like, appropriate shoes, for sure,

but that was, like-

What were your appropriate shoes, Marley?

They were...

I think I was wearing, like, smoking slippers or something,

like, I was wearing, like, slippers,

'cause at first, I was told that I needed to wear heels

and I was like...

And I did for a bit... Who told you that?

The first assistant...

[indistinct]

She was kind of like,

Everyone in Anna's office wears heels,

and I was like, Well, we're gonna give that a go,

and that maybe lasted for, like, two weeks,

things are happening at a certain pace

and it sometimes involves a bit of running...

A lot of running.

Yes, and so, I was finding it

not practical to be in heels,

also, you're, like, running to print things, like, it...

So...

Explain why you're running.

When she...

You just wanna be timely.

Yes, when she ask for someone,

she wants that person very quickly.

Also, it's important to herd. You have to herd...

I'm sorry, who are you herding?

Like, any of the editors,

because people will slow down,

and so, if you walk, like, behind them, you can just...

Oh, my god.

[Chloe] Wow. But there is...

But you don't want...

Shepherd Taylor.

I definitely did that a lot.

Okay, so you would herd people

to move them at a swifter pace towards a meeting room.

In my day, what you would do

is the first assistant would call whoever it was,

and then, I would run to get them,

and then, sometimes, the call would beat me

or I would beat the call,

and so, then I would just hover until they were ready,

if I hover, usually, they are faster,

and then, I would let them walk in front of me,

and then, I would walk behind them.

Okay, yeah, I mean, I do remember a distinct...

When I started working here in 2011,

it was, like, a flurry of fingers on the landline

calling everyone's landline,

so, like, you would get the second assistant...

Actually, both assistants, and they would say,

I want pre-release early, and similar...

Or, I want this run through early,

and similar to the book and the movie

where it's, like, everyone's expecting it in an hour,

their hands are flying to dial 14 four-digit extensions

and you get your...

We all used to have landlines, R.I.P.,

you would answer, you didn't even have to hear anything...

They'd be like, Pre-release now...

[indistinct]

And then, you'd have to run,

and then, after all those numbers were dialed,

the stragglers would have to be gone and fetched,

and then, herded into the room to keep things moving.

Yeah, exactly.

But now, there's no landline,

so there's some cellphone calling,

there's an email that will go out,

but it's mostly running around.

Yes.

That's just tough, I mean, I think that's worse.

I love the running around,

'cause we were so busy, I could never exercise...

You're also a runner, yeah.

So I would just, like, run the office.

Wow, that was your exercise.

[Sache] Yeah.

I ran a marathon, my two-month...

This November, I started working for Anna, which was...

Wow.

That's crazy.

A hard thing.

One of the biggest moments in the book

is about handling the book, and in the movie,

can you guys break down

what that process is actually like and how...?

What is the book? How is it used?

When and where is it going?

Back to what Anna's assistants do today,

her whole office is centered around something

called the take-home bag,

take home as in you take it home, it's kind of like...

[indistinct]

Well, some people are always like, Take home what?

Take...

And describe the take-home bag, 'cause it looms large.

So it looms large,

it's an LLB, extra, extra large, open boat tote,

and this is Anna's homework bag, you know, to...

She never wants anyone waiting on her for feedback,

so throughout the day, it's Anna's assistant's job

to think about what she needs to review that night

in order to be caught up,

so they're printing out different documents,

whether it's speeches or event guest lists.

Or a copy from the magazine.

Yes, that she needs to include.

That's a big one and something I'm really impressed by,

is that Anna reads every single thing

that goes into the magazine,

and that all goes into her take-home, and she will read...

if three 4,000-word pieces come in in one night,

she's giving feedback...

Very detailed feedback

on all of them by the next morning.

Exactly, and the bag is that process

that allows her to do that,

and so, the book is just another one of those items

that goes in the bag, and this is a dummy book

of that magazine issue that's coming out,

usually three months later, we start these,

you know, I'd say three, four months in advance.

Well, for example, right now,

we have the book of the summer issue

and that will come out in early June, it's a printing,

8.5-by-11 printouts of every page in the magazine

in a three-ring binder...

Not binder, but a three-ring...

Yeah, book.

Book, and a lot of post-its are going on that book.

Sometimes, post-its without any writing...

[indistinct]

Kind of like, Something's amiss here,

something we're gonna have

a conversation about later, probably.

So how long do you have to wait

to get the book to take it home?

[Marley] Sometimes, it was late.

Yeah, it really depends.

Anna has a doctor's handwriting.

I was gonna say, are we allowed to talk about that?

She's talked about it.

[Chloe] She's talked about that.

It's so...

Like, it's a skill.

[indistinct]

The village it takes to decode an Anna message...

[Marley] It's so satisfying.

[indistinct]

I used to send them photos all the time.

When Marley cracked something, I'm in awe.

I still...

There was one time when I couldn't...

It was something that Taylor Antrim had

and I could not figure it out,

and I got it at, like, 10:00 PM that night

'cause I could not stop thinking about it.

What was it?

Oh, I don't remember now, but it was, like...

It's incredible. It's the best feeling

when you guess something, it's like...

[Sammi sighing in relief]

When you resolve it, it's, like...

It's amazing. But sometimes,

I find that you have to take a picture of it

and really sit with it for a while.

[Chloe laughing]

Yeah, you would, like, flip it upside-down,

like, step away...

You'd have to use a lot of context clues. [laughs]

And, like, hover over things.

[indistinct]

All these to avoid asking her, to be clear.

Well, I would allow myself to ask her once a week.

Oh, I was asking her, like...

I was like, I can't...

There's no time for this, I was like...

And sometimes, Anna will be like, I don't know...

[indistinct]

I'd sometimes just have to, like, take an educated guess

and just see if it's right.

Yeah, exactly.

For remarks, I would always be just like,

Well, this works.

Yeah, you just have to give it a go,

and then, she'll tell you if it's wrong.

Oh, exactly.

She will tell...

She'll always tell you if it's wrong.

[People] Yes.

Okay, in the book and the movie, run-throughs loom large

because it's quite...

I feel like people are so fascinated by those

because they're so physical, it's, like, moving racks

quickly down a hall into her office,

are the assistants involved in the run-throughs at all?

What does that look like?

We're involved in scheduling them,

and then, sometimes we help with the rack, but mostly not.

Yeah, it's just...

Or they...

Yeah, moving racks around I think.

It was fun to listen though,

because that's one of the things

that really is true to the movie

and I remember that was a cool moment

where I was like, Wow, I'm at Vogue, and it's...

You know, 'cause you get to...

The doors are open.

So, like, give an example,

like, what are some things discussed?

They discuss...

It's really that whole cerulean moment,

you know, they roll a whole fashion rack,

or two racks into Anna's office...

Trays of accessories.

And it's the sittings editor,

and our global head of fashion, Virginia Smith,

and they run Anna through

all the clothes that they have picked out

for whatever upcoming shoot we have,

and Anna gives her feedback,

and the feedback might be, This looks great,

it might be like,

It mostly looks great except for this one thing,

or it might be like...

Start over.

We need to totally start over.

And they're talking about the casting sometimes.

Yeah, so Talon is usually there, Raul's always there,

I remember when I was first,

it was always trying to figure out where Raul was,

'cause he was so busy,

you know, he is always running around.

Do you do run-throughs?

Yes, I do run-throughs,

Anna also now often will come down to the closet

now that it's on 20,

she still likes to be involved in the run-through,

I think she really enjoys it,

we've been doing them together,

or I'll just do it alone with Virginia and Naomi

and the sittings editor,

I also think it's nice to have

the photographer involved sometimes,

I think that that will yield some feedback

that you maybe didn't expect,

but I find run-throughs are really helpful,

and I think before I was in this current role,

I didn't appreciate what a difference they make

for really grasping the sittings editor's vision

for the shoot, and that can really make a difference.

So obviously in the movie, Andy undergoes a major makeover,

but can you guys debunk that a bit?

Did any of you go through a makeover?

Do you get dressed from the closet?

Can you discuss what an assistant's dress code

typically looks like?

Are you wearing heels like Marley Marius?

I wear heels every day.

I wore Josef boots with long black trousers,

and then, just a different sweater every day.

Interesting. How high a heel?

Three inches? Four inches maybe?

[Chloe] Wow. That's high.

Not...

It wasn't four.

Maybe it was three?

I think it was two or three.

Okay. I don't know.

But good for you.

Oh, yeah, but they were the most comfortable,

I mean, I wore them I first Met, it was...

They were the best. I've retired them though.

But you did, like, kind of have a uniform ultimately?

Yes, definitely, wore black trousers and a shirt...

Sweater every day.

You still sort of wear that.

Yeah.

Yeah. Since I was, like, such a sort of Replica Handbag Store fan girl,

I, like, really...

I'm glad you said it.

I know, but I really, like,

admired Tonne Goodman in particular

and I was like, Okay, it's cool to have a uniform,

like, if you, like...

You know, you can kind of wear the same thing every day

if it's, like, very neat,

and so, I would wear, like, a white linen shirt,

like, collarless linen shirt, and, like, black pants,

and then, like, smoking slippers or whatever,

and, like, maybe a sweater,

and I did that every day

because I was like, I don't want...

You don't have to...

You don't wanna have to wake up

and, like, think about what you're wearing every day

when you have to wake up so early

and every day is so busy. Were so many assistants,

like, Jessie would have a full outfit every day.

But so did Jasmine, Jasmine, like...

I just didn't understand how they did that.

Yeah, I know, I mean, 'cause I was also like,

I'm not a fashion girl in that way,

like, I liked fashion a lot, and I appreciated it,

but, like, I wasn't, like, getting...

I...

You know, being dressed up wasn't quite my thing, so...

There was a woman I...

Anna was getting interviewed by someone, and...

In the office, and I had to greet them,

and they wrote about me in the interview saying,

And the assistant was wearing all black,

Anna must have hated that.

[Marley] Oh, stop it.

I was like, She doesn't care.

Sammi, what's your uniform?

I'd say I'm usually in some sort of a healed shoe.

My first two weeks, I did wear, like, a full, like, pump

and I had crazy blisters, like, couldn't...

It was so bad, so I retired that after two weeks

after seeing how much we had to run,

but now, I'll just wear a bootie usually.

I prefer some height.

If we come in on a Friday,

that's when I would use a ballet flat

if my feet were getting tired,

but yeah, I'll just wear, like, black pants

and usually a blazer, and a nice shirt.

I feel like you do a big suiting look,

a consistent suiting look.

Yes, I feel like...

Dress for...

I like the phrase, like, dress for your day,

but I also think when you're in Anna's office

or any, you know, role at Vogue,

you never know what's gonna happen, and so...

So true.

You know, you have these like important meetings

with important people pop up

and, you know, last week, you know, it was a Friday

and I typically dress down for a Friday,

and then, you know, Anna has people meeting her

and she'll pull you into meetings,

so it's always, I think, nice to have

at least a little blazer...

Dress for the day you want.

Dress for the day you want, I like that, I'll adopt...

Yeah, but that is what I try to do.

I'm curious, when the...?

Like, what's the worst Anna's ever seen you in?

Because I have an answer.

I wanna debunk the closet myth,

because there's no borrowing from the closet.

Like, I remember when I started at Vogue

and I was covering a lot of events

when I was, you know, in my 20s, I...

There was a certain rack of the closet

where you could borrow shoes,

but, like, the Manolos were kept

in a cupboard locked by key,

and only Mimosa had the key.

[people laughing]

Oh, my god. Mimosa, keeper of the Manolos.

Mimosa is the keeper of the Manolos

and everything else in the closet,

but there's not clothes to be borrowed in the closet

because the closet is really clothes

that are called in for specific shoots,

there are, say, undergarments that are kept,

tights, hats, things that you might need

to accessorize or help a shoot, but clothes themselves,

it's very rare that that's happening.

Right, I will say, though, like, for the Met, you can...

I mean, I have borrowed shoes for the Met, I think,

yeah, like...

Yeah, I mean, I feel like on very special occasions,

if you're really in a pinch,

you can probably borrow something,

but yeah, you're not, like...

Clothes aren't being thrown at you

for, like, events, like...

You can call them in, which is lovely.

Sure.

Some people can borrow clothes,

but that's a favor that fashion PRs do for Vogue,

and it has to be meted out with care.

Yeah, it's not the way

it's described at all in the book, like...

[Sammi] No, not at all.

And I'll say people dress very differently now

than when I started,

where it really was the opening montage of the film,

of, you know, women having five almonds,

and pulling their stockings up,

and the perfect shoe that's four inches high,

and no one was wearing those shoes on the subway

was kind of the vibe people wanted to give off,

and now, I feel like everyone's walking around

in Adidas by Wales Bonner and Rollneck J Crew.

Yeah, I'd say there's this one...

As you said, most people...

Like, a lot of people in the office are in jeans, sneakers,

but, like, the one unspoken rule, I think it's...

It was never explicitly said, but in Anna's office

is that there's no jeans or no sneakers, so...

Definitely no jeans.

Yeah, but other people in the office

will wear those things, but no jeans or sneakers.

Yeah, so when I...

Like, when I graduated out of Anna's office,

that's the first thing I did,

I started wearing jeans to the office, it was amazing.

Wow. Marley, I've never seen you in jeans.

I don't really like jeans. I don't really like...

[indistinct]

God knows I dress casually in other ways,

but yeah, not really a blue jeans kinda gal.

Did anyone ever give you a makeover of sorts

or take you under their wing?

[People] No.

No, but I do remember,

like, again, at the one Met that I went to,

in Anna's office, like, I do remember,

like, Tonne kinda, like, helping me with, like...

I was wearing like this, like, long red dress from the row

and I feel like there might be some kind of...

Wow, subtle flex.

I know, but I feel like there was some kind of, like...

I don't know whether she added this ribbon

or, like, it was, like, closed by ribbon,

I do remember her kinda, like, doing something

and I was like, Oh, my god,

I was like, This is crazy, so...

And then, you know, subsequent years,

people aren't helping with Met stuff,

that's kinda the only example I can think of.

Yes, the Met, I would say Willow Linley

has always been the person that helped me.

Yes, Annie Troy also would help

with, like, staff, like, not...

Yeah, also later.

I wanna know what it was like working your first Met.

I mean...

Any fun stories?

[Marley] Long day.

Did you have to memorize a face sheet

and whisper to Anna when the ambassador

and his new mistress arrived?

No, that's my job now.

That's Sache's job. She does a great job at it.

Thank you.

I unfortunately know everybody, but they don't know me.

[people laughing]

I didn't have to memorize things,

the weirdest thing was running up the stairs,

like, running up the red carpet stairs, that was unnerving

'cause there was just, like, so many cameras

and so many people,

and you think that, like, eyes are gonna be on you

when you're running up those stairs,

but no one cares, which is fantastic,

but I got caught on the livestream

and woke up to many, many texts being like, I saw you!

Oh, that's funny.

When Anna arrives to the Met,

she does all of her press interviews,

and then, her assistants arrive with her

but they're obviously not doing the interviews with her,

so we kind of just make a beeline behind her up the stairs,

and then, wait for her at the top.

Anything else from the film or book

that you would like to debunk

or the biggest misconception about being an assistant?

Well, I mean, an important point that's made early on,

and then, you sort of see it at the end

is really how supportive Anna is when you are moving on,

and, I mean, all three of us are good examples of this

where, I mean, certainly most of the moves

that I've made through Vogue,

Anna was directly responsible for,

like, she moved me out of her office

into working with Mark Holgate and Hamish Bowles,

and then, in 2020, she got on a Zoom with me

and she was like, Your assisting days are over,

now, you're working on the culture team,'

I think she was the one who suggested

that I write the Zendaya cover story,

like, when she feels that you've done a good job

or when she feels like

you've been in a certain role long enough,

in my personal experience, she's very supportive

about helping you make your next step because she...

You know, I think she wants people at Vogue

to sort of feel fulfilled,

and do jobs that are appropriate to them

and, you know, not sort of feel stagnant,

and she, I think, believes in people

before maybe they necessarily know what they can do,

and that...

Yeah, I mean, I am sort of very grateful for her

for that reason, and for lots of reasons,

but certainly for that reason.

I mean, Sache's planning the Met Gala now.

Literally.

The glow-up.

Feels just like yesterday.

Thank you, ladies. Very exciting!

Thank you. Thank you, Chloe.

Thank you. Thanks.

[Sammi] Chloe, you look like a proud mom.

It's too much.

[indistinct]

[upbeat electronic music]