Life at Vogue? Please forget about the Devil wears Prada. Miranda doesn't exist! There is no time for being brats. Plus I don't see who would take it or take "me".
In a creative world like this, each role has a precise task. There is the production and the closing of magazine issues, budgets and timings to respect.
It's true that our life is full of surprises and never the same.
There is no routine. The journalists, mostly women, have their own role in the magazine. They are divided in between room according to their duties, and organize their own work.
The office is divided in fashion, news, beauty, creative direction, administration, wardrobe. There is a director, vice-director, an editor in chief, and news editor, beauty editor, and fashion editor. The other editors. In the art department, where the pages of the magazine get organized, there is an Art Director, an another Editor in chief, and a manager. In administration there is the secretary for the entire magazine, two for production, or photo shoots. The wardrobe has someone working there and fashion editors with their assistant. These are the jobs.
How do we actually live? It looks like total chaos. People come by, wait, constantly people coming in and out, models with their books in the hopes of getting a job, collaborators who bring their work in, fashion editors in and out of the wardrobe looking for clothes and accessories to photograph,
and huge shopping bags get left in the hallway to be sent back to the wardrobe.
In all this confusion, everything still works perfectly. It's like we have chosen the actors and once we start rolling it's on, everyone goes where he should go without bumping on someone else. In the offices phones keep ringing and there are countless emails. The editors in chief organize meetings to assign everyone his task, and then everybody goes off to do his own job.
Don't think for one second it's like Miranda's clean and spotless office. Newspapers, composits, articles, photos we are not using, dictionaries, bags full of perfumes, creams, catalogues, books to review, everything is everywhere.
Even on the floor and on the desks.
Sometimes, like magic, everything disappears and reappears couple days later. The materials we receive everyday is enormous.
The wardrobe is like a dream come true for every woman. Big rooms where you can all of the clothes and accessories you like. You find everything! The editors make their pick and the rest gets sent back to the designers' press offices.
It's not true that the director goes to choose herself the clothes. Miranda stays in her office or travels. I haven't seen the wardrobe for ten years!
I make my picks at fashion shows only for important pieces.
It's a frenetic life, there are no breaks. No hours, maybe just an estimate. There is no beginning or end. It depends on the amount of work and the moment.
You can't really commit to something post Vogue. You never know. New York is six hours behind and Los Angeles nine. We always get emergencies.
The work in a fashion magazine can be a dream and sometimes true hell. But you are never in a limbo!!!
Franca Sozzani
Published:
08/02/2010
