Anna Wintour’s Former Assistants Reveal What The Devil Wears Prada Got Right (and Wrong)

Summary

Podcast Summary

The Run-Through with Vogue
Episode: Anna Wintour’s Former Assistants Reveal What The Devil Wears Prada Got Right (and Wrong)
Date: April 9, 2026
Hosts: Chloe Malle & Chioma Nnadi
Guests: Sammy Tapper, Marlee Marius, Arden Fanning Andrews (serving as Anna’s former assistants, aka “Anna’s Angels”); Sasha Taylor (later referenced); brief comments from Vogue team.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives headfirst into the lived reality behind The Devil Wears Prada, with three of Anna Wintour’s former assistants—now all thriving in prominent Vogue roles—unpacking how the infamous stereotype matches their own experiences in Anna’s office. Expect lively, candid anecdotes about Vogue interviews, intense days, office fashion, “the book,” and run-throughs, peppered with revelations about what the film and book got right, what it exaggerated, and what daily Vogue life is truly like.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The May Cover & Devil Wears Prada Meta Moment

• Vogue’s latest May cover features Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep (film’s Miranda Priestly), arranged with tight secrecy and handled by Anna’s current assistants.
• Chloe describes the logistics as “[being] guarded like the Pentagon Papers” (03:00) and delights in the meta-layer: “It’s sort of meta that Anna's two current assistants really made this happen. This cover about The Devil Wears Prada to happen.” (09:33)
• The cover marks a major Vogue moment and intersects with their second Book Club pick: The Devil Wears Prada.
• Notable Quote: “Two devils in Prada.” —Choma Nadi Shoma (03:15)

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2. Vogue Interviews: What Did You Wear?

• The hosts and Vogue editors reminisce about what they wore when first interviewing with Anna, threading in themes of anxiety and fashion rules.

  • Chioma: “So I showed up in…my jeans…a nice blazer…[and] really beaten up Steve Madden sandals…That’s how I showed up.” (04:36)
  • Chloe: Describes two interview looks, noting “I of course didn’t know about the no black rule, but I thought, well, I’m interviewing at Vogue, I’m sure I should wear black.” (06:20)

• Advice: “Don’t wear black.” –Choma Nadi Shoma (07:56)

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3. Introducing Anna’s Angels (18:23–19:09)

• Sammy Tapper: Director of Operations & Content Strategy; Assistant to Anna from Aug 2023–Oct 2025
• Marlee Marius: Senior Editor; Assistant from May 2017–Aug 2018
• Arden Fanning Andrews: Director of Special Events; Assistant Feb 2019–2022

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4. Landing the Assistant Job: Fact vs. Fiction

• Paths to the Office:

  • Sammy: Recruited via a mysterious LinkedIn DM, multiple rapid interviews, landed job within a week.
  • Marlee: Campaigned to have Anna as her high school grad speaker, stayed in touch over years, then got job via a direct Anna-forwarded referral.
  • Arden: Moved from Special Events to Anna’s Assistant after two weeks.

• Notable Moment:

  • Marlee on the Anna campaign: “I sort of campaigned for [Anna to speak]…wrote a thank you note, and she responded. Her office responded through her email address. And I sort of kept in touch over the years.” (21:31)

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5. The Interview Experience & Anna’s Approach

• The infamous “grilling” is debunked as largely personal:

  • Anna asks about personal interests: “What do you do in your free time? What do you read? How do you spend your time?” (23:47)
  • All were surprised at how personal, not intimidating, Anna was.
  • Anna wants “people with personality and with interests…She doesn’t want a robot.” (24:32)

• First reactions echo the film: friends always ask, “Is it just like the books or movie?”

  • Marlee: “The answer was kind of like no… Like there are shades, but not like that.” (27:35)

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6. Life as Anna’s Assistant: The Realities

• Structure:

  • There are two assistant roles—personal (AW2) & executive (AW1), promoted up over time.
  • Relationship mostly mentor/mentee, not rivalry (like in the film).
  • The “handbook,” a well-worn, 21-page guide, dictates processes. (33:00)

• Intensity & Hours:

  • Personal lives entwined with work; extremely demanding but supported by Vogue’s sense of community.
  • “You’re committing 120% to it for X amount of time. And again…Anna doesn’t have career assistants [because] you do have to dedicate so much.” –Sammy (32:33)

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7. Daily Duties: Office Rituals & The Myth of ‘Gird Your Loins’

• Office setup no longer includes newsstand runs—instead, assistants set out iPad schedules and breakfast, and print documents for Anna’s review.
• Anna still insists on printed documents for reviews and feedback; the “inbox” is a physical tray stacked all day. (34:11-35:06)
• “Gird your loins” is mostly fiction; there is an alert system for Anna’s arrival but no mass panic. The panic is limited to the assistants needing to be ready. (35:32–36:06)

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8. On Fashion, Dress Codes & The ‘Makeover’ Myth

• No actual makeover moments.
• “No jeans or sneakers” are the main rules in Anna’s office; otherwise, practical uniforms are the norm.
  • Arden: “I wore heels every day…three inches…Joseph boots with long black trousers and a different sweater every day.” (44:50)
  • Sammy: “My first two weeks I did wear…a pump and I had crazy blisters…now I’ll just wear a booty. I prefer some height.” (46:22)
  • Marlee: “I wore…the same thing every day…white linen shirt, black pants…smoking slippers.” (45:16)
• Closet borrowing is extremely rare—clothes are not loaned as they are for shoots.

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9. The Legendary “Book” and The Take-Home Bag (39:02–40:53)

• The “book” is a print dummy of the magazine issue, full of marked-up edits, not a mysterious power folder.
• The famous “take-home bag” is an L.L. Bean tote, always packed by assistants with all materials Anna needs each night—including “the book,” speeches, guest lists, and much more.
• Anna’s handwriting is notoriously difficult: “I was gonna say, are we allowed to talk about that?” (40:38)
  • Deciphering it involves snapping photos, crowdsourcing, and guesswork, and assistants allow themselves only limited asks for clarification.

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10. Run-throughs: Real & Reel

• Assistants coordinate, but don’t lead, run-throughs—helping with fashion “racks,” but mostly handling logistics.
  • Sammy: “That’s one of the things that really is true to the movie…it’s really that whole cerulean moment.” (42:03)
  • Chloe: Anna participates fully, sharing hands-on feedback with the sittings team and sometimes the photographer.

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11. Perks, Met Gala, and the Exit Path

• Borrowing from the closet is not standard, though assistants may get limited access for the Met Gala or in emergencies (48:05–48:23).

• At the Met, assistants are not in the spotlight—though being caught in a live stream is always possible!

  • Arden: “But I got caught on the livestream and woke up to many, many texts being like, I saw you.” (51:05)

• Anna plays a huge role in promoting assistants’ careers after their tenure.

  • Marlee: “She wants people at Vogue to sort of feel fulfilled and do jobs that are appropriate to them…believes in people before maybe they necessarily know what they can do.” (52:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Two devils in Prada.” –Choma Nadi Shoma (03:15)
• “I, of course, didn’t know about the no black rule, but I thought, well, I’m interviewing at Vogue, I’m sure I should wear black.” –Chloe Malle (06:20)
• “Anna doesn’t have career assistants…because you do have to dedicate so much.” –Sammy Tapper (32:33)
• “You’re committing 120% to it for X amount of time.” –Sammy Tapper (32:33)
• “Anna wants people at Vogue to…do jobs that are appropriate to them…believes in people before maybe they necessarily know what they can do.” –Marlee Marius (52:23)
• “No jeans or sneakers.” –Arden Fanning Andrews (49:08)
• “Decoding Anna’s handwriting…when you resolve it, it’s like—it’s amazing.” –Arden Fanning Andrews (41:06)
• “The answer was kind of like no…there are shades, but not like that.” –Marlee Marius on if her job was like the movie (27:35)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 03:00 — Secretive arranging of the Anna & Meryl Streep cover
• 06:20 — What the hosts wore to their Vogue interviews
• 09:53 — Book club pick: The Devil Wears Prada sparks debate
• 18:23 — Introduction of Anna’s Angels, former assistants
• 19:57–22:29 — How each assistant got the job
• 23:47 — The surprising personal tone of Anna's interviews
• 28:05 — Two-assistant structure; roles & relationships
• 32:33 — How the job takes over your life
• 33:00 — Daily routines, handbooks, and technology changes
• 35:32 — “Gird your loins” IRL: Anna’s arrival
• 39:02 — The “book” and the take-home bag explained
• 41:57 — The run-through: what’s real, what’s movie magic
• 44:50 — Debunking the “makeover;” assistant fashion realities
• 49:08 — “No jeans or sneakers” in Anna’s office
• 52:23 — Anna’s support for career-building long term

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Conclusion

This episode unpacks which Devil Wears Prada myths are fact, which are fiction, and offers an honest—often humorous—peek behind Vogue’s legendary doors. The core themes: the job is grueling but a career catapult, Anna is rigorous but supportive, and while the fashion isn’t always Prada, the pace and stakes are undeniably Vogue.

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For True Devil Wears Prada & Vogue Fans:
This episode is a must-listen for anyone who’s ever wondered if the fashion fairy tale is really a fever dream or just a working Monday—turns out, it’s something in between.

Transcript

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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[Chloe Mel]

This is the run through.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I'm Chloe Mel.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

And I'm Choma Nadi Shoma.

[Chloe Mel]

I can't wait to hear about your vacation. I feel like we should start with the COVID because that's like the big thing.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I know. We're not starting with my vacation. Fuck my vacation.

[Chloe Mel]

We're starting with the COVID I know,

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

like, the cover's major. Like it's like the biggest thing ever.

[Chloe Mel]

I mean, the way that this has been guarded like the Pentagon papers.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I can't believe you kept this from me. Chloe, this is really special.

[Chloe Mel]

I know, it's wild.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I feel like, you know when you go to a surprise party and you're

[Chloe Mel]

like, ah, how did you manage this? I know the NDAs that had to be signed. And poor Virginia, like no one on her team knew. So Virginia was doing store pulls with Grace Coddington herself, pulling the clothes out of packing them in the trunks at the shoot, me and Taylor were just doing all the texts together. It's been a real.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Oh, my gosh.

[Chloe Mel]

It's sort of our all the President's Men moment.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Oh, my God, you must be exhausted after that.

[Chloe Mel]

But, yes, it was very exciting. And Anna really made this happen with Meryl, who is very hesitant to be on the COVID again. And so it did start with me asking Anna in October if she would ever be on the COVID with Meryl, and her saying, absolutely not. And then when Meryl asked her, it was maybe.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I'm so glad you convinced her, because I think that's what adds the kind of specialness to this. Just to have them both on the COVID And the shoot looks so fun, and you can just tell that, you know, they're such good friends. And then I love that she's looking at her on the COVID It's just me, too. Really strong. And what they're wearing, they're both wearing different versions of the Prada woman, which I really think is fun.

[Chloe Mel]

So true. Two devils and Prada.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah. So very, very cool. No, it was. Bravo. It was so such a fun surprise. And Wonder cover. Fabulous.

[Chloe Mel]

It's been. It's been exciting and fun to work on. And onward we go for the Devil's Prada. Two met gala duel. Major moments at the same time. It's been. It's. It's a big month of April for us.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Buckle up. It sounds like you're going to have to buckle up for a while.

[Chloe Mel]

I know. We're buckling up. We're very excited about our Vogue book club with the Devil's Prada, and we've been sort of unrolling our reading plan and articles to go with that. Emma Spector did a very funny piece where she interviewed 30 Vogue staffers about what they wore for their interviews with Anna. And that was also our first group chat on in our app. Book club conversation is what would you wear to interview with Miranda Priestly? My favorite was Plum Sykes replied, Alaia, period.

[Sammy Tapper]

Always for every occasion.

[Chloe Mel]

Choma, what did you wear for your interview with Anna?

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I guess I was asked to see Anna on a Friday, but I was contacted in the morning, so I was already at work, so I couldn't really go home and change.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

So I showed up in. In my jeans. I had a sort of a nice blazer. I think it was like Karen Walker. She was like a fun New Zealand designer who was. Who was making sunglasses at the time, who did some fun clothes as well. And I had the kind of like this bag that I got a sample sale, but I was wearing these really beaten up Steve Madden sandals. And I really didn't have any money to go and buy any better shoes. But I went and just bought the same sandals new, so they were very plain like sandals. So that's how I showed up.

[Chloe Mel]

And it worked.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah, but I didn't get the job first time around. So there were two so interesting.

[Chloe Mel]

So it didn't work.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

It didn't work. But they said that I was very much liked. And Laurie Jones, who was Anna's managing editor at the time, who everybody was obsessed with and she was this amazing woman.

[Chloe Mel]

We love Lauren.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah, she was just, just straight talking. I remember having my interview with her and I really enjoyed it. And she was apparently she, she. The message was relayed via her that, you know, they very much liked me and they loved to consider me for another role. And I just thought, oh, that's roles at Vogue don't come up that often. But lo and behold, a fashion writer role came up because both fashion writers left around the same time. And Florence Kane and Jane Herman, they both kind of left in quick succession. So I got to at the job cause an internal candidate, my dear friend Esther Adams, got the job first time around. So we were two Brits on the fashion desk. Sorry, this is a very long winded answer to tell you what I was wearing on my.

[Chloe Mel]

No, I like it.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

But yeah, it was good not to agonize about what I was gonna wear to meet Anna, to be honest. What did you wear when you interviewed at Vogue?

[Chloe Mel]

Well, as you'll read in Emma's piece, I actually interviewed with Anna twice because she was not convinced the first time around, which was also conveyed via Laurie Jones. The first time I wor a collared, short black Diane von Furstenberg sort of polo dress. Like it was sort of a thick, almost like neoprene y blend fabric. I of course didn't know about the no black rule, but I thought, well, I'm interviewing a Vogue, I'm sure I should wear black. So I wore that with a striped, a gray and cream striped Philip Lim blazer. And I don't remember what shoes I wore. I think it was probably a sort of a simple black pump. And I wore a weird bag from this store in Paris that I love, jama poche. That's sort of these weird like beaded velvet bags. I don't know what I was thinking, but there we go. And then the second time I interviewed, I wore like a creamy tan, like an oatmeal colored silk Blouse from Zara Skandal and J. Crew, sort of ankle length trousers and a pair of brown Repetto ballet slippers.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Oh, my God.

[Chloe Mel]

And I remember that someone in Silvana wore Durette's office sort of kindly, but it just made me laugh. Was like, oh, I have those shoes too. I wear them on Fridays.

[Sammy Tapper]

Oh my God.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Hilarious.

[Sammy Tapper]

No way.

[Chloe Mel]

Burn.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I used to tell candidates who I wanted to get jobs at Vogue and work with me to be like, don't wear black.

[Chloe Mel]

I have to say that truly for over a year, since we heard about the sequel to Devil Wears Prada, we have been talking about and even before that we were like, we need a fact versus fiction with Ana's actual assistance on what it's like being in Ana's office. And we decided to speak to some a variety of individuals who have worked in Anna's office but still now work in different roles at Vogue. We spoke to Sasha Taylor, our director of special events, and Sammy Tapper, who's our director of operations, and Marlee Marius, who is friend of the POD and features editor. Honestly, it was so much fun. I sat here interviewing the three of them. They were like Charlie's Angels, but Anna's Angels. And we talked about everything from why you're always running in Anna's office, to the two things you're not allowed to wear in Anna's office, to some of the unexpected perks of the job. Oh, my goodness.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I can't wait to listen to this. I obviously need to listen to the episode about the May cover before I listen to this.

[Chloe Mel]

You sure do. I know it has been really fun to see because Sammy Tapper was really involved in getting the May cover together and she obviously was Anna's assistant recently. She's now sort of our director of operations, but also Anna's two assistants currently Caroline and Emily. A real Emily in our midst. I haven't met Caroline and Emily.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I haven't met the new the newest.

[Chloe Mel]

They're fabulous. And they were in on the circle of trust around this cover. And so I love that it's sort of meta that Anna's two current assistants really made this happen. This cover about the Devil was Prada to happen.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I love it. I love it. I'm so into it.

[Chloe Mel]

We announced last week that the Devil Wears Prada is our pick for our second book club. And it's been so much fun to see people flock to the app to chat about this. I bought 15 used copies on Thriftbooks and they flew out of my office.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Stupid.

[Chloe Mel]

We've been Having some very heated debates. I actually have asked Nicole Phelps to do a fact, verse, fiction, fashion edition for the Devil Wears Prada because she is furious at some of the. What she feels are factual inconsistencies about the book. Like, in the book, it says that Manolo's were $400, and Nicole says they were already $700. She should have known that. I am also amazed at the fact that people are smoking cigarettes indoors and that coffee was $1. I also am fascinated and kind of inspired that clearly Lauren Weisberger was taking notes the whole time she was working in Anna's office. Because it's so Much of the book is just like a daily schedule of what she's doing, which is interesting, but I'm like, should I be taking notes about my job? Cause in 30 years, I'll wanna read about what a crazy time this was. So, yeah, it's very intriguing to go back to that. And I'm very excited to see sort of everyone coming out of the woodwork on what they think about this. Cause really, we realized when we started talking about this that none of us had read the book.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I haven't either. Had you? No, no. Obviously I've seen the film, but I've never read the book. Maybe I should. I need to. How long are we talking? Is this like.

[Chloe Mel]

No, you can. You can breeze through. I actually listen to it, which is sort of fun.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I could do that.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah. Um, I had a big week. I'm still recovering. I tried to wake up early to go running this morning, and I just couldn't get out of bed. Last week, I went to see Cats, the Jellicle Ball, which was very exciting. It's just such a delight of a show. I really can't tell you any of the plot points, but it's a fantasy of cats dancing and screaming and cheering. So I had a very good time at that. Then it was Alice's fourth birthday. She came to the office for lunch, which was very exciting. On Wednesday, April Fools. And then we had a unicorn party at our apartment on Saturday, which was complete bedlam. And then Saturday night, Graham and I actually went to Saturday Night Live. Jack Black was hosting with Jack White as the musical guest.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

That sounds fun.

[Chloe Mel]

And it was so much fun. We had the best time. And then Colman Domingo, friend of the pod, friend of Vogue, is hosting this weekend for his first time. So big, big snl.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Are you going back? I'm going to SNL this weekend, actually, in the.

[Chloe Mel]

Oh, fun. Yes. I was talking to Tina Fey about how she Said that British SNL was so much fun and that the press had been so mean about it that it could only go up from there.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I actually think it's really good and I'm excited to go see it. It'll be my first SNL experience. I've never. I didn't get to see it in

[Chloe Mel]

the US it's always a fun experience.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

What time Is it recorded?

[Chloe Mel]

11:30-1:00am get out.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

And then.

[Chloe Mel]

So we got home at, like, 1:45. And it's. Let me tell you, our children. Yeah, our children were not. Hello, Choma. Saturday Night Live.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I don't know. I'm rethinking this.

[Chloe Mel]

No, it's fun. It's worth it. But Alison, Arthur Albert did not care that we went to bed at 2 in the morning when they came in, barreled in at 6:45am for Easter morning to see if the Easter Bunny.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I just haven't seen that hour in a long time.

[Chloe Mel]

Well, this could be. This could be the beginning. So we had big Easter energy in our house. We had an egg hunt in my mother's apartment. Lots of. Lots of chocolate. But then I sort of. We negotiated the Switch Witch, which is inspired by Halloween. But what's a switch? You negotiate with your children to swap all their candy for a small toy.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Oh, yes, I've heard about this. Yes.

[Chloe Mel]

And then, miraculously, the switch brings the candy to my office.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Oh, my God, that's so funny.

[Chloe Mel]

So then I get the candy. Although I am trying to not eat sugar. Choma, you've inspired me. I'm doing April, no sugar.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

How's that going?

[Chloe Mel]

Okay. I would love some chocolate right now,

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

but have a date.

[Chloe Mel]

I know. I do have dates. I'm crushing dates.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I remember that's what Giselle told me. And I was like, I don't want a date. I literally interviewed Giselle and went to have lunch with her, and she gave me dates for dessert. And at the time, that was not enough for me. And I just had chocolate stashed in my purse.

[Chloe Mel]

I know. It's very hard.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah, it's really hard when you're like, okay, I'm thinking of you so hard. Breaking up with Sugar might be the biggest breakup you ever have.

[Chloe Mel]

Choma, what are you watching? Are you excited about Euphoria coming back? First episode is this Sunday.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I'm so excited. I totally blanked that. It was. It's coming back so soon. I've been waiting for it. Yeah. I love Euphoria. I'm a big Euphoria fan. I'm curious to see what this season will bring because last season was just so epic, it's difficult to imagine how they're gonna raise the bar. What else are you watching?

[Chloe Mel]

I'm actually watching Young Sherlock.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Okay.

[Chloe Mel]

Which is the Guy Ritchie sort of origin story of Sherlock Holmes. And it's super fun and very Guy Ritchie esque and sensational, but very cute. Boys in it, hero finds and Donal Finn. Donal. Donal Finn. Yeah, very cute. It's about sort of the beginning story of Moriarty and Sherlock's friendship and sort of where it goes awry.

[Sammy Tapper]

Okay.

[Chloe Mel]

And so we've been enjoying that. And I went to see the Super Mario movie this weekend. How was that with Arthur Albert? Thrilling. Very exciting. I do love. It was sort of a Jack Black themed weekend because he is Bowser's voice. And then the next day I saw him on snl.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

And

[Chloe Mel]

I did go to see the Raphael show at the Met, which is amazing. You have to try and go and meet her. It's so gorgeous.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I'm really dying to go to see Dangerous Liaisons at the national with.

[Chloe Mel]

Great cast, right?

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah, it's an amazing cast. It is Lesley Manville and that Aidan Turner.

[Chloe Mel]

Right. The cutie from Rivals.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

That was Rivals. That was coming back. That's got to be coming back, isn't it?

[Chloe Mel]

Very soon. Which I learned from Britishphogue.com oh, I'm

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

so excited for Rivals to come back. I'll be very into that.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah. But Aiden Turner, I first discovered him from Rivals and actually I first discovered Rivals because a friend of my mother's texted me watching this British show Rivals, and the main character looks exactly like your Graham. And now I only see Graham when

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I look at him.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

I love that. I love that Monica Barbara's in it too. So I'm excited.

[Sammy Tapper]

I think it's going to be.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

It's going to be a really.

[Chloe Mel]

Monica Barbaro's in Dangerous Liaison. Not.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yes, sorry, not in Rivals. She's in Dangerous Liaisons. So I'm excited for that. Hopefully going to see that this week. So it's going to be a busy weekend between Dynasty, Dangerous Liaisons and snl, which I may fall asleep at.

[Chloe Mel]

I believe you can do this, Choma.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Oh, I don't know, man.

[Chloe Mel]

The run through will be back with a trio of Anna's former assistants. Anna's Angels. Fact versus Fiction.

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[Chloe Mel]

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[Choma Nadi Shoma]

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[Chloe Mel]

Check out [e-mail]. that's o d o o dot com. Welcome, ladies. Could each of you please introduce yourselves. Anna's Angels.

[Sammy Tapper]

Hi, my name is Sammy Tapper.

[Chloe Mel]

Sammy Tapper, what is your current title?

[Sammy Tapper]

My current title is Director of Operations and Content Strategy for US Vogue.

[Chloe Mel]

Okay, and when were you in Anna's office?

[Sammy Tapper]

I was in anna's office from August 2023 until October 2025.

[Chloe Mel]

A full two years.

[Sammy Tapper]

A full two years. And left quite recently.

[Chloe Mel]

Okay. Marlee Marius, introduce yourself. Friend of the pod.

[Marlee Marius]

Friend of the pod. Marlee Marius, senior editor. I was in Anna's office from May of 2017 to, like, August of 2018.

[Chloe Mel]

Just a year.

[Marlee Marius]

Just a year.

[Chloe Mel]

All right, we're gonna come back to each of your trajectories, but we have more questions for Marlee Marius. Oh, Sasha Taylor, introduce yourself, please.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Well, you did that. So that's my name. I'm the director of special events.

[Chloe Mel]

When were you in Anna's office?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I didn't come prepared with the dates.

[Chloe Mel]

Surely you can do this. It's like the years you're in.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

February 2019 to 2023. 2022. I was there for four years.

[Chloe Mel]

That's crazy. And during COVID Yeah, but it was good.

[Marlee Marius]

She says podcast over.

[Chloe Mel]

So we are here today for a very important episode of Fact versus Fiction, 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, Sammy?

[Sammy Tapper]

Yes, it was a LinkedIn story. I graduated from college in 2022 from Northwestern University, which is actually where Andy Sachs in the Devil Wears Prada went as well.

[Chloe Mel]

So true.

[Sammy Tapper]

In the movie.

[Marlee Marius]

Not the book. In the book, she went to Brown.

[Chloe Mel]

Noted. I noted that.

[Sammy Tapper]

Well. 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 Conde Nast recruiter. And they were asking me to interview to be Anna's assistant.

[Chloe Mel]

Wow.

[Sammy Tapper]

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 Kanye Nast. So I didn't.

[Chloe Mel]

I think that they thought that was

[Sammy Tapper]

disparate, but honestly, I don't. I wasn't. I wasn't in the Vogue and Conde Nast world of it all to know that that was her title. I assumed it was a level below or something like that.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Okay.

[Sammy Tapper]

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.

[Marlee Marius]

Wow.

[Chloe Mel]

And how quickly did you start?

[Sammy Tapper]

I gave my two weeks as soon as I got the offer. And so I started two weeks later.

[Chloe Mel]

Wow. All right, Marlee. Marius, how did you get the job?

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah, to me, sort of a complicated story.

[Chloe Mel]

Short, it's the best story, and it's so long.

[Marlee Marius]

Anna was the commencement speaker when I was graduating from high school. I helped a prestigious girls school in

[Chloe Mel]

New York City known as Spence.

[Marlee Marius]

And I sort of campaigned for that to happen. And I, like, wrote a thank you note, and she responded. Her office responded through her 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 an HR person at the time, Meg Grupo, and was like, see if Marlee wants to interview for my office. And then I interviewed the beginning of May 2017, and I started the week after I graduated from college.

[Chloe Mel]

Interesting. That feels distinctly different than Andy Sachs, who famously did not know who Miranda Priestley was.

[Marlee Marius]

Oh, yeah, I sure did know who

[Chloe Mel]

you had a whole Anna Winter commencement speaker campaign launched and succeeded.

[Marlee Marius]

Indeed.

[Chloe Mel]

Sasha, how did you get the job?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I started as an assistant in special events.

[Chloe Mel]

Okay.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

And I was helping out. And then two weeks later, three weeks later, they offered me the position and I took it.

[Chloe Mel]

Who was your first assistant at the time?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Jesse Nichols. Right. She was the best first assistant. She was lovely.

[Marlee Marius]

We love Jessie Nichols.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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.

[Chloe Mel]

I want to know what was the most unnerving part of the interview process with Anna?

[Marlee Marius]

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 in, I met with hr, and then I met with Corinne Pierre Louis, 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 Christian Mack and John Gluck. John Gluck at the time was the managing editor. Christian 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 turn.

[Chloe Mel]

Were you wearing.

[Marlee Marius]

I was wearing, 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 Mel]

Ooh.

[Marlee Marius]

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 knew I needed to be neat anyway. But I, like, felt like myself, though, which I think was important.

[Chloe Mel]

Did she ask you guys any questions that you weren't expecting or that threw you off?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

She only asked personal questions. Well, like, what do you do on your free time? What do you read? How do you spend your time? Which I wasn't expecting.

[Chloe Mel]

What about you, Sammy?

[Sammy Tapper]

Questions were personal. I didn't expect her to be wearing her sunglasses because the doors were shut, and I was like, oh, I'm sure she'll take the glasses off, and we'll just have a chat. She made it very clear that it was gonna be an intense job, which it proved to be. Before I got to the. The night before I was meeting with Anna, I went to Bloomingdale's, and I just bought, like, 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.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Wow.

[Marlee Marius]

I do remember Christiane and John 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.

[Chloe Mel]

Did any of you read the book before starting in Ev's office?

[Marlee Marius]

No, but I did watch the movie. But I had already seen it. But I rewatched it before I started.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I had seen after I did a lot of internships in college.

[Chloe Mel]

Okay.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

And the day before, the night before every internship, I would watch Devil Wears Pride.

[Chloe Mel]

Oh, my God.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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.

[Marlee Marius]

Oh, you didn't go in person to be in.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

So I was in England when I. Yes, So I was in England when I got the phone interview.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah.

[Sammy Tapper]

Was it Beauty?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

No, it was with Kara Sanders. Now, Cara Brand.

[Marlee Marius]

Love her.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I still am indebted to her because she hired me off a phone call. 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 that's crazy.

[Sammy Tapper]

Things are.

[Chloe Mel]

Sammy, did you read it right?

[Sammy Tapper]

No. And I still haven't.

[Chloe Mel]

Oh, my God.

[Sammy Tapper]

Are you reading it for the book club? I need to take a coffee from your office?

[Chloe Mel]

Well, I think you've missed your chance.

[Sammy Tapper]

Well, I just asked someone else.

[Marlee Marius]

I think there's, like, one left in the mini library in Chloe's office, so

[Sammy Tapper]

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.

[Chloe Mel]

What did you learn from watching it?

[Sammy Tapper]

Oh, gosh. I honestly learned more the night before my interview. I watched Jana's masterclass that she has.

[Chloe Mel]

Oh, yeah.

[Sammy Tapper]

And I feel like I took a lot from that. Cause there's a whole section in her masterclass that says how to prepare for an interview to be my assistant.

[Marlee Marius]

That's so funny.

[Sammy Tapper]

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. And so, similarly to Marlee, 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, what was your

[Chloe Mel]

version of Sunday in the park with George? What show had you just seen?

[Sammy Tapper]

Well, I was at CIA 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 Vogue world. And they were people who, you know, we were working on contracts for at CAA too.

[Chloe Mel]

So, yeah, 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?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

My friends from home, like, they didn't care because they're not in this world. My friend. I went to fashion school, so my friends from school were very excited.

[Chloe Mel]

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

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah, the first question is, is it just like the books?

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the movie, just like the devil worse always. And I feel like the answer was kind of like no.

[Sammy Tapper]

I mean, like, I say yes.

[Marlee Marius]

I mean, I'm like, kind of like not. Yeah, like there are shades, but, like, not like that. 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? Like, everyone gets that.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yes.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Does she walk around with her sunglasses,

[Marlee Marius]

which also, like, not know. Yeah. Not know.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah. In the Movie, there are two Emily's. There's almost always two assistants. There used to be three. When I started, Anna had three assistants. AW123. When each of you started. Usually someone starts as AW2 and then graduates into AW1. What are the difference between those two roles?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Typically in my day, it was personal and executive. And then first assistant was the executive. So you were really scheduling things, doing finances. Okay.

[Chloe Mel]

How. What's the relationship between the two assistants? Is it mentor, mentee? Is it more peer? Like, does it depend?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

When I was, it was very mentor, mentee. Okay.

[Chloe Mel]

I felt like it's not like Emily and Andy.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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 Mel]

Who was your second?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Carolina Gonzalez. 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. 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 like nightmare, manage coordination with the events team as well at a point. I really took whatever I wanted from the first. Cause also Jesse was very. And she was like, if there's something that you want to work on, totally do it.

[Sammy Tapper]

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 want to delegate to the second assistant.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah, 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 want to know how your personal lives fared when you were in Anna's office.

[Sammy Tapper]

I think everyone in my life at that time was very supportive of me. And I think everyone. 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 you're 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.

[Marlee Marius]

Well, first of all, I didn't. I don't think I appreciate 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, probably be. 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're saying, I don't think it's quite unique to like being in Anna's office. But like 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's like necessarily a bad thing. Like for me I'm like, vogue 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. 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. I'm like, my vogue friends are like my friends, and I think that's okay. So.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah, I agree. I lived with my parents when I first started as well, and then, like, halfway through, I think I moved out. It was nice. I mean, it was long hours, and sometimes my mother would just be like, what are you doing for that long that you can't answer my text messages.

[Chloe Mel]

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. Yeah. What's the vibe in real life?

[Marlee Marius]

I mean, reading that, I was like, why are you taking a personal call in the middle of the day?

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah.

[Marlee Marius]

I'm like.

[Chloe Mel]

She was looking at the apartment, and

[Marlee Marius]

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 Lily just signed the thing and figure it out later. You know what I mean? I was, like, so anti Andy and, like, throughout the book, because I'm like, she's not taking this job seriously enough. She's not prioritizing this position. She has a bad attitude. No wonder she gets fired anyway. I mean, I didn't have any choices 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?

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sammy Tapper]

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 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.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah. And you can't do it for long. So.

[Chloe Mel]

Yeah. Well, speaking of which, what is a typical day in the life of an assistant?

[Marlee Marius]

Well, 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 like a 21 page handbook. It was nice to know that so many people have filled these roles. So there are very specific ways of doing things which I found quite.

[Chloe Mel]

Who updates the handbook? Is it like the outgoing first assistant when they leave?

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

That's a good question.

[Marlee Marius]

Probably.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I'm not sure that many things get updated. Like what changes?

[Marlee Marius]

I know, but yeah. Do you feel like the days start really early? Like someone's getting in a coffee in the morning kind of thing or getting breakfast and setting up the office.

[Chloe Mel]

What is 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?

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah. For me I think it was just setting up her breakfast and opening her office doors.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah, it was like opening the doors, setting up the boards, printing out the schedule, setting up the board. An iPad that we use 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.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah. So someone wants to message you because

[Chloe Mel]

in the book there's a whole thing like they're printing out who's fasting.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Well, you have to reprint the schedule and that changes the.

[Sammy Tapper]

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.

[Marlee Marius]

And when she wasn't at the office, there was A lot of faxing things. Learning how to fax things to her home.

[Sammy Tapper]

I love taxing.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

So I love that I felt so retro.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah.

[Chloe Mel]

Honestly, it was so interesting 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?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Honestly, it's not as dramatic as that, but it does happen. You 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

[Marlee Marius]

it's just like, the people in her. Like, it's not the whole.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

It's not the whole office.

[Marlee Marius]

It's just like, by the time she

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

comes in, there's no one usually there.

[Sammy Tapper]

Well, that's all she is, the first one, aside from her assistance 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 people feel that way when they come up to the office.

[Chloe Mel]

But, I mean, there's not this, like, mass panic of throwing off your flats and putting on your heels.

[Marlee Marius]

I mean, I changed out of my clogs into more, like, appropriate shoes, for sure. But that was like.

[Chloe Mel]

What were your appropriate shoes, Marlee?

[Marlee Marius]

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

[Chloe Mel]

Okay.

[Marlee Marius]

Because at first I was told that I needed to wear heels. And I was like, did for a bit. The first assistant career. And 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 movie lasted for, like, two weeks.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

So hard.

[Marlee Marius]

And then I was like, that is. Cause you're. You know, you have to. Things are happening at a certain pace, and it sometimes involves a bit of running. Yes.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Oh, yeah.

[Marlee Marius]

And so I was finding it not practical to be in heels. Also. You're, like, running to print things like it.

[Chloe Mel]

So explain why you're running.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

You just want to be timely.

[Marlee Marius]

Yes. When she asks for someone, she wants that person very quickly.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yeah.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

You have to hurt.

[Chloe Mel]

Who are you hurting?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Like, any of the editors. Because people will slow down. And so if you walk, like, behind them, you can.

[Marlee Marius]

Oh, my God.

[Chloe Mel]

But you don't want Shepherd Taylor.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I definitely did that a lot.

[Chloe Mel]

Okay. So you would herd people to move them At a slighter pace towards a meeting room.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

In my day, what you would do is the first assistant would call whoever it was and then I would run to get them.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yes.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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, which was. 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.

[Chloe Mel]

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. Anna 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, hands are flying. To dial 14. Four digit extensions and you get your. We all used to have landlines, RIP. You would answer. You didn't even have to hear anything.

[Marlee Marius]

It's like pre release now.

[Chloe Mel]

Pre release now. 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 to the room to keep things moving.

[Marlee Marius]

Yes, exactly.

[Chloe Mel]

But now there's no landlines. So there's some cell phone calling, there's an email that will go out. But it's mostly running around.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yes.

[Marlee Marius]

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

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I love the running around. Because you were so busy. I could never exercise.

[Marlee Marius]

You were also a runner.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah, so I was just like run in the.

[Chloe Mel]

That was your exercise?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah. Like running down the corridors. It was.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yes. I ran a marathon. My two month this November, I started working for Anna, which was.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

That's crazy.

[Sammy Tapper]

A hard thing.

[Chloe Mel]

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?

[Sammy Tapper]

So I think to the 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?

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

It's.

[Chloe Mel]

And describe the take home bag because it looms large.

[Sammy Tapper]

So it looms large. It's an LLB extra extra large open boat tote. And this is Anna's homework bag. You know, 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.

[Marlee Marius]

A copy from the magazine.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yes. That she needs to.

[Chloe Mel]

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 4000 word pieces come in in one night, she is giving feedback, very detailed feedback on all of them by the next morning.

[Sammy Tapper]

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.

[Chloe Mel]

Well, for example, right now we have the book of the summer issue and that will come out in early June. And It's a printing eight and a half by 11 printouts of every page in the magazine in a three ring book.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah.

[Chloe Mel]

And she's going through and a lot of post its are going on that book. So how long do you have to wait to get the book to take it home?

[Marlee Marius]

Sometimes it was late.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah, it really depends.

[Chloe Mel]

I would like to say Anna has a doctor's handwriting.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I was gonna say. Are we allowed to talk about that?

[Sammy Tapper]

I think we've talked about it.

[Chloe Mel]

She's talked about that village it takes to decode and.

[Sammy Tapper]

And they're better. I used to send them photos all the time.

[Chloe Mel]

When Marley crack something, I am in.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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 10pm that night because I could not stop thinking about it. Oh, I don't remember now, but it was like when you resolve it, it's like. It's amazing.

[Marlee Marius]

Sometimes I find you have to take a picture of it and really sit with it for a while.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yeah, you would like, you like flip

[Chloe Mel]

it upside down, like step away and

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

like hover over things.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Literally.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yeah.

[Chloe Mel]

All this to avoid asking her.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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

[Sammy Tapper]

Oh, I was asking her like. I was like, I can't. There's no time for this. I was like. And sometimes. And I'm like, oh, I don't know. Like she was like, well, you just

[Marlee Marius]

have to like take an educated guess and just see if it's right.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yeah, exactly.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

For remarks I would always be just like, well, this Works, give it a

[Marlee Marius]

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

[Sammy Tapper]

Oh, exactly. She'll always tell you if it's wrong.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yes.

[Chloe Mel]

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?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

We're involved in scheduling them.

[Chloe Mel]

Okay.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

And then sometimes we help with a rack, but mostly not.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah. Moving racks around, I guess.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yeah. 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. I was like, wow, Vogue. And it's, you know, because you get

[Chloe Mel]

an example, like what are you. What are some things discussed?

[Sammy Tapper]

They discuss. It's really that whole cerulean moment, you know, they roll a whole fashion rack or two racks into Anna's office.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Trays of accessories.

[Sammy Tapper]

And it's the sitting's 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.

[Marlee Marius]

And then we're talking about the casting sometimes.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yes. 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 because he was so busy. You know, he's always running around.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Do you do run throughs?

[Chloe Mel]

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 a run through. I think she really enjoys it. We've been doing them together. Or I'll just do it alone with Virginia, Naomi and the sittings editor. I also think it's nice to have the photographer involved sometimes. I think that they. 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 this sittings editor's vision for the shoot. And that can really make a difference. All right, we'll be right back with Anna's Angels.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

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[Chloe Mel]

important to find your perfect frames. That's why at Warby Parker, we've made

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

shopping for eyewear as easy and fun as can be.

[Chloe Mel]

Peruse endless styles in our stores, or use our app to virtually try on frames and get personalized recommendations. To find your next favorite pair of glasses, sunglasses, or contact lenses, or to locate your nearest Warby Parker store, head

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

over to warbyparker.com that's warbyparker.com.

[Chloe Mel]

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 Marlee Mary is?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I wear heels every day.

[Chloe Mel]

Really?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I wore Joseph boots with long black trousers and then just a different sweater every day.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah.

[Chloe Mel]

Interesting. How high a heel?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Three inches.

[Sammy Tapper]

Okay, Good for you.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Oh, yeah, but they were the most comfortable. I mean, I wore them till my first met. It was. They were the best. I've retired them, though.

[Marlee Marius]

But you did, like, kind of have a uniform ultimate.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yes, definitely. Wore black trousers and a shirt, sweater every day.

[Chloe Mel]

You still sort of wear that?

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

Yeah.

[Marlee Marius]

Cause I was like, since I was, like, such a sort of Vogue fan girl, I, like, really glad you said it. I know, but I really, like, admired Tawny Goodman in particular. And I was like, okay, it's cool to have a uniform. Like, if you, like, look, 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 want to have to wake up and, like, think about what you're wearing every day when you have to wake up so early.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

There were so many assistants. Like, Jesse would have a full outfit every day.

[Marlee Marius]

So did Jasmine. Jasmine.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I just didn't understand.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah, I know. I mean, because 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.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

So there was a woman I. And I was getting interviewed by someone and in the office, and I had to greet them, and they wrote about me in the interview saying this, and the assistant was wearing all black Anna Must have hated that.

[Marlee Marius]

Oh, stop.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I was like, she doesn't care.

[Chloe Mel]

Sammy, what's your uniform?

[Sammy Tapper]

I say I'm usually in some sort of a heeled 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 booty. 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.

[Chloe Mel]

You tend to feel like you do a big suiting look.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yes, I feel like, dressed for. I like the phrase, like, dress for your day. But I also think when you're in Anna's office or any roulette Vogue, you never know what's gonna happen. And so, 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.

[Chloe Mel]

Dress for the day you want.

[Sammy Tapper]

Dress for the day you want. I like that. Yeah. But that is.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I'm curious when, like, what's the worst Anna's ever seen you in? Cause I have an answer.

[Chloe Mel]

I want to debunk the closets. Yeah, you debunk 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 in my 20s, 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 Mimoza had the key.

[Marlee Marius]

Was the keeper of the Manolos.

[Chloe Mel]

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.

[Marlee Marius]

Right. I will say, though, that, like, for the Met, you can. I mean, I have borrowed shoes for the Met, I think. Yeah. I mean, I feel like on very special occasions, if you're really in a pinch, you can probably borrow something. Yes, but you're clothes aren't being thrown at you for, like, events. Like, you can.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

You can call them in, which is lovely.

[Chloe Mel]

Sure, some people can borrow clothes, but that's a favor that fashion PRs do for Vogue. It has to be meted out with care.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah, totally. It's. Yeah, but it's. Yeah, it's not the way it's described at all in the book.

[Chloe Mel]

Like, I will 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 4 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.

[Sammy Tapper]

Yeah.

[Chloe Mel]

And rollneck J. Crew.

[Marlee Marius]

Yeah.

[Sammy Tapper]

I'd say there's, like, the one unspoken rule, I think it was never explicitly said, but in Anna's office is that there's no jeans or no sneakers. Yeah, there are definitely no jeans. Yeah. But other in the office will wear those things. But, yeah.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

So when I, like, when I graduated out of Anna's office, it's the first thing I did. I started wearing jeans to the office. It was amazing.

[Chloe Mel]

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

[Marlee Marius]

I don't really like jeans. I don't really like a jean. God knows I dress casually in other ways, but, yeah, not. Not really blue jeans kind of gal.

[Chloe Mel]

Did anyone ever give you a makeover of sorts or take you under their wings?

[Marlee Marius]

No, no, no. But I do remember, like, again, the one met that I went to in Anna's office. Like, I do remember, like, Tani kind of, like, helping me with, like, I was wearing, like, this, like, long red dress from the Row. And I feel like there might be 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 a ribbon. I do remember her kind of, like, doing something, and I was like, oh, my God. I was like, this is crazy. And then also, you know, subsequent years, people are helping with Met stuff. That's kind of the only example.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Yes. The Met, I would say Willow Lindley has always been the person Annie Choi

[Marlee Marius]

also would help with, like, staff. Like, not. Yeah.

[Chloe Mel]

I want to know what it was like working your first met. I mean, any fun stories?

[Marlee Marius]

Long day.

[Chloe Mel]

Did you have to memorize a face sheet and whisper to Anna when the ambassador and his new mistress arrived?

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

No, that's my job at that.

[Sammy Tapper]

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

[Chloe Mel]

Thank you.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

I unfortunately know everybody, but they don't know me. I didn't have to memorize things. I think my biggest. The weirdest thing was running up the stairs, like, running up the red carpet stairs. That was unnerving because there was just so many cameras and so many people. And you think that 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.

[Marlee Marius]

Oh, that's funny.

[Sammy Tapper]

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.

[Chloe Mel]

All right. Anything else from the film or book that you would like to debunk or the biggest misconception about being an assistant?

[Marlee Marius]

Well, I mean, an important point that's made early on and then you sort of see it at the end, it's 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 Colgate 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. 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.

[Chloe Mel]

I mean, Sasha's planning the Met Gala literally to go from Finch at the airport.

[Marlee Marius]

Honestly.

[Arden Fanning Andrews]

Honestly, the glow up feels just like yesterday.

[Chloe Mel]

Finch up. Thank you, ladies.

[Sammy Tapper]

Very excited.

[Marlee Marius]

Thank you.

[Chloe Mel]

The real Emilys. All right, that's it for the show. See you next week.

[Choma Nadi Shoma]

The run through with Vogue is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex DePalma and Alex John Burns, with help from Emily Elias. The show is engineered by Brand Bundy and mixed by Mike Kutchman. Bye.

[Sammy Tapper]

From prx.