How We Got Our Jobs At Vogue and More... We (Finally) Answer Your Questions!

0:29I'm Chloe Mel. a video of the wallpaper that they made out of old Vogue covers for their bathroom. Oh, so cool. I think it's a genius idea. I know, it really is. And we also invited two of our wonderful friends and colleagues in the office to answer some questions with us. But first, let's talk about the news of the week. Choma, I mean, I'd be curious what your take from across the pond was on the inauguration proceedings over here. A heavy sigh. I was actually on the plane as it was happening and sort of landed to a flood of different news stories surrounding the inauguration. And it just felt like we had flipped the switch and stepped into this new era in such a strident way.

1:17You know, I think it feels like we're entering a completely different political climate. I mean, Trump kind of comparing himself to the Messiah was, I mean, jaw dropping for me. It felt really sad, actually. It just didn't feel like a vision of America that I can relate to. Yeah. But I'm not American. So I obviously took took this from a very European standpoint. And I know there are lots of people who who think that this powerful international stance and his way of thinking and his very decisive approach is like, you know, what they want. But I found it quite upsetting. Something I learned a couple of weeks ago is that it is in the Constitution that the inauguration always falls on January 20th, no matter what day of the week it is.

2:07I found it to be sort of adding salt to a wound that that fell on Martin Luther King Day this year. I thought we did some really nice pieces around Martin Luther King Day, especially Leah Faye Cooper did a wonderful piece on the men of Morehouse College. They all dress up very Natalie and wear their finest looks on MLK weekend. That's Morehouse's Dr. King's alma mater. So I thought that was a really nice piece that we did. I will say, though, Vogue is first and foremost a fashion news establishment. Fashion spoke very loudly on Monday. It did, didn't it? There was so much to report on. There was a lot to report on.

2:53To me, it was a reminder of when people say, oh, Vogue just covers fashion. It's like, well, fashion conveys a lot and fashion speaks volumes. There have been across different publications some really interesting, thoughtful analyses of what First Lady Melania Trump wore, what other members of the family wore. Rachel Tashin in The Washington Post wrote that they're putting the fashion in old fashioned. And I do think there was this very retro approach to sort of creating an image. And Jose Crealis-Undueta wrote a really insightful piece on the business of dressing Melania Trump and comparing what that looks like today versus eight years ago.

3:41And I think what all my group chats were and my Vogue slacks were lit up about was all of the designers who chose to dress the first family and the second family. And Usha Vance, Vice President J.D. Vance's wife, sort of came out as someone everyone was looking at. She wore a sort of putty pink Oscar de la Renta skirt suit. And she wore a Sergio Hudson coat as well, I think. Yes, but apparently she purchased that. He did not dress her. And we talked about that. It's like, what do you do as a small brand if Usha Vance purchases a piece of your clothing and wears it and everyone identifies it? Do you send out a press release and lean into this high profile moment?

4:31Do you sit back? Do you let people know it was purchased and you weren't involved? It does raise a lot of thorny conundrums. Same was true of Adam Lippis, who's a independent New York designer who is very well-liked by the fashion and media establishment, very well-reviewed on Vaux Runway. And he designed Melania Trump's outfit, which was a navy sort of frock coat and most dramatically a sort of Carmen Sandiego dark winged duck hat that obscured most of her face. He did not design the hat. Eric Javits, a Lower East Side milliner, designed the hat. But it was a very striking look that really was conveying, I don't know, in a way it was like the formal version of I don't really care to you because it's like you're not going to see my eyes.

5:28Don't even try and read me. Don't interpret anything. Don't expect a closeness with my husband because she was definitely making sure that he could not reach in for a kiss or anything. It just conveys like don't come close. Like stay away. Yeah. It just made her seem extra icy. Yes. You know who didn't seem icy? Lauren Sanchez and her. Not icy at all, even though she was wearing white. She was wearing a new spin on Suffragette White, which was a McQueen pantsuit with a lacy bra very much revealed under the blazer. That was the shirt was the bra top. you know I will say I went back and looked at the original Sean McGurr for McQueen look that this was from and it looks a different vibe on the runway but then in the rotunda but got to respect someone's commitment to their to their look because it was really like inauguration dress codes are not for me and I'm going to wear this you got to respect the chutzpah Yeah.

6:43But yes, and all of the entire Arnaud family was there in full force looking, you know, chic and buttoned up and like they were getting on board to avoid future tariffs. Ivanka wore a Dior sort of wicked emerald green skirt suit by Dior with a Lady Dior handbag and a – I don't know if you call it a fascinator. What is that type of hat? It wasn't really a fascinator. Yeah, it wasn't quite landing for me. And then that evening at the inaugural ball, Ivanka went for a big cosplay splashy moment with Givenchy dressing her in a dress that was a recreation of the dress Hubert Givenchy made for Audrey Hepburn for her costume in Sabrina.

7:39Now, of course, you know, the brands were like, we can confirm it's Givenchy, but that's on background. And Sarah Burton did not design it. And so it's like only the atelier designed it. So everyone's sort of figuring out how they're navigating this situation press wise. I think all of this kind of throwback, old Hollywood glamour, 1950s kind of housewife stuff is hitting in totally the wrong way for me. It's bringing back all these old world values, like you said. And I find it quite scary. But there were moments of levity. I really loved Hannah's piece on justice. Katenji Brown, Kauri shell necklace.

8:21It was like, you know, when you're just looking and you're just thinking like, how would I feel to be in a room like this? Like, how would I feel to be there? And how would I dress to kind of signify my sort of sense of resistance to what's going on? And I think she nailed it. It was so special and communicated everything that I needed to communicate on MLK Day because I'm sure she would have much rather been somewhere else celebrating and honoring Martin Luther King's birthday rather than there. It just got me thinking how you show up in spaces like that now. because we need to see a rejection of this.

9:09Yeah. We need to see a rejection of this whole aesthetic, in my opinion. Bishop Marianne Budd is the female bishop who led the church service before the inauguration. And her speech has gone quite viral as she made a very direct plea to President Trump for mercy for people who are endangered by the threats that he is putting forward and is hoping to carry through with in his first few days in office and beyond. and she felt like an inspirational figure on an otherwise bleak day in Washington. Oh my God, she literally made me cry. I just thought, I mean, you know, you just think like he erased so many people with like one fell swoop.

10:04In his executive orders and in the sort of declarations that he made in his speech, he erased a lot of people. He completely made a lot of people really vulnerable people like unimportant and dismiss it dismissed up you know a whole swath of people and it just hearing her just kind of sort of really in a dignified and super eloquent way just remind him and the other people in his administration that there are a lot of people who his you know executive orders and the policies that he's pushing for, they are going to affect, they're going to massively disrupt and hurt them, you know, and I think she did it in a way that was so dignified and so measured and yeah, and I thought it was very brave of her to do that.

10:57I mean, he was literally front row, speaking directly to him, you know, and what an amazing like way to use that moment.

11:15So, Choma, I saw a New York Post headline about how Prince Harry is settling with Rupert Murdoch's newspapers about the phone tapping scandal. And I feel very personally invested in this because I loved, as you know, Prince Harry's memoir. but I also don't really understand this newest thing like is this a big deal in the British press right now I mean I don't feel like the tabloids are really going deep on it because they have completely turned against Harry and um and Meghan um and what I'm seeing more of is headlines about how many people in the or or some of the tabloids here think that America is also turning on them.

12:05Oh, yes, because of the Vanity Fair, the dishy Vanity Fair right around cover story. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So they're more focused on that. So this news has not been to me as like front and center as others. But it's a big it's a it's a I think it's a really big deal. Well, Elise Taylor has published an explainer if anyone has any questions. At this point, their personal life has been so dragged and every detail of it has been, you know dissected on all sides that I think we've all had enough and I think that was probably a wise decision on his part. Choma tell us about your schedule the next few weeks it's men's fashion month right now we're recording this on Wednesday afternoon and Louis Vuitton by Pharrell was last night have you had any strong takeaways from the men's shows or what are you are you going to couture What are you anticipating from couture?

12:58It's so funny. I just got off the call with Adam Badawi, who is the head of GQ here in the UK. And he was very, very excited about Pharrell's show. And I took a quick look at it and I loved what I saw. And he said it was at the Louvre, which is traditionally where the women's show takes place, where Nicola shows. So this was a new space for Pharrell. Pretty sure. I don't think he's shown at the Louvre before. and I loved what I saw I loved what I saw I loved like some of the knits and I loved all the sort of grandpa-ish sweaters underneath suits and it felt it felt very cool I don't have any hot takes right now but I am headed to the couture shows on Sunday so I'll see Schiaparelli first thing in the morning and then Dior.

13:50So I'm excited to be back at the shows. I think it's always, Couture is always like kind of a really fun, a fun fashion week to do because the schedule is much more gentle and the shows feel a little bit more intimate and rare and special. If I had to say what my highlight is going to be for Couture, definitely Alessandro Michele's first Couture collection for Valentino. Oh, yes, that's a big news moment. That's what I'm looking forward to most this week. And also like just catching up on all the Paris goss because we all know that there's been a million changes. Everything's still in flux. And I hope to report back with some updates or something, some juice.

14:35Speaking of which, I interviewed the adorable Bob Mackey last night at a screening of the new documentary about him. And I think of him as like the father of modern red carpet dressing because he really just sort of leaned into, he invented the naked dress for Cher. He really leaned into sequins, feathers. And didn't he sketch the original Marilyn dress? Well, I was hoping you'd bring that up, Choma. That was actually one of my questions for him that was asked that I not ask about what he thought about Kim Kardashian. and re-wearing the dress. And then an audience member asked him about it. And he said, well, you know, she's a nice Armenian girl, but I just think that dress should probably be in a museum.

15:25Very diplomatic of him.

15:35The Run-Thru will be back soon answering your questions. Thank you.

16:22And we're back. We have quite a few messages to get through, so let's go.

16:31So we received a ton of emails and Instagram DMs asking us about how we got our jobs at Vogue, which is an excellent question. So this email in particular is from Serena. She said, as an aspiring fashion editor myself, I would love to know your Vogue stories. If I'm remembering correctly, you all shared bits about your interview with Anna Outfits. Oh, we love sharing that part. But I would love to know your journey to Vogue and how your relationship with fashion and the industry at large has changed over time. And to answer this question, we wanted to invite Nicole, host of the Tuesday show, to answer.

17:11Hi, Choma. Hi, Chloe. Yay. I want to know this, actually. I don't think we've ever talked about this. I was an editor at Elle magazine when Janet Ozard left Style.com. And she called me up and said, do you want my job? And I had by that time fallen in love with Style.com. It was my Bible. I was reading Sarah Mower's reviews like they were the word from on high. And so I interviewed with Anna because at the time Style.com was the online home of Vogue and W Magazine. And I worked at Style.com for a long time. And when Condé Nast decided to try to make Style.com an e-commerce site, the archive that we had built for 15 years came over onto Vogue.com.

18:06And I've been at Vogue ever since then. Were you writing reviews at Elle? No. No, I was writing fashion news. I remember the first season because the first season would have been a February season. And sometime, you know, that spring, waking up in the middle of the night, literally, you know, sitting up in bed and thinking, oh, my goodness, those reviews are going to be on the Internet for the rest of time. And really feeling the overwhelming sense of responsibility about that. The ghost of runway past. I have to say, like, reviewing is like, it's like the Olympics of this industry, of this office.

18:43It's so hard. It's so hard. I don't know how you guys do it. I remember the first season I did it. I mean, like, Nicole is the most efficient person, writer, editor I know. I don't know how you write as many reviews as you do. I write a lot less than I used to. Not every review is equal, right? But you're air traffic controlling. We also used to write very differently, you know, even 10 years ago. But going back further than that, our reviews were much, much shorter. And now they can get really long, especially from some of our contributors. I want to know, did you always want to be in fashion and did you start in fashion media or did you start in more traditional news media?

19:22No, I studied women's studies and English in college and moved to New York after college because I wanted to be in magazines. And I wound up doing a PR job for a couple of years, not in fashion. This I did not know. And I really didn't like it. I bet you hate it. I am like, do not put me. I don't want to be making the cold calls. I guess I'm okay to be getting some cold calls. What was the pitches that you had to make? I worked at this company called Voyager, which was actually co-owned by the people who went on to sort of run the Criterion collection. But in any case, we made CD-ROMs, like really highbrow CD-ROMs.

19:59Art Spiegelman was in the building because we did a CD-ROM with mouse, for example. Oh, my God. I studied that in college. Yes. But I was not good at PR. And thank goodness my ex-boyfriend's aunt worked at W Magazine. And that's how I got my job at Women's Wear Daily and W. So one of my first assignments at Women's Wear, once I moved on from being an assistant, was to do reviews of New York Fashion Week. Oh, wow. Wow. So you'd already done some. A little bit. Yeah. All right, Choma, go ahead. Who's next? Mine is so long-winded. How do I make it short? All right. Why don't I do Choma's and you can edit it and annotate it?

20:45Choma came to the U.S. 15 years ago? 20. 20 years ago and started working at The Fader? No. Started working at a magazine that no longer exists called Trace, which was kind of like a style magazine. Then I went to work at The Fader, but I had a newspaper background. my first job in journalism was at a newspaper. Where? The Evening Standard magazine. Oh, lovely. But the first magazine, the first kind of, it was a weird long-winded way about how I got to the U.S. because I wrote a letter to the editor of this now defunct, amazing style magazine called Trace. And it was like collage. It was like an art piece.

21:29And he kind of scanned my letter and printed it in like full page. in the magazine. And then I was in New York and I cold called him from a payphone. And then I went to his office and he offered me a job. He saw some talent. He saw some raw talent. So that's how I got to the States, which is a big leap for me at the time. And then I met Mark Holgate for a friend who is a beloved colleague. And so that was kind of my first interaction with anyone from Vogue. And I just thought, oh, he's such a nice guy. Like I, it made the idea of working at Vogue less scary. And then actually, I was looking for a job.

22:07I was at the Theda and one of our dear friends, Hamish Anderson, who was editing Men's Vogue at the time, he said, you should apply for a job here. And I was like, no way, I'd never get a job here. And then he was like, I'll talk to Sally Singer. And I was like, oh, scary. And then he talked to Sally Singer. Yeah. And the HR department didn't think I was Vogue material. That was their feedback. I think I had the same experience. Yeah. But then another job came up. So Mark was like, hey, come on in. So I remember being very flustered at the second interview. And I've told this story a million times, but I wore jeans because I didn't have any time to prepare.

22:51I was told on Friday morning to come in and thank God I at least had a blazer. I wasn't in sweats. And you met with Anna? I met with Anna twice, yeah. And I remember going through an issue of giving, like, feedback on an issue. Oh, wow. Did she ask you to do that? Yeah. Fascinating. And there was some layout that I was like, I really didn't like it. And I was like, I don't know. And she was like, I totally agree with you about that layout. And I was like, ah! Oh, my God! Yay! So that was interesting. That's how I got here. Wow. Well, whenever young people ask me about how to get into fashion or media, my biggest piece of advice is always take the meeting.

23:30I also say that to single friends who don't want to go on dates. But, for example, I was working at the New York Observer. First, I wrote about real estate because that was the open opportunity, even though I knew nothing about real estate. And then I was writing lifestyle features and profiles. And then I was doing stories for the style section at The Times. And there was an opportunity to interview for a job at Vogue. and I thought I don't particularly think of myself as a fashion person. I love fashion and I love seeing people who have fun getting dressed. But I thought, well, it's interesting and I should just sort of take the meeting.

24:06And what I was most impressed by, because at Vogue when you interview, you meet a lot of people. It's like the seven rings of hell going through. And I was just so impressed by how smart everyone I met with was. And I met with Anna and no one told me the memo that Anna doesn't like black. I thought it would be appropriate. I wore a little like a sort of a short black dress, a Dionne Furstenberg dress with a collar, sort of polo collar and a striped Philillium blazer that I still have. Oh, that's something graphic. It was graphic. And then I had my interview with Anna and she said, what do you like to do in your free time?

24:54Which you're supposed to say like tennis and theater. And I said I like to sleep and cook. Laurie Jones, who was the inimitable managing editor at the time and really one of the reasons I was so seduced by Vogue because she was such a towering figure. she called me after my interview and said, what did you say to Anna? And I told her and she said, oh my God. And I heard her yell to her husband and the other one, Fred, Chloe told Anna she likes to cook and sleep. She said to me, she was like, honey, she doesn't do either of those things. So then I had to re-interview. And Lori also said, she doesn't know if you're visual enough.

25:36So I came in with a literal scrapbook with like collages. Because I do, I used to, not anymore because I have no time, but I used to make what apparently TikTok now calls junk journals, but like where you're sort of scrapbook journals. And so I brought in like a fashion scrapbook journal I made and was like showing her. And she was like, take this off my pristine desk and go forth. I love this story. I didn't know anything about this. I didn't know anything about this. Okay, so we get a ton of questions about what a typical day in the office looks like and what our daily routines are. And a listener named Mary asked, what time does your alarm go off and what is your bedtime?

26:17I want to know Nicole's schedule. Do you drink coffee or tea? Lately, I've been setting my alarm a little bit earlier, somewhere between 6 and 6.15. I make my son's breakfast and lunch, even though he's a junior in high school. I love that. I should really be training him. What does he want? Training him to do these things himself. What does making his breakfast entail? Oh, nothing like toast with peanut butter and banana slices and a peeled clementine or something. And I've also been trying to go to bed earlier to get those full eight hours. So I like to have dinner, clean up and, you know, close the door to my bedroom like after nine and go read for an hour or so.

26:59So do you watch any TV? I watch TV, yes, but I'm trying to not watch, you know, not to be on screens, you know, with that thing that we're all supposed to do. You read so much as well. What are you reading right now? I just finished the Didion Babbitt's book, which is super dishy. And I read that book Orbital, which is about the astronauts on the space station, which was so poetic and beautiful. Is that the one that won the? It won the Booker Prize. Yeah. Yeah, that was interesting. And it's a slim little book. It's very easy to read. Oh, cool. I need to read that. Okay, so then what do you eat for breakfast?

27:38I eat my breakfast at the office. I have a yogurt, a plain yogurt with granola. And my mom, shout out to my mom, Nance Phelps. She makes the world's best granola. And at Christmas time, she gave me a big container of it. Wow. And what time do you get to the office? I've been getting to the office really early this recently, too. Yeah, I like to be here definitely by 8.30, but between 8 and 9 is like the best time at the office because there's nobody here who's sort of, you know. I know, it's true. And it makes me feel better about wanting to leave at 5 in the last year or so. The days are ending earlier at Vogue, which I never thought would happen.

28:18Yeah, it's true. I think it's because there are moms here now, and moms have things to do, you know, with their kids. As much people start earlier, too. Yeah, creating a nice culture that I'm appreciating. Yeah. All right, Choma, what's your daily schedule? I'm not an early bird. So I'm actually in the office later, and I tend to get to the office a bit later. We need specifics. Okay, my alarm, I'm trying to sleep more too. So I try and, you know, we're all obsessed with the oaring. You know, I'm always trying to get like a crown every day or a 90 % or whatever it is. The crown is a checkmark to tell you that you slept well on the Oura Ring if people are not familiar.

29:03Shama's not getting an actual crown. Yeah. Monarchist, though, she may be. No, no, no. I didn't get my crown today because we had to be in the office very early. So I usually – my alarm usually goes off at 7.30, 7.30, 7.38. I live quite close to the office, so it's a half an hour walk, which is really nice. Somehow between getting dressed and getting to the office, I don't have time to have breakfast. But I've been really into having bone broth in the morning. In the morning? Yeah. Woof. Yeah. So I don't know what that makes me or what you think of that, but that's the routine. And I try to go to bed.