The plot of “The Devil Wears Prada” has long spoken to young professionals vying to break into fashion, publishing or both. On Saturday night, a group of fashion-forward women and men who once managed to defy the odds and score jobs “a million girls would kill for” came together to take in the sequel at a screening in Lower Manhattan.
Most of the 50 former Vogue employees at the screening can remember a time when they felt like the film’s protagonist, Andy Sachs, a new hire at Runway magazine who is desperate to impress her boss, an influential fashion editor with razor-sharp discernment and withering indifference. Many of them are now past that point in their lives. Still, some remember their own Andy days as rich and fruitful, albeit nerve-racking.
“We had the best time working together, and that’s why we’re all still friends and we want to keep those good vibes going,” said Steff Yotka, a former social media director at Vogue who left in 2022 and helped organize the screening.
The giddy crowd of old friends hugged, smiled and kissed on both cheeks in front of the theater, a Regal cinema in Battery Park City.
“It is so rare we all get to be in one place and see each other,” said Samantha Adler, who started at Vogue as a photo intern in 2013 and left as the photo director for Vogue.com in 2021. “We see each other in groups, but it’s very rare that you sort of get everyone.”
The dress code for the evening was simple: Wear your interview outfit. There was Mugler, silk, Hermès and, of course, fur.
“I was right out of college when I got that job, so I thought all jobs were like that,” said Anny Choi, a former market editor at Vogue who left in 2019. “Looking back, I’m like, ‘Wow, I was so stressed in X, Y, Z moments, but I don’t have that same level of community and friendship anymore.”
Edward Barsamian, who carried his mother’s crocodile-skin clutch, an Hermès Kelly Pochette, started at Vogue in 2009 as a jewelry intern and left in 2010. He returned in 2014, as Anna Wintour’s assistant and left the magazine again in 2019. His old job is being portrayed by Caleb Hearon and Simone Ashley in “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
As he walked out of the theater, he admitted there were some aspects of Wintour — the longtime editor of American Vogue, now the global editorial director of all Vogue titles — that Meryl Streep embodied as her fictional analogue, Miranda Priestly.
“Attention to detail, driving people to do their best,” Barsamian said when asked which characteristics rang true. What did not feel real to him?
“You can get up and use the bathroom,” he said.
Sally Singer started at Vogue in 1999 as the fashion news director and left after 11 years to edit T: The New York Times Style Magazine. (She returned to Vogue as digital creative director in 2012 and left again in 2020.) She sat outside Theater 5 looking around at all the people she had hired.
“This is a very sweet and lovely occasion, because I think every single person here worked for me,” Singer said. “Every single person here has made it at Vogue, and they all did it their own way. Every single person, even if they started on Vogue.com with me, they were hired by Anna Wintour, and she appreciates every single person here.”
One person who went through rounds of interviews with Singer was Liana Satenstein, who left Vogue as a senior fashion editor in 2023.
One thing that she learned from Singer was “to dig into things that I’m obsessed about,” she said, adding, “I think that is what has kind of helped me find my path today.”
A real-life Andy Sachs.
Sandra E. Garcia is a Times reporter covering style and culture.
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