Charlotte Higgins Recalls £11,000 British Vogue Job as Devil Wears Prada 2 Revives Glossy Era
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 16
Charlotte Higgins Recalls £11,000 British Vogue Job as Devil Wears Prada 2 Revives Glossy Era
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 16
Charlotte Higgins says The Devil Wears Prada 2 turned unexpectedly elegiac, reviving memories of her 1990s apprenticeship at British Vogue and The World of Interiors when glossy magazines still seemed unassailable.
£11,000 a year was the pay cut she accepted to join Vogue, where thick monthly issues, aristocratic editors and ad-sensitive copy embodied what she now calls the industry's high-water mark.
Her recollections also stress how warped that world could be, from size-zero image editing and anti-union HR scrutiny to bosses whose behavior would not survive modern workplace rules.
The essay frames those anecdotes against today's media contraction, citing recent text- and email-based layoffs at major newsrooms as a bleak echo of the vanished glamour and power of print.