Remember how Anna Wintour’s daughter, Columbia grad Bee Shaffer, just couldn’t find a job? Well, even though she has a degree in theater and wanted to stay out of mom’s publishing world, Bee has finally landed herself a gig - as the assistant to Ricky Van Veen, the editor in chief of College Humor. No word on whether Bee will actually have to run errands and get Van Veen’s coffee or if she’ll just get to be the “pretty girl” in Vimeo videos, but either way, she’s got something to put on her resume now. Congrats, Bee - and good move sticking with the internet instead of the ever-dying world of print publishing. And if you ever have any workplace horror stories you might want to send this way, I totally promise to keep your identity a secret.
Now, let’s just hope there are some jobs left for the rest of us.
Ivanka Trump, once dubbed the “world’s hottest boss,” has a new book out called The Trump Card, where she gives business advice to women. I have to admit that while I find most of the Trump family to be totally absurd, I kind of like Ivanka. She seems about as down-to-earth as someone with her pedigree can be, and the times I’ve watched her judge The Apprentice she seems to have actual business skills. (Plus there was that time she redecorated her assistant’s apartment, which was pretty nice.)
On Good Morning America this week, Ivanka was promoting her book and while doing so told a story about how, just before she graduated from college, Anna Wintour called Ivanka personally (”no assistant connected us”) to offer her a job at Vogue. Ivanka said a polite “no thanks,” as she was already planning to get involved in Dad’s world of real estate.
I know that Ivanka’s playing nice and that she’s too smart to publicly dis someone, but does anyone else get the feeling she said no not because her dream was to pursue other projects but because she’s way too smart to work for Anna Wintour? Just wondering.
Bee Shaffer, the daughter of Vogue editrice/notorious boss Anna Wintour, is just like a regular person! She may get to join Mom in the front rows of fashion shows, but she took a less predictable route by studying theater at Columbia University. Now that Bee is out of school, she’s applying for jobs - and, oddly, hasn’t had much luck. Yes, it turns out that the recession affects even the daughters of legendary magazine editors. According to the New York Daily News:
The 22-year-old former Teen Vogue contributing editor went on a staggering 24 interviews since graduating from Columbia in May - all of them unsuccessful.
Part of me wants to be all bitter and “well, I sent out easily 200 resumes without getting a single interview, so suck it up already,” but part of me is also like “man, if it’s hard for this girl, imagine how bad it is for everyone else.” I think it’s safe to say that no one likes the job search process, especially when it’s your first job. Going on dozens of interviews and not having any of them pan out is embarrassing and disheartening. [I think Post Grad covered that fairly well.] Repeated job rejection getting to be a universal human experience, and that’s pretty depressing.
So, good luck, Bee, and I admire that you’re choosing a career other than the one where it would be super easy for you.
Via New York magazine:
Hi guys,
Sorry for the mass email. Two of the three assistants in Anna Wintour’s office are leaving soon and Conde Nast is starting to look for candidates. If you know of anyone that may be interested in applying have them shoot me an email and I can put them in touch with the right person in HR.
Some experience in fashion or media is good. Smart, well-educated, calm, etc…
Let me know if you can think of anyone.
Thanks!
Shit, I am so tempted to apply as a joke and see if I can get through to the interview round. My favorite part is the listing of requirements, one of them being “calm.”
And when did she upgrade from two assistants to three?
Even though her ex-boyfriend is a tool of the highest caliber, I get the impression that Anne Hathaway is kind of rad. I mean, compare her to other Hollywood starlets of about her age and fame level: Anne a) is named after Shakespeare’s wife, b) went to college, and c) and has never been photographed (at least that I know about) without underwear on. Plus, her most famous role to date was playing the fictionalized version of Anna Wintour’s ex-assistant Lauren Weisberger in the movie adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.
Something else I respect about her? She seems to genuinely love and support her older brother Michael. Anne has a well-established history of supporting gay rights groups and causes, and Michael’s homosexuality was one reason she became an activist. In one interview, Anne says that she strayed from the Catholic tradition she was raised in because the Church criticized gay people. Now, in the January issue of Vogue (she’s on the cover, which ought to disprove that “Anna Wintour had everyone from The Devil Wears Prada blacklisted” theory), Anne mentions that Michael is her personal assistant. That puts her among celebrities like Kelly Clarkson, Heather Mills, Kat Von D, and Perez Hilton, all of whom have a sibling as their PA. I’m willing to bet she and Michael are really tight, and I also bet they’re pretty fun to hang out with.
Even though some people inexplicably think that The Devil Wears Prada is realistic, anyone who has ever worked as an assistant in the fashion industry knows that happy endings are a lot less easy coming. Filmmaker R.J. Cutler has made a documentary about the inner workings of Vogue, presumably with the permission of Ms. Anna “Nuclear” Wintour herself. The movie, which followed the process of making the annual fall fashion issue (the one with the most ad pages, and the most important issue of the year) is brilliantly titled The September Issue and will debut at the Sundance Film Festival.
Anna Wintour, the patron saint of bad celebrity bosses, may be stepping down from her post as Editor in Chief of fashion bible Vogue. The known assistant and intern torturer won’t comment on whether she’s departing from her cushy gig. However, Gawker has some evidence as to why ‘Nuclear’ Wintour might be on the way out:
- Men’s Vogue recently got downgraded from 12 issues a year to 2. Apparently, Wintour didn’t even try to stick up for the magazine.
- Main rival Elle is one of the only magazines, fashion or otherwise, that’s on the upswing in terms of revenue, ad pages, and a successful TV partnership (first Project Runway and now Stylista).
- Her contract is up
- Although she seems nonplussed by all the bad press she’s gotten, it’s possible that being widely hated has finally gotten to be too much for her.
One other noteworthy item: Wintour’s daughter, Bee Shaffer, is about to graduate from Columbia and enter the job force. What better way to retire than to groom your perfect replacement?
As if the ridiculous fakeness of Sean Avery’s “internship” at Vogue wasn’t enough, now word comes that the hokcey-player-cum-fashionista’s story is going to hit the silver screen. Reuters reports:
Avery, who considers himself something of a fashion jock, spent the summer at Vogue, where, among other duties, he served as guest editor of MensVogue.com.
A member of the NHL’s New York Rangers at the time of the internship, he has since signed with the Dallas Stars. He told The Hollywood Reporter he’s always been a fashionista. “I was always trying to be the best-dressed kid in school,” he said.
I think this is all just some weird backhanded way for Anna Wintour to combat the image the magazine got from The Devil Wears Prada. You know she’s still pissed about that. Not pissed enough that she’s treating people with respect in an attempt to rehab her reputation or anything, but pissed.
This may shock those three people who haven’t read or watched The Devil Wears Prada, but it turns out that Anna “Nuclear” Wintour, Editor in Chief of Vogue magazine, treats her underlings like shit. An informant recently told Gawker that Wintour ordered a makeover for a new assistant:
We hear from a salon gossip that the razorlike Wintour recently made a new 22-year-old assistant cut her Rapunzel-like long hair.
It flowed all the way down her back, and Wintour requested directly that the girl chop it to below her shoulders. The assistant, who is probably making her age in yearly salary, ran immediatey to Bumble & Bumble. Despite the bitchiness of the request, the word is that Anna was right—the assistant looks much better this way.
Before I could even weigh on the layers of fucked up in this story, a commenter calling himself TheHonJudgeSmails did it for me: “The story isn’t Anna Wintour or her behavior; it’s the fact that some people are willing to let her get away with it.”
Continue reading ‘this just in: anna wintour still a bitch to assistants’
Vogue interns seem to be…well, in vogue these days. Maybe it’s because the post-Devil Wears Prada era has made Vogue assistants less cool, or just that Sean Avery keeps showing up at fashion-related events, but these days it’s all about the interns. Now, even Gawker’s getting into the game. They printed a painfully funny intern horror story from the fashion Bible:
One of my old [Conde Nast publication redacted] interns had a nightmare herself - she moved up to Vogue and was passing Anna in the hall on her first day. Knew she wasn’t supposed to look at her. As they passed, Anna tripped and fell, just bit it. Intern freaked out. she didn’t know what to do. So she ran.
Didn’t help AW. got back to her desk, told her new boss what had happened, and the boss told her she did the right thing and that if she’d actually attempted to help AW, her first day would def have been her last.
Continue reading ‘the other side of the aisle: when interns attack’