Three former assistants of Anna Wintour have revealed what life is like in the Fashion The editor’s office was really good, and some of them look like they were taken straight from the movie, while other details are rather duller.
Sache Taylor, Sammi Tapper and Marley Marius, who each worked in Wintour’s office for between one and four years from 2017 to October 2025, sat down with FashionNew head of editorial content, Chloe Malle, for the brand. The tour with Vogue podcast.
The moment is not a coincidence, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is on the way, and Wintour has already posed for the cover of her own magazine alongside Meryl Streep.
The interview process alone sets the tone.
Candidates are advised not to wear black; Wintour loves the color and has said it’s the one thing she would never wear from head to toe.
And don’t expect to be questioned about your strengths and weaknesses. “She doesn’t want a robot,” Marius said, remembering the advice he was given beforehand. “She wants someone with personality.”
Once hired, the learning curve is steep.
Marius described inheriting a 21-page manual passed down from assistant to assistant, a sacred text that covers everything related to the running of the office.
The day starts early. Wintour herself wakes up between 4 and 5:30 a.m. on weekdays, plays tennis, reads the news, and arrives at the office around 8 a.m., where an assistant has already prepared her coffee, her breakfast, and her schedule.
All of her emails and documents, including all responses, are printed for her to review. Your daily to-do list is on an iPad.
Regarding the issue of footwear, a theme very present in the film, reality is more practical than glamorous.
Marius lasted only two weeks in heels before switching to flats.
“Things happen at a certain pace and sometimes it involves a bit of running,” he explained. “When he asks for someone, he quickly wants that person.”
Tapper spent weeks wearing high-heeled shoes that gave her blisters before quietly retiring them, although she still wore heels most days. The unspoken rule, he said, was simple: no jeans, no sneakers.
Taylor, who spent four years as an assistant and now plans the Met Gala as Fashion‘s director of special events, recalled having to rally slow editors into meetings with Wintour, using a two-aide system, one on the landline and another physically hovering at the editor’s desk.
“I would just float until they were ready; if I did, they were usually faster,” he said.
He also found an unexpected physical benefit. “I loved running because I was so busy I could never exercise. So I would just run in the office.”
Then there’s the take-home bag, an extra-large LLBean Boat and Tote that fills each night with items awaiting Wintour’s edits, notes, and comments.
“She never wants anyone to wait for her comments,” Tapper explained. The infamous “book,” the printed copy of the magazine that features heavily in the film, goes in that bag every night and returns the next morning covered in Post-It notes written in what Taylor described as “doctor’s handwriting” that “takes a village” to decode.
“I would allow myself to ask you once a week [what one of her notes said]”he recalled.
