Behind the scenes of fashion magazines …

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the inner workings of the media continues to fascinate others, as seen in the hype regarding the summer release of The Devil Wears Prada 2. This will reunite Meryl Streep – as iconic editor Miranda Priestly, supposedly based on Anna Wintour – with Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci supported by a cast that includes Kenneth Branagh, Lady Gaga and Sydney Sweeney. So far, so good.

The plot is said to see Priestly dealing with the collapse of the magazine industry and her need to build bridges with her former assistant Emily (played by Blunt) who is now head of a luxury brand … and its advertising spend. If you’re interested in a career in fashion, add these books from the experts to your reading list …

Workhorse by Caroline Palmer (Fourth Estate)

Caroline Palmer has used her experience working for American Vogue in her debut novel that also posits the theory that there are two types of employees: the show horse and work horse. Set in New York in the early 2000s, the central character is the ambitious Clo Harmon who we see enjoy the perks and pitfalls of publishing (living beyond your means, and surviving on a diet of cocktails and canapés, being two). The reader can’t help but wonder who she is under all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners? It’s as witty as it is unsettling.

The New Girl by Harriet Walker (Hodder & Stoughton)

Fashion editor of The Times, Harriet Walker’s debut novel follows Margot Jones as fashion editor of Haute magazine, who’s expecting her first child. She selects an eager freelancer, Maggie, as her replacement during maternity leave. Margot’s carefully curated career and life spirals out of control as she becomes a mother and the simultaneous ending of a longterm friendship. As she watches Maggie’s progress on social media, she becomes suspicious and paranoid. Does she want to manipulate her out of a job? I found this pacy and stylish as an insightful look into the (sometimes) erratic nature of female friendships.

When the Going Was Good by Graydon Carter (Grove Press)

Luck, timing and who you know is often the key to success in any industry. Graydon Carter is the epitome of this theory, which he shares with considerable honesty in this memoir. He arrived in New York from Canada with little more than a failed literary magazine in his past and a keen sense of ambition. He landed a job at Time, went on to work at Life, co-founded Spy magazine and edited The New York Observer before catching the eye of Condé Nast. Under his tenure, Vanity Fair was a must read due to the stable of photographers and writers he assembled (including the late AA Gill, Dominick Dunne and Christopher Hitchens). This memoir should be read in tandem with his predessor Tina Brown’s The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983-1992. I inhale anything she writes as she always gives good gossip and glamour, yet behind the gloss she’s a grafter too. Follow her Substack column, Fresh Hell, for further updates.

Techbitch, by Lucy Sykes & Jo Piazza (Penguin)

In the magazine world, there’s often a clash between print and online journalism, which is explored in this novel co-written by fashion editor Lucy Sykes and journalist Jo Piazza, also published as The Knockoff in the US. It tells the story of Imogen Tate, a respected editor-in-chief of a high-end fashion magazine who returns from a sabbatical to find her former assistant, the ambitious and tech-savvy Eve Morton, in a position of power. Eve has been tasked with transforming the print magazine into an app, sidelining Imogen in the process. It’s prescient for today’s society, especially about the issue of ageism.

All The Cool Girls Get Fired, by Kristina O’Neill & Laura Brown (Ebury Publishing)

Being ‘let go’ is a rite of passage in the field – Anna Wintour was famously fired from her first fashion job at Harper’s Bazaar which, in hindsight, led to her influential roles with Vogue at Condé Nast. When Kristina O’Neill (formerly Wall Street Journal magazine’s editor in chief) and Laura Brown (formerly InStyle’s editor in chief) found themselves dismissed from their roles within 14 months, they knew that they should address the shame around job loss. Their book could be described as a pragmatic mindset shift as it examines resilience, reinvention, and the humour in professional setbacks with interviews featuring Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Lisa Kudrow, Carol Burnett and Jamie Lee Curtis, among others.

SEE MORE: Is There Any Mystique Left In Fashion?