Show Notes
In this special episode of Going Rogue, the tables are turned as Edward Barsamian steps in as host, putting Jill in the guest seat for an unscripted conversation. The two first met on a Vogue shoot with Blake Lively in 2009 and worked together for six years at the magazine. Less than a year into launching Going Rogue, Jill steps away from behind the microphone to share her own story, from her unconventional path into fashion to her nearly two decades shaping celebrity culture at American Vogue. Jill traces her journey from a math major at Colgate who wore Betsy Johnson catsuits to upstate New York bars, to a temp worker in LA who accidentally wandered into Rob Reiner's private bathroom, to landing a dream job as Anna Wintour's assistant without knowing who Anna Wintour was. She reveals the strategic thinking behind cover selection, the delicate dance of negotiating with publicists and studios, and how she helped transform British Vogue into a global competitor during her collaboration with Edward Enninful. Beyond the glamour and legendary shoots at places like Versailles, Jill opens up about what inspired her to create a podcast, why she ultimately left Vogue after 19 years, and what excites her about working with independent publications, including Edward Enninful's EE72 and Carine Roitfeld's CR Fashion Book. It's a rare chance to hear the woman behind the microphone tell her own story.
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More from Going Rogue
With season two launching next week, Jill borrows a page from television and looks back at some of her favorite moments from season one of Going Rogue.
Jill sits down with Edward Enninful, the former British Vogue editor-in-chief who left the top of the masthead to build his own house. One year into EE72, the media and entertainment company he founded with his sister Akua, Enninful closes out 72 Magazine's first year with Rihanna on the cover, their sixth collaboration across W, British Vogue, and now 72. He and Jill trace their shared history from American Vogue in 2006 through the 40-icon British Vogue finale, then go deep on the new cover: the queen concept, photographer Szilveszter Makó's hand-painted backdrops, and why every Rihanna shoot happens overnight. Along the way: the '90s versus now, social media and the death of the curator, his Tate exhibition, advice for young creatives, and what he calls "the big flat," the collapse of silos between fashion, art, film, and music. Plus rogue rapid fire and a Prince versus Beyoncé question with only one possible answer.
With The Devil Wears Prada 2 hitting theaters this week, Jill pulls together moments from six former guests who actually lived the job, assisting Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley, Tonne Goodman, and Vogue's other most demanding desks. Leslie Fremar (yes, the real Emily), Brian Coats, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Edward Barsamian, Andrew Bevan, and Karla Martínez de Salas on the 18 trunks through customs, the faxes, the $10 lunch budgets, the run-throughs, and the sink-or-swim moments that built six remarkable careers. What Andrea Sachs couldn't handle in a day, these six did for years.
In a role reversal, Ned Martel takes the mic to interview Jill about her two decades at Vogue, timed to the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2. As the assistant who hired Lauren Weisberger, and the woman who turns up on page 21 of the novel, Jill has a firsthand stake in a story the culture keeps retelling. She walks Ned through the day the galley arrived, Anna's pivot from private hurt to public ownership of the movie, and her own running defense of the leather pants.