Skeletons in the closet
'The Devil Wears Prada' shines spotlight on fashion magazines' vaults
NEW YORK -- Elle magazine fashion director Nina Garcia, who emits a lambent glow in a creamy suede miniskirt despite a long day of filming ``Project Runway ," is about to drop a colossal water balloon on what many assume to be an inherent truth of the fashion magazine industry: She's giving a rare tour of the fashion closet at Elle -- which is more like a sprawling locker room for couture than a closet. To her left are 60 drawers filled with nothing but sunglasses, hundreds of them. She's surrounded by so many shelves of Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choos that Sarah Jessica Parker's head would implode from the over-stimulation of it all. And then there are the clothes. Racks of Fendi, Armani, and Versace that are ready for their glossy close-ups.
The closely guarded magazine fashion closet is where clothes are stored for multiple photo shoots. It's also the place where fantasies of sartorial transformation are born. In the film version of Lauren Weisberger's ``The Devil Wears Prada ," which opens next Friday, style-challenged editorial assistant Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway ) is made over in clothes courtesy of the fashion closet of the fictitious Runway magazine. On MTV's reality sudsfest ``The Hills ," Lauren Conrad helps herself to a fresh look from the Teen Vogue closet. But Garcia insouciantly explains that these examples are based more on the wishful thinking of bargain-loving clotheshorses than the day-to-day workings of a fashion magazine.
``It's a total misconception that we can come in here and pick and choose what we want to wear," she says, inadvertently quashing the dream life of thousands of women -- and a few men. ``Even within the magazine, people who don't work on the fashion side of things think we're Bergdorf Goodman . I get requests from other departments like: `Do you have a red Valentino gown?' No! We don't. It's crazy. Seriously, we're not Bergdorfs."
If the writers and editors at the country's top fashion magazines are not dipping into their publications' closets -- or at least not confessing to an occasion al skim -- there is a good reason. Magazines are in a constant battle to get their hands on the same one or two dresses. Clothes seldom stick around for more than a few weeks before being shipped back, and sometimes hotter fashions are only on the premises just long enough to photograph. The dress that is modeled on the runway at seasonal fashion shows is the same dress that Halle Berry wears on the red carpet the following week. It's also the same dress that eventually makes its way to Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Elle.
``You're lucky if you get it looking nice," says Katie Meyer, market editor at Glamour. ``By the end of the season, it's haggard and it might have Halle B erry's lipstick stains on it and a rip or two. But this is the same dress that everybody needs for their shoot."
This is where the negotiations begin. Magazines must come up with a let's-make-nice schedule if they want to photograph the same Louis Vuitton bag or Marc Jacobs coat. Most cooperate, but a few have reputations for deliberately sitting on an in-demand product.
``This is why women's magazines fight over dresses," says Nick Sullivan, fashion director at Esquire. ``They want to get it into their closets and deny its existence the rest of the season so they can be the only ones who show it."
No one is willing to finger the fashion squatters who bogart the prime couture, but the guilty parties are common knowledge among editors who give a knowing look and a verbal slap when the subject arises.
``We won't name any names," says Garcia. ``But people maliciously hold on to things. There's one magazine in particular that loves to do that. In a way, it's not fair for the designer. Because you would want the exposure to be more general. We try to work with the other magazines to share."
It could also be why not all magazines are eager to show visitors their closets. The Vogue closet, immortalized in an episode of ``Sex and the City" (and the inspiration for the palatial closet that serves as the centerpiece in ``The Devil Wears Prada") is about as accessible as Dick Cheney's secret bunker.
``It's a functioning closet, meaning that racks are pulled out during the day for sittings and photo shoots, and at night, everything is returned," the press representative at Vogue explains, ticking off reasons why a visit to the magazine's sample closet is a bad idea. ``It's not like it appears on `Sex and the City.' Yes, it has all those fabulous clothes, but it's not as orderly."
Even after a reporter explains that he is no neat freak, that his personal closet is about as orderly as Tommy Lee's liquor cabinet on Cinco de Mayo, the answer is the same.
``We like to maintain an air of mystery," he says, ``We want to keep the fantasy alive."
According to Us Weekly fashion director Sasha Charnin Morrison, the Vogue closet is worthy of this reverence. Morrison's step mother previously worked as Vogue's creative director, and when a young Morrison saw the inside of the closet for the first time, her life was transformed forever.
``I had a career in show business at that point," she says while giving a tour of Us Weekly's fashion closet. ``I was 13 and a child actor. But the moment that I walked into the closet at Vogue, that was it. It completely drew me in, and I said `That's what I want to do.' It's thrilling, it just takes your breath away."
A few other magazines also declined to open their closets, including Lucky (``We'll pass on this one, thanks," was the reply), and Harper's Bazaar (``They just moved into the Hearst Tower, and they're not comfortable showing the closet at this point"). But Esquire, another Hearst publication which moved into the gleaming tower last month, was willing to show its stunning new closet, which is close in size to a three-bedroom suite with floor-to-ceiling windows. Last week, the closet was sporting racks of Etro suits and cashmere jackets for fall. But Esquire's Sullivan makes it clear that like the lady's magazines, Esquire is not a place where dandies can help themselves.
``It's certainly never been a free-for-all for the staff to upgrade their wardrobes," he says of the airy fashion closet.
Glamour also recently expanded its closet, allowing its stylist and interns more room to work on laying out fashion spreads. But no matter how big the closet or beautiful the fashions, Meyer says she still occasionally feels just as giddy and excited about the clothes as she did when she began working as an intern at Harper's Bazaar .
``I just remember thinking it was so glamorous and so fabulous," she says. ``I'd have to say `OK, just be cool. Don't freak out that you're handling jewels that are worth a million dollars.' But that's the kind of emotion these closets can produce. Even though these aren't your clothes, you feel amazing being surrounded by them. It's like the ultimate fashion therapy."
Christopher Muther can be reached at muther@globe.com. 