Movies and TV shows that inspire us to become fashion journalists

Here at Fashion North, we love to watch a fabulously cheesy but fun movie, or binge-watch a riveting series.

We especially love it, when the main protagonists are fashion journalists, aspiring or already successful. After all, that’s why we are fashion journalism at the University of Sunderland!

Here are our favourite movies and TV shows that inspire us in our career dreams!

This list will include spoilers.

 

This movie, released in 2009, showed us that in order to make it in the world of fashion journalism, you need to work hard to get to the job roles you’ve dreamed about for years. Main character Rebecca Bloomwood (played by Isla Fisher) begins her career working for a gardening magazine, with an unhealthy obsession with fashion (hence the term shopaholic), who dreams of working for high-end fashion magazine Alette.

Rebecca lands a role at money magazine Successful Saving, which is under the same publication company as Alette, as a way to get her foot in the door. In the end though, she doesn’t end up working for Alette, instead maintaining a role at Successful Saving with her own hugely successful column, ‘The Girl In The Green Scarf’, blending healthy spending and fashion into one topic.

Confessions of a Shopaholic is available to stream on Disney Plus.

Even though Sex and the City’s main character, Carrie Bradshaw (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) is not technically a fashion journalist (she’s more of a relationship/lifestyle writer), there’s no denying that her fashion sense in the TV show and spin-off movies, is an iconic staple of the whole story. The show started in 1998 but re-watching it in this current day and age shows us that the storylines and the fashion is absolutely timeless and incredibly inspirational. We can’t wait for the new spin-off, Just Like That to be released.

Sex and the City is available to stream on Now TV.

Ugly Betty had to be included on our list, as it inspired those of us who love the fashion industry, but who aren’t technically the most fashionable. It told us that as long as you work hard and have the knowledge and the passion for the industry, you still have a chance of making it! Ugly Betty was released in a time when beauty standards were almost unachievable, and not as inclusive as they are now. We like to think that this show paved the way for more inclusivity and diversity in fashion workplaces.

Ugly Betty is available to stream on Disney Plus.

Of course, the plot of 13 Going On 30 is more focussed on the fact Jenna Rink (played by Jennifer Garner) is a 13-year-old girl in a 30-year-old woman’s body. However, when we find out that adult Jenna is an editor for fashion magazine Poise, we all internally scream along with the character (that’s the dream, after all). In the movie, we see that Poise is failing as adult Jenna has purposefully ran it into the ground, however she is able to change that with her child-like positive attitude. 13 Going On 30 teaches us that, we must never lose the hope that the younger versions of ourselves had, even in adulthood, in not only our personal lives but our careers too.

13 Going 30 is available to rent or buy on Amazon.

 

Now this list would not be complete, without the inclusion of 2006 movie, The Devil Wears Prada. Fashion journalists everywhere cite this movie as a huge inspiration to their careers. The movie is based on the fictitious novel of the same name by author Lauren Weisberger (who is actually a former assistant of Vogue editor Anna Wintour).

In the movie, we see aspiring journalist Andy Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway) land a role at the famous fashion magazine Runway, becoming an assistant to the very difficult and demanding editor Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep). Even though Andy doesn’t enjoy her time in this role, it said a few times during the movie that Andy’s job is one that “millions of girls would kill for”. They are right, we would.

The Devil Wears Prada is available to stream on Disney Plus.