I’ve always been someone who gets too caught up in the fictional world of a television show. In my head, Serena and Blair live on the Upper East Side in neighboring apartments, Olivia Benson would show up if I called 911, and Meredith Grey will deliver my children. I am also shamelessly going to admit that my love of TV greatly influenced how I ended up here: a 25-year-old English girl living in New York working at Vogue.
It all started back when I was nine and started watching Friends way too young. As number three out of four children, anything that tricked my parents into letting me stay up late to hang out with my older siblings was the goal. The winning ploy when I was nine was to hide in our playroom and watch Friends with my 16-year-old brother on the E4 channel all night long. I quickly became so obsessed that I received the full box set (yes, all 10 seasons and 236 episodes) as a Christmas gift that year, and it completely changed my life. Not only could I recite pretty much every line of every episode by the time I turned 10, but I could describe every one of Rachel Green’s outfits and decided that I too would work in fashion one day. Unfortunately, my impeccable memory of the dialogue has left me; however, my adoration for Rachel Green’s style and dedication to working in fashion remains very strong.
It’s not surprising that Friends has such an impact on me. Rachel Green was the ultimate fashion girl. Throughout the seasons, she held down a plethora of different industry jobs—from being a personal shopper at Bloomingdale’s to becoming a buyer at Ralph Lauren. At one point, she even snags an interview at Louis Vuitton and is offered a job in their Paris office (spoiler alert!). Regardless, her personal style remains intact from the first episode, where she makes her debut in an embroidered sweetheart-neckline wedding dress, to her continued dedication to the classic mini skirt and knee-high leather boots combo (a personal favorite of mine). I still get a little twinge of pride every time I put on a Rachel Green–inspired outfit for my very own New York City fashion job and think back to 10-year-old me sitting on the couch in Marshfield, England, analyzing exactly how Rachel Green ties up her denim shirts.
However, at the ripe age of 19 I found myself in Evanston, Illinois (not quite the Big Apple, but closer) for college, and I decided it was time to find a new fashion TV show to obsess over for my new era of life. Luckily for me, The Bold Type had just started airing and chronicled three girls working at a fashion magazine titled Scarlet. Watching Sutton Brady (Meghann Fahy pre White Lotus), Kat Edison, and Jane Sloan endure the intense yet still incredibly glamorous life of being a 20-something working at a fashion magazine had me sold.
I became deeply invested in the their various love stories and evil bosses; however, there were a few key learning moments that still stick with me today. In the season-three finale, Sutton—who quit the magazine to pursue her dream of being a designer—debuts her first collection in a runway show. Kat and Jane walk in the show, and there is even chatter that the editor of Scarlet (who sat front row) would wear one of her designs. However, Sutton admits at the end of the show that, through this experience, she realized that she was happier working at the magazine.
As a college student crippled by not only how I was going to get into fashion, but also what I was going to do once I got there, I was comforted. I could get my “dream job” and hate it. I could get my “dream job,” quit, and then go back. I could have ten thousand jobs, never find my “dream job,” but still make great friends! The show poetically aired its series finale on June 30, 2021…only 16 days after I graduated college and just a couple of months before I landed my first big girl fashion job at GQ magazine.
