New York’s top fashion and beauty editors were as inconspicuous as ever at last week’s shows, jostling one another in the front row and scribbling away furiously—even if some of them were wearing the same skirt. But can you tell them apart from their prose? A look at recent letters-from-the-editors reveals a wideish range of inner hopes, insecurities, and fears.

Anna Wintour, Vogue
Lesley Jane Seymour, Marie Claire
Linda Wells, Allure
Jim Nelson, GQ
Charla Lawhon, InStyle
Roberta Myers, Elle

a) “Tom Ford once told me that he found French women sexier than American ones. He said: Americans are too clean . . . I took no offense.”

b) “We can’t quite offer the world, but we can offer terrific dandruff advice.”

c) “David [Beckham] oozes a charisma that makes me regard him as the Jagger or Bowie of his generation . . . I showed him a drawing made by my six-year-old nephew Luke of Beckham’s various hairdos. Beckham immediately suggested phoning the boy to say thanks.”

d) “So, shoe me. It may sound odd, but I tend to identify the events in my life by the shoes I wore at the time.”

e) “Not yet married herself . . . [our writer] rings up the sexperts to find out if we’re really all doomed to a life of domestic ho-hum and discovers that it ain’t necessarily so. Whew!”

f) “Here’s the truth about me: Until a few years ago, I could never quite get the dressing-for-work thing together . . . AND I’VE BEEN IN THE FASHION BUSINESS FOR YEARS!”

ANSWERS: a) Linda Wells; b) Jim Nelson; c) Anna Wintour; d) Charla Lawhon; e) Roberta Myers; f) Lesley Jane Seymour.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer Features”
• Table of Contents: September 29, 2003 issue of New York | Subscribe!