I have a confession to make: I am every facet and phase that makes up the epitome of Andy Sachs.
I know, I know– not really a shocker to some, and an instant confusion to a few. Just because I am the founder and editor-in-chief of indie online publishing brand Stylish– with various editions of Stylish television formats in different local free TV platforms, international cable channels, and streaming platforms– does not automatically make me a Miranda Priestly. Or at least, not yet.
The Andy Sachs in Stylish Magazine
Just how poetic the universe could be, my first-ever by-line as a lifestyle journalist was published in 2006– the same year The Devil Wears Prada came out. You may view the article here.
My first by-line as a lifestyle journalist was published in Cook Magazine under Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing, Inc..
Cook Magazine is now defunct, but remains to be an iconic culinary-lifestyle print magazine in the Philippine publishing scene to those who understand and get it. Just shows you how hard it is to get by as a publishing brand in this economic climate.
My first subject for an interview and story feature as a freelance lifestyle journalist for Cook was South Korean entrepreneur Candy Hwang– founder of Healthy Shabu-Shabu– which in 2006 was just opening its first-ever store in the Philippines in the then-new Mall of Asia. I would later on interview and write about a bunch of female entrepreneurs and lifestyle visionaries, and cover various dining and lifestyle events in the country.
I was a senior college student in Centro Escolar University in Mendiola, Manila then when this was all happening. I had not even applied to any forms of internships yet as a graduating student, but I courageously applied for the post of freelance lifestyle writer, after meeting the then-managing editor Edwin Aguilar of Cook Magazine, at a yoga class.
I was confident I could be considered for the post because in my mind, writing has always been my birthright and spiritual assignment. I am, after all, the granddaughter of my maternal grandpa, Brig. General Froilan Alvior – the very historian and writer of the history of the Philippines’ Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). A quick visit to the Villamor Library of AFP, and you’ll get to read his published books. As someone who had represented Makati City in regional writing competitions and won every city-level feature writing competition at the time in grade school, I have always known my very name that carries the clan of Alvior would land as a by-line in multiple print magazines and newspapers in the Philippines. This has always been my destiny. You can ask God about it. I was already earning from check to check as a writer– all while simultaneously finishing my degree in Mass Communication, all while writing the chapter 2 of our thesis alone in the university library, while my thesis partner was then busy in theatre rehearsals as Oedipus Rex (Our thesis went on to win 2nd Best Undergraduate Study in our university at the time). My “salary” per story as a contributing writer for a magazine all while still a senior college student, was small, but still a salary. My mom and grandmother were amused.
Unlike Andy Sachs, I did not have to hang any Mirandas’ coats, nor look for a piece of paper at a lingerie shoot to earn my spot in the local publishing scene. Not yet out of college at the time, and I was already exposed to event coverage and reportage, as well as exclusive interviews to produce content for the magazine– and then later on I got connected to the country’s biggest lifestyle editors for newspapers and magazines who would give me various writing opportunities as I met them in-person during media events. It could be very fortunate for me, or very unlucky, actually– depends entirely on what mood I am in, or what kind of shitshow has been thrown my way as a journalist yet again.
I did not have the same journey as Andy Sachs, sure. But we have the same passion. She’s always wanted to be taken seriously as a journalist with published by-lines. She had to work her way for Miranda “for a year, and get a job at any magazine she wants” at a job “a million girls would kill for.” I did not have to start as an editorial nor personal assistant for any Miranda’s to make my dreams of having my by-line published come true.
A couple of years after semi-regularly being published in Cook Magazine, I was later on hired as a full-time supplement writer for BusinessMirror, a national business broadsheet under the same company. On the side, I was working as a freelance writer for Manila Standard Today’s lifestyle section under Gianna Maniego (Rest in peace, Miss G).
“It was a dream. I was writing serious stuff such as the stock market and bonds for BusinessMirror with Rod Abad (Rest in peace, friend), and then fun fashion and beauty, and anything lifestyle snippets for Manila Standard Today from 2008 onward under Miss G Maniego, to at least ’til 2016 under Nickie Wang.
I discovered early on in the mid-2000s that I would need a lot of freelance writing stints and one full-time job to survive at a meager writer’s salary at the time.“
Funny how having been in the publishing space since 2006 feels like a dream and a nightmare all at once, as everyday feels like we are being diminished. Overlooked. Discredited. Press kits, or PR kits, that used to be bibles for credible news from press conferences made specifically for the press members and lifestyle journalists, have now become a thing of social validation in unboxing videos of “influencers” on TikTok.
The Rise of Bloggers and Online Personalities
It was in 2009 when online personalities and bloggers started appearing in local press conferences like a lifestyle journalist would. My Facebook feed would be filled with posts from various lifestyle editors and writers about their shock at how the digital content of these online content creators, or then most commonly called bloggers, were not even regulated. Their thing was very far from print content. I even remember years later, on one live senate hearing, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago herself asked a blogger what he was doing at that live hearing event coverage on live TV, further inquiring who was regulating his content? It was a confusing time.
I have gone my own way and contributed to a lot of publishing brands for years for titles such as Manila Bulletin, MEG Magazine, Metro Magazine, Sense & Style Magazine and more– all while working as either a full-time producer for TV shows and TV channels, or copywriter for a couple of advertising and PR agencies, or as an editor for a newspaper or magazine. It is hard to survive as a lifestyle journalist alone, but I’ve pushed through. I went on to become an editor for BusinessMirror, and other lifestyle publishing titles, too. I can maintain this job and career, partly because of my family’s privilege to sustain me even at my lowest points financially. Publishing and lifestyle journalism are not just about the glam. Passion, and a lot of hard work and grit are what would make you survive in this business. I then founded Stylish Magazine in 2020, because I felt like the content I wanted to see during the pandemic lockdown could be found nowhere in existing platforms.
Stylish was built out of passion for business and lifestyle journalism despite the hardships of the pandemic.
I got to see why the Andy Sachs of the world get to survive and thrive at any form or facet in the field of journalism.
And the Emily’s or the clackers, who love fashion over or more than journalism get to have either a promotion, or a redirection…
A Visionary or A Vendor?
The Devil Wears Prada has raised a generation of girls “who would kill for the job,” while The Devil Wears Prada 2 was poised to guide this generation’s fashion editors and journalists to navigate a world that’s so different to where they grew up in, or at least present a mirror to the transition of the traditional media into digital content. But did the film do its job?
Filmmaking is another form of art– that either imitates life, or gets to be emulated by real daily scenarios.
Have I become a “clacker” along the way to survive in my journey in lifestyle journalism? Since covering the lifestyle beat from 2008, I’ve always been exposed to the metro’s top runway shows and beauty events. By 2011, I started producing Philippine Fashion Week TV, while still covering or sometimes producing fashion shows and lifestyle events in the metro as a freelance lifestyle writer for various publications and copywriter for marketing agencies. By 2016, I started working as editor for a number of publishing titles, particularly in the business, lifestyle, and fashion beat.
By 2019, I started taking up short courses in fashion partly because I wanted to understand more how to sustain my cousin’s swimwear line that used to be in SM Department Stores from 2007-2013, and later on in a stand-alone boutique in Boracay from 2013, that got shut down by Duterte’s “Boracay clean-up” in 2018.
It was also in 2019 when I started producing and styling fashion editorial shoots for New York’s Metropolitan Magazine under Adam Kluger. It was the same leap of faith– I submitted my CV, which by then was already beefed up with experiences as a promo producer for the Lifestyle Network Global, TV segment producer for Philippine Fashion Week TV, Assistant Director Trainee for ABS-CBN, and executive producer of my very own Stylista TV on Pinoy Xtreme, and Stylista PR agency. Metropolitan Magazine’s EIC Kluger never treated me like any other freelance contributors for their publication– but rather as a business partner who can either help expand Metropolitan Magazine in Pan Asia, or help Stylista TV and Stylish get their American extension. Our collaboration in publishing fashion editorial content and producing fashion events in New York has exposed me to the diverse sides of the print business and event production internationally, beyond the local lifestyle beat that I’d been accustomed prior.
Here come my insights on the movie:
I am frustrated at how “clacker” Emily was demoted into a caricature wanting to have her face on the cover of Runway Magazine. It felt…forced…like, do we really believe the work ethic of Emily had always been rooted from personal vanity of wanting to be on the cover of Runway? Even real life Emily, Leslie Framer, ended up being the stylist of Hollywood actress Charlize Theron, because the “clackers” are in looooove with the visual narrative and personal story that fashion provides as a platform. The profile of the “clackers” is usually so rooted into the integrity of fashion, and with too much respect for the art of it, making a clown of themselves as a cover of a fashion magazine just because (unless needed as a story) is unthinkable to me.
Despite numerous instances of firm denial by the film creators that Emily in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” was actually based on Lauren Sánchez, the former TV journalist married to tech honcho Jeff Bezos, it is pretty apparent what Emily represents in the movie.
Tight economic barriers continue to diminish the mission of journalism, be it in straight or lifestyle news. Anna Wintour’s decision to feature Lauren Sánchez-Bezos on the digital bridal cover of Vogue following her multi-million-dollar Venice wedding to Jeff Bezos was widely seen by the fashion and media industries’ critics as a calculated consolidation of elite power.
This move by Wintour has been seen by critics as elevating “the new tech elite”, and aligning Vogue to the world’s deepest pockets, even if it looks a little tacky. Making Jeff Bezos the honorary chair of the recent Met Gala gave the tech billionaire an “unprecedented cultural capital.” The timing of the release of Lauren’s digital Vogue bridal cover ahead of Wintour’s transitioning out from her long-time Vogue editor-in-chief post was off, as rumors spread that Wintour was brokering a deal to sell Vogue to higher elites in the tech industry.
Vogue represents high fashion, exclusivity, and aspiration, and the move clashes with the magazine’s heritage of curated artistry with extreme, unvarnished consumerism. Critics see it as “billionaire cossoting” because suddenly, the “tech bros” are seen cool, as they align with fashion and its rich culture and influence symbolized by the Met Gala. “Billionaire cosplaying” arises from the perception that high-net-worth individuals are co-opting cultural institutions to legitimize their public images, all while distracting from wealth inequality and corporate labor practices. Wintour has faced severe backlash over this. In the movie, see the equivalent of this real life issue in the scene where Priestly gave in to the ad requests of former Runway assistant and now Dior executive Emily during the meeting when Miranda first tagged along Andy outside the office as the new features editor of Runway. Or the intent of IT honcho Benji Barnes to buy Runway for his girlfriend Emily.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 puts the focus on the elite with deep pockets who try to control the media narrative, and in real life sometimes, it is as dangerous as controlling the content in our social media feed.
Watch The Great Hack on Netflix, and you’ll understand more how strategic algorithms in social media have replaced, hijacked and diminished the integrity of traditional journalism in terms of helping shape the opinions, perceptions and mind of the audiences on important matters like politics.
After watching The Great Hack on Netflix, you will understand the battlecry of The Devil Wears Prada 2 that “Journalism Still Matters!”
Miranda Priestly is Anna Wintour’s Fantasy
In the movie The Devil Wears Prada 2, the fall of Runway Magazine was miraculously saved by the elusive philanthropist and investor Sasha Barnes played by Lucy Liu —- thanks to the string that was able to pull by Andy Sachs, plugged into the foundation of her journalism acumen and credibility as a writer. Nice ending, right? Miranda Priestly gets to be Miranda Priestly unscathed by the ridiculousness of the patriarchy, cruelty, and foolery of the likes of IT giants such as Benji Barnes.
In the real world, Anna Wintour, the inspiration behind the character of Miranda Priestly, reportedly needs to kiss the ass of the likes of Jeff Bezos to the cause of the Met Gala. Unfortunately in real life, Wintour does not have the likes of Sasha Barnes, who is willing to give monetary investment into the publishing business, while remaining to be without autonomy on the creative control of the media company. Wintour in real life may not have her Sasha Barnes yet, and still has to deal with the likes of Jeffrey Bezos– but at least we have a happy ending for Miranda Priestly as she got to save Runway Magazine with the help of Andy. That alone proves that movies are still out here making us dream the impossible. And for that, the film has done its job in giving us all a beacon of hope.
What remains to be very Anna Wintour though in The Devil 2 was when Priestly asked Barnes in their dinner in Milan, “How do you preserve the best in human achievement in the face of digital slop?” — because Wintour seems to be committed to document the achievement of humans, visionaries, and artists in the fashion and lifestyle scenes in real life, through the resilient digital modernization of Vogue. Before this scene, Priestly was in front of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” painting, maybe representing the betrayal she might be feeling that one of her former Emily’s was trying to buy Runway Magazine from under her, while the other Emily (Andy) was trying to close a book deal based on her biography.
I love that Priestly is “suddenly nice” in The Devil 2. Not because she’s “suddenly nice,” but rather, the movie further pulled the curtain on the humanness of Miranda– she still wants a job promotion, she is still humbled down by the power of social media algorithms, and this kind of “magazine editor’s niceness” did not happen overnight.
I also love that Nigel got his spotlight by giving the important Runway intro speech in their fashion event Milan, not because Miranda suddenly gave him his “turn,” but rather it showed the perception from the lens of Miranda that Nigel actually never asked for favors, or get-backs, or validation, or promotions. He just continues to work hard hand in hand alongside Miranda, because he loves his job, and he understands the many stakes that Miranda has to risk in running Runway Magazine. In the end, Miranda has always appreciated Nigel, but she was just not as showy as we wanted her to be. But she did finally acknowledge the hard work of Nigel, and it was a great closure, at least to me.
Miranda and Andy as Tag Team Partners
This is what I appreciated the most about the film: the inevitable partnership of Miranda and Andy.
Andy came back as Features Editor at Runway Magazine, thanks to a viral video of her giving a speech about losing her job at a newspaper company via a text message during a journalism award show– a clip that was then forwarded by Nigel to Irv Ravits, CEO of Runway Magazine’s Elias-Clarke. Priestly, during a work brunch at The Hamptons, acknowledged that she’s always known Andy is not just another Emily, and even shared with Andy her excitement over a possible promotion at Runway Magazine. How refreshing.
The car scene toward the end of The Devil Wears Prada 2 where Miranda informed Andy that she knew all along that her own features editor at Runway was planning to write an autobiography book centered on her life, and seemingly giving Andy a blessing to go and do it, was an amazing plot twist. It was like Priestly herself acknowledged that people in her industry had to do their job, not just because the publishing business is a dog-eat-dog industry, but because a writer, any writer, has got to do it. Because it is every writer’s job, or a journalist’s job, to document the achievements and ills of humans at any given era or time.
In the car scene, both Miranda and Andy acknowledged that they need to help each other, and allow people to take on some opportunities presented to them in the industry. Not because it is dog-eat-dog, self-absorbed industry, but because it is a business where everyone helps one another, that even competitors need to collaborate at times to keep the business thriving.
Andy Sachs finally gets to stay and help maintain Runway Magazine along with the team, not because she finally gives in to the idea that one has to be the bad guy to stay afloat in the publishing business since “everybody wants to be like us,” as famously uttered by Priestly. But because she finally sees and embraces the value of fashion journalism. She even wore an ensemble with her cerulean sweater layered on top of it in the final scene of the movie, symbolizing that Andy Sachs has now fully embraced the “clacker” in her without guilt nor shame. She seemingly knows how to upcycle her iconic sweater now, as she runs her new life as the full-time features editor at Runway Magazine.
As for me, I still resonate with Andy Sachs. After all, Stylish Magazine is a pandemic baby. It was built as a digital-first media company during the lockdown era of the pandemic, when it was hard to defend fashion and beauty stories to the readers, at the time when humans were required to wear face masks and protective suits. We envisioned to reframe how people see fashion, as it is not just a form of superficial vanity, but rather a natural form of self-expression, a tool to enforce self-love. That’s why we stay true to being “your source of self-love, style, and inspiration” because we just want to walk with you in life as you explore yourself, existence, and even spirituality— beyond runway trends. But that topic is for another day…
And as we navigate this thing called life together, I hope you remember that “Journalism Still Matters!” and be more discerning about what content you consume from your social media feed and algorithm. Be an Andy Sachs, or an Emily, or a Nigel. Own your journey. Or be a Miranda Priestly who always chooses to see the excellence in human existence through fashion journalism despite the hard times– while staying true to her mission to put a spotlight in our brilliance as people be it in style, creativity, vision, storytelling, entrepreneurship, or artistry. You can also do the same in your own industry, career, passion, or hobby. Maybe in that little way, we can all be like Priestly—- a through and through visionary.
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Janeena Chan is on the cover of STYLISH Magazine right now. The multihyphenate media star, in-demand host, singer, actress, Sparkle artist, and our very own Stylish correspondent shares her journey as a modern Filipina-Chinese woman navigating her career in entertainment and lifestyle while embracing her heritage.
Read the Stylish Magazine January-February 2026 cover story here.
Our #StylishPodcast episode featuring our September-October cover girl Jasmine Curtis-Smith is out. Watch it on Facebook and YouTube.
Stylish Magazine is “your source of self-love, style & inspiration” first introduced in June 2020. Our television series format, Stylish TV, once ranked one of the Top 50 Most Watched Multicultural Shows in the USA, can be streamed on iWantTFC and be watched on TFC (The Filipino Channel) in more than 50 countries. Watch it online here.
Style Visionary Network is a lifestyle-business online platform where #WeCreateVisionaries. Also introduced in June 2020, Style Visionary Network is also the digital home channel of media brands Stylish Magazine and Stylish TV.