Advertisement - Continue Reading BelowSince I began working at ELLE just over two months ago, I've experienced many professional pinch me moments. There was the first time I spent hours clicking through runway photos without feeling the need to erase my web browser history, that first departmental meeting during which one of the primary points of discussion was how best to strike not the work/sleep balance but the work/after-party/sleep balance, and then there was the unforgettable sense of relief I felt upon submitting my first piece of writing entirely in my own voice and without any of the words China, military or modernization.
More From ELLEBut of all the reminders of how extremely I'd traded in one end of the professional spectrum for the other, none was as resonant as when, two weeks warm on the job, I found myself just blocks from my former DC office on my hands and knees, arranging a cache of designer shoes so covetable that everyone on-set expressed regret at not having chosen a line of work for which owning $1,060 Pierre Hardy fishnet sandals made fiscal sense.
After fulfilling shoe duty, I joined the team in sorting the accessory trays, stuffing the handbags, and coordinating the coats, jackets, tops, bottoms and dresses (the racks are always ordered outside-in, outfit-wise). Then came steaming, de-linting, pouring the Pellegrino, and just before the first arrival, stealing away with Monte, my Jack Russell Terrier (and the shoot's mascot, as anointed by Joe Zee), to Lafayette Park for a few familiar laps in front the White House.
When I returned, I had the pleasure of not only sitting down and talking with the women who would be featured in the shoot, but also watching how, with a quick addition of this, removal of that, cinch here, cardigan there, Joe Zee took seven blank canvasses, and without sacrificing any of the ELLE aesthetic, crafted seven very different, very wearable and very DC office appropriate looks. Those who still think of styling as a semi-professional game of dress-up need only spend an hour with someone like Joe (or his assistant, Annie) to realize the gross error in that line of thinking. I took notes, believe me, and so did everyone else.
Not to be a tease, but instead of divulging too much more about the shoot, specifically its incredible subjects, I encourage you to check out for yourselves Joe's most recent Style A to Zee (`Capital Cool,' page 96), available now in the new April issue.
Best,
Johanna



President Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff, Mona Sutphen, demonstrating that Wang has a place in Washington