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Anna Wintour Reveals What You Should Actually Wear to a Job Interview

Anna Wintour. Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for WIRED25

In a new video series called, “Go Ask Anna,” the notoriously tight-lipped Vogue editor-in-chief allows a lucky few plebeians to ask her some questions.

The latest: What should you wear to a job interview with Anna Wintour?

It’s a question we’ve asked for years. How does one impress the most fashionable woman on earth? What are the rules? (Besides no all-black.) Past interviewees have gone to extraordinary lengths to please Wintour. Some spent a full paycheck they didn’t yet have. (Actually, make that three paychecks.) Others borrowed clothes, or bought something then returned it.

As many will be surprised to learn, this is the opposite of what Wintour thinks you should do.

“It’s so interesting to me how people dress when they come in for interviews,” Wintour says in the video. “Sometimes you feel they’re wearing clothes that they just bought that morning, or maybe the night before, and not something that in any way suits their personality and who they are. I think what everyone should remember, whether they’re interviewing at Vogue or indeed anywhere, that we’re not hiring your wardrobe. Your wardrobe is not going to be doing the job for you — it’s who you are.”

So, what outfit will actually get you the job?

“I’ll always remember a young man who came in in a dress and a handbag, and I gave him the job on the spot,” Wintour adds. “You have to dress for yourself. It’s the same for any job you might be going for. I think it doesn’t do yourself a service to fake it.”

Still, it might be a good idea to avoid all-black.

Watch the full video with Anna Wintour below.

Anna Wintour Reveals What to Wear to a Job Interview