Entertainment

/

ArcaMax

What to stream: Revisit the glamorous world of print fashion magazines

Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service on

Published in Entertainment News

Back in the mid-aughts, the height of glamour for a woman’s cinematic career was at a fashion magazine, best seen in the iconic fashion film “The Devil Wears Prada,” based on the thinly veiled novel by Lauren Weisberger, who once worked for Anna Wintour at Vogue. Anne Hathaway starred as Andy Sachs, an aspiring journalist who ends working as the assistant for the powerful Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the editor-in-chief of “Runway” magazine, learning a lot about herself, and fashion, in the process.

Twenty years later, Andy and Miranda (and Anne and Meryl) are back in the sequel, “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” in theaters this week, which obviously requires a revisit of the original film, which is streaming on Hulu. But perhaps that viewing might spark a craving for more movies set in that milieu — the glorious, somewhat bygone world of print magazines.

There’s of course the 2003 rom-com “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” starring Kate Hudson, a writer at “Composure” magazine who is tasked with a piece of stunt journalism by her editor, played by Bebe Neuwirth. Her victim is played by Matthew McConaughey, but of course, the pair fall in love instead. Stream “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” on Paramount+, Starz or Kanopy.

A year later, in Jennifer Garner’s gender-swapped “Big” reboot “13 Going on 30,” a 13-year-old girl wishes to be older and wakes up as a stylish women’s magazine editor. Stream it on Kanopy or rent elsewhere.

This archetype persisted into the 2010s with the Amy Schumer vehicle “Trainwreck,” directed by Judd Apatow, clearly patterned on these rom-coms of yore, like a “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” x “Sex and the City.” Schumer plays a wild child writer at men’s magazine “S’nuff” who is assigned to profile a handsome sports doctor (Bill Hader) by her editor, a tanned, transformed Tilda Swinton. Wouldn’t you know it? These two crazy kids fall in love. LeBron James, John Cena and Vanessa Bayer co-star. Stream “Trainwreck” on Starz or rent on other digital platforms.

The world of women’s magazines have found great traction as settings for TV shows too, with the “Prada”-like “Ugly Betty” hitting the small screen in 2006. America Ferrera stars as an ugly duckling working at the fashion magazine “Mode” for imperious editor Vanessa Williams, in this show based on a Colombian telenovela. Stream it on Hulu.

 

“The Bold Type” also mined this territory as the setting for a coming-of-age friendship story, following the lives of three besties (Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee and Meghann Fahy) as they work at “Scarlet” under the guidance of an editor played by Melora Hardin. Stream all five seasons on Hulu and HBO Max.

But if you want to see the real thing in action, you’ll have to go to the source. R.J. Cutler’s 2009 documentary “The September Issue” follows the production of the massive Vogue September issue, with interviews and behind-the-scenes look at the work of editor Anna Wintour and her closest associates André Leon Talley and Grace Coddington, as the team works to put together this annual fashion bible. Stream it on Prime Video.

But women’s magazines aren’t always about fashion — sometimes they’re about feminism too. That’s detailed in the fantastic 2025 documentary “Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print,” about the trailblazing feminist magazine “Ms.,” which is streaming on HBO Max. Also check out the canceled-too-soon gem “Minx,” about a raunchy sex-positive magazine for women, set in the 1970s, streaming on Netflix.

———


©2026 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus