This week, I finally asked Kate point-blank. “I was never scary, was I?” she replied, clearly in denial. “I was a task rabbit. I did coffee, lunch, dry cleaning, shopping, party planning, kids, logistics, the book, ran down the hall to fetch people for meetings.” She made herself sound far lowlier than she was: “I spent a lot of time smoking in cool editors’ offices when Anna wasn’t physically in the office so I could figure out how to be more like them.” She then claimed to have concrete proof that she wasn’t the real Emily: “I wasn’t ever the first assistant, so Emily definitely wasn’t based on me. I was second for one year. Leslie was first when Lauren was second.” (As in the book and film, there is a hierarchy of assistants that is very real.)
Leslie? Leslie Fremar, whom I recalled as a stern but beautiful brunette, was most certainly a person of interest. I wondered how I could track down Leslie, who is now, coincidentally, another hugely influential Hollywood stylist.
Amy Astley in 2005Photographed by Abbey Drucker, Teen Vogue, February/March 2003
I swiftly telegraphed fellow former Voguette Amy Taran Astley, who’d been beauty director during my time and is now editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest. “I swear on my extensive circa 1990s Manolo collection that it’s never occurred to me that you could be Emily,” she said. I was relieved—momentarily—until she continued: “You might have developed some outfits that had cocktail-party vibes. You might have gone from no maintenance to high-maintenance in the blink of an eyelash extension. And the thing you and Emily have in common is a posh accent, brunette hair, and being sharp and clever. Okay, there is a bit of Plum in Emily.”
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