Why Watching Evil Wears Prada is Good for your Business Ego

As a woman with my own business ambitions and with quite a diverse and complex experience in the field of publishing industry - not fashion-related though - I've learned a lot from wathing last evening The Devil Wears Prada. In addition to being greatly played by Meryl Streep, this movie has a lot of good lessons learned about the power of luxury fashion, balancing relationships and success and the hardship of women in power, regardless the industry or social status.

Compared to the book, which I've read many many years ago, the movie seems to be more focused on the sensitive aspects of business women leadership, and I really loved this shift. The terrible editor-in-chief would have survive if not being so bitchy? She would have been still on the top, if not learned to fight like a lioness for her rights of being there? Being nice is really good for your business, especially if you are in the highly competitive fashion industry? Women are used to be seen on the catwalk, but when they are the decision-makers, they shall do anything but glowing nicely. 

This movie is also about relationships between women and coming to age, the moment when you have to grow up from the carefree college life to a world of challenges and painful decisions. Again, especially as a woman, it seems that you are still expected to not change too fast, if ever, to go the beaten path, and eventually accept modest relationships instead of independently creating your own version of success. You may be lonely there on the top, but it is your right to live the best version of yourself. 

This movie is a recommendation for both women looking their way to power or ready to get the fresh shock of the first jobs. It is not only about fashion, and not only about bitchy bosses, but it tells a bit about the condition of being a woman at work nowadays.  

Foodie movie review: Julie&Julia

When I am not langurously waiting for the spring and eventually summer, I am fighting to keep my writing mood at a good level. Although I did not keep too much the pace with my blogging schedule, at least I assume that I am voraciously preparing for new professional writing challenges. Especially in the field of food writing when I was pretty lazy lately.

Julie&Julia I wanted to watch for a long time. When I first watched the short add in a movie theatre, I instantly added Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking on my 'To read' list on Goodreads, but in the following years I forgot both about the book and the movie. Till this Sunday when I finally got into the right mood for the movie (I hope I will not need the same impressive amount of years till will catch up with the book). 

It is an easy, not badly played movie, a contemporary commedy about the final success of an unhappy cubicle worker, Julie, that made her way through the 524 recipes of Julia Child's first book within 365 days. The blogging struggle of Julie - I wonder why it seems she never makes photos for her Salon.com blog - interwins with fragments from the life of Child, from the beginning of her life in Europe as a US diplomat's wife during the Cold War, till her return and the beginning of her cooking career in the States. Child wanted to bring the French cooking to the American kitchen, while Julie wanted to push forward her efforts of becoming a writer, an alternative to her unbearable professional life, besides cooking delicious dishes to forget about working in a cubicle. Although the two of them will never meet, they both succeed because were able to follow with obstination their hobbies. Both fight more or less diplomatically with family or political pressures, various insecurities or the terrible standards of the famous French Cordon Bleu cooking school. 

Especially for those trying to juggle with many professional and personal hats, this movie is an encouragement to go fast forward and keep following your passions. Doesn't matter where you are now, depends how do you see yourself in the near future and how you plan to reach your goals!