CAMPUS

C O N C O R D A C A D E M Y M A G A Z I N E F A L L 2 0 0 9Bess RattrayClass of 1984From Fendi to the Firehouse14“I suspect not every guyon the force wanted a lady fromNew York joining the team.”Bess Rattray ’84 grew accustomed to scrutinyof her wardrobe during her years as a senioreditor for Vogue. Back then, she never wouldhave imagined the outfit she now regularly dons,which includes rubber boots, canvas coveralls,and a hard plastic hat.Earlier this year, Rattray became the secondwoman ever elected as volunteer firefighter in thesmall town of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where sheand her partner Paul spend half their time.Rattray’s career path has been as colorful asanything on a Paris runway. After a couple yearspost-college in Budapest, she was copyediting atthe magazine Mirabella in New York when shereceived a call from Vogue editor-in-chief AnnaWintour’s office, asking her to interview for aneditorial job—a position Rattray acknowledges“most people in the field would give their rightarm to have.” For the same-day interview, sheborrowed a Rolex watch and a Fendi bag from acoworker and “walked sideways into Anna Wintour’soffice,” hoping to avoid head-on scrutinyfrom the world-famous arbiter of fashion.Given the job, Rattray ascended rapidly tobecome senior features editor. “I was never thatinterested in fashion,” she said. “My challengewas to explain fashion trends in language thatpeople could understand and picture.” Rattraywas senior editor for nearly ten years, until apromising relationship with a boat designer fromCanada wooed her away from the frenetic pace ofManhattan. Vogue let her continue work on acontract basis, writing and editing for the printmagazine as well as the Web site, style.com. NowRattray divides her time between two homes:one in Nova Scotia, where her fiancé Paul’s boatbuildingbusiness is based, and one in EastHampton, New York, where she grew up. Shenotes the irony of telecommuting for Vogue:“sitting in my house in Shelburne, Nova Scotia,population 800, editing runway reviews from theshows in Paris and Milan.”Ever since publication of The Devil WearsPrada, a thinly veiled fictional account of thepressure-cooker atmosphere at Vogue, Rattray hasfielded questions about the glamorous job, butshe said she has neither read the book nor seenthe movie. “The fact is that any one of us whoworked there could have written a schlocky attackstory, but we chose not to,” she said. “I don’thave any interest in criticizing or mocking mypast or present bosses.”Nowadays, that could mean keeping mumabout the fire chief. At a get-together in NovaScotia, Rattray mentioned offhandedly that shehad always admired volunteer firefighters, whoserve in both Shelburne and East Hampton. Aneighbor, a firefighter himself, said he would puther name up for nomination. To Rattray’s surprise,she was voted in. “I assume it was notunanimous,” she commented wryly. “I suspectnot every guy on the force wanted a lady fromNew York joining the team.”Rattray is going through initial training, haslearned to operate fire hydrants, and has enduredthe ritual assigned to each new firefighter: sittingin the dunk tank at the annual Firemen’s Bazaar.It’s a busy, varied life. Along with Vogue andthe fire department, Rattray is trying to publishtwo novels, and she occasionally works for theEast Hampton weekly paper. A year ago, Rattraytraveled to Ethiopia to adopt a one-year-old girlnamed Nettie, an experience she recently wroteabout for Vogue. “The experience of being inEthiopia was much harder than I expected,” shesaid. “It changed my understanding of how muchsuffering can come out of poverty. What I witnessedthere in terms of physical labor, sickness,and starvation completely revealed to me howhideous that suffering is.”She hopes to return to Ethiopia next year toadopt a second child. “I’m having the best timenow,” Rattray said. “Nettie is a jolly, happy childand has been ever since we took her home. She’sa delightful companion.”Bess with Nettie