In the back seat of a car heading to Central Park West, Joanna Coles, editor-in-chief of global fashion magazine "Cosmopolitan", was telling the story of her first meeting with designer Valentino Garavani in Rome.
That was in 2007, when she was still the editor-in-chief of Marie Claire, and an employee of another magazine published by Mr. Garavani lent a dress to Miss Coles to attend a dinner in honor of Garavani held in Borghese, Rome. Before the dinner started, someone escorted her to Garavani's private club.
"As I was about to meet him," Ms. Coles said as the cab approached her apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, "I was told, 'Joanna, please don't mention the war in Iraq.'"
Miss Coles asked why.
"He doesn't know," the man told her. "Mr. Valentino doesn't read newspapers, he only listens to good news. Mr. Valentino is a man with a sense of beauty and must stay in a world with a sense of beauty."
Miss Coles was stunned. Although she has worked in the world of fashion and beauty for a long time, she has not shaken the formatting memories she formed as a young journalist in London in the 1980s working with cigar-chomping editors on Fleet Street.
One of her earliest assignments was about a woman who was imprisoned for refusing to reveal information about her boyfriend, a suspected criminal. After the woman was released, a group of male reporters, including Coles, followed her. When she slipped into the women's room, Coles saw his opportunity.
"I jumped over the revolving door and kicked the bathroom door open," she said. "The poor girl was halfway through the bathroom, and then I thought, 'What the hell am I doing?'"
Really managing a print publication and a website is an increasingly small part of the 21st century editor-in-chief's job. Joanna Coles, 54, who calls herself a "brand steward," is expanding Cosmopolitan's reach while also boosting her personal profile.
At this point, she is the literal and spiritual successor to Helen Gurley Brown. The legendary Helen Brown ran "Cosmopolitan" for 32 years while making a name for herself by participating in freewheeling talk shows and publishing best-selling books.
Ms. Coles also fits well with the style of former and current Condé Nast star editors such as Tina Brown, Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter and David Remnick, who are not only well-known in the Manhattan media world but also bring attention to their magazines.
This year, Ms. Coles participated in the E! reality show, "Style Life," based on the life and work of a Cosmopolitan editor, and the ABC Freeform series "Issues," about her personal life.
She is also active on Instagram and Twitter, and recently opened a Snapchat account. In any breaks she doesn't have, Ms. Coles continues to work on her HarperCollins book about sex and intimacy in the digital age.
Ms. Coles has her hands full, with assistants handling her schedule and her own de facto chief of staff, Holly Whidden, who previously worked in marketing at Gucci and Paramount Pictures.
“I think people who don’t know Joanna Coles think she’s a British magazine editor,” says her friend Andre Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center Theatre, “but she’s nothing of the sort.”
Last December, CNN host Brian Slater invited her to be a guest on his year-end episode of "Reliable Sources." The magazine she was editing at the time was perhaps best known for its sex tips, and she was joined by NPR senior vice president of news Michael Oreskes and Associated Press executive editor Kathleen Carroll to discuss the biggest stories of 2015.
"We needed someone to expand the show, so we found her," Slater said. "It's a boring reason, but I think she's someone outside the traditional media circle, and she's great. If you have the chance, you will definitely invite her on the show."
In January, Ms. Coles and a group of about 20 members of the media attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Five helicopters flew them quickly to the Grand Canyon for a luncheon. (This trip is sponsored by media company VOX.)
In April, she boarded her friend Michael R. Bloomberg’s private jet to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington. In June, she took the stage in Cannes, France, to interview Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity.
“She was always as busy as running for mayor,” said her husband, Peter Godwin, a former human rights lawyerand author, who has published books such as "Mukiwa: A Memoir of a White Child in Africa." "She doesn't have to do this, but this is her life."
Coles, from Leeds, England, had hoped to become a politician. When she was 12, she and a friend made a magazine and sent a copy to Queen Elizabeth. The next Queen's thank you card is a recognition of her efforts.
At 17, she won a national writing competition with an essay warning that polar ice would begin to melt in 2000. Then, as a reporter, she slowly became recognized as a serious contender, shadowing politicians and judges at London's Guardian newspaper.
"Before I met Joanna, I heard she was the rudest woman in London," Mr Godwin said.
The couple moved to New York in 1997. She writes for the Guardian and The Times in London, and he is writing a novel. They wrote a book about Miss Coles's ten-month pregnancy with their eldest son, Thomas, who is now 17 years old. Together, the three wrote a diary-style memoir, "The Three of Us: A New Life in New York," which was published by HarperCollins in 2000.
Subsequently, a second child, Hugo, was born, and Miss Coles found a new job as a senior editor at a magazine in New York. In the aftermath of 9/11, she married Mr. Godwin.
"We felt we needed to finalize the relationship because we were not yet U.S. citizens and our children were not Americans," Miss Coles said. "There was some talk of driving away the foreigners, and we wanted to keep things in order in case anything else happened. We went to the town hall, registered our marriage, had a quick clink of champagne glasses at Buddy's on North Moore Street, a quick nod to each other, and I was back at work before lunch time. I'm really not very romantic."
In 2012, she joined Hearst and came to "Cosmopolitan" from "Marie Marie". Under Coles, Cosmopolitan's cover subjects and website headlines are as shallow as ever, ranging from fashion ("Your perfect swimsuit is your body") to beauty ("See more hot naked bodies!") to gender ("He kisses me like a sandwich"). But she also uses the magazine to talk about reproductive mutilation, abortion restrictions and politics.
Under her watch, Cosmopolitan hasCoverage increased from 24 million people in the previous two years to 32 million people in 2015. According to Hearst, the magazine has received 3 million daily views on the Snapchat platform.
On February 17 this year, Miss Coles came to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Dana Point, California to attend a meeting. Kara Swisher, the founder of Recode, a technology news company acquired by VOX last year, wanted to interview her on stage.
Swisher sat on a couch in the green room, staring at her laptop. Miss Coles, who had just arrived from Los Angeles, plopped down in the makeup chair to touch up her makeup. Their conversation involved a media executive they both knew who reportedly made $5 million a year.
"She makes five million?" Coles asked.
"You and I are cheap, Joanna," Swisher said.
On camera, Miss Coles' interest was entirely focused on her friends, giving her advice generously. But in front of the camera is a somewhat obscene character. In an onstage chat with Swisher, Ms. Coles defended her magazine ("There's still a lot of money to be made," she said) before delving into America's shift from puritanical to sexual tendencies.
"I love discussing this topic, yeah," she said. "I think Cosmopolitan should have a sex column called 'the Swisher,'" referring to Ms. Swisher. "I just want to think about what should be written in it."
The men in the audience of about 300 people laughed.
Miss Coles noted that Cosmopolitan readers were interested in the recently deceased conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and her impact on women's rights. "Sometimes we secretly say things like, say, Antonin Scalia died," Miss Coles said.
"Say there's an orgasm and then Antonin Scalia dies," Ms. Swisher deadpanned.
"Well, actually, Antonin Scalia would rather no one had orgasms," Coles said. The audience laughed even louder.
After her talk, a guest commented that Miss Coles resembled the British actress Tilda Swinton. She nodded politely. Asked later if she thought Miss Swinton copied her idiosyncrasies when she played a British magazine editor in "Trainwreck," Miss Coles said she knew the film's director, Judd Apatow.
"I told him I could play the part for free," she said.
Perhaps one of Miss Coles' most useful gifts was her ability to communicate with people who lived in completely different worlds. She seems to know everyone, from White House adviser Valerie B. Jarrett to SnapEvan Spiegel, CEO of chat. In fact, Coles introduced Mr Spiegel to Miss Jarrett and then invited them to her home for dinner and an after-dinner party.
"When she called, she said, 'This is someone you should know,' and I listened," Jattett said.
On a spring evening, Miss Coles headed to her Broadway debut, "Fully Committed," to perform with another friend of hers, Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Godwin stayed home to care for one of the children because he was unwell.
Standing on the red carpet, Coles wore high heels named "Joanna" designed by actress Sarah Jessica Parker.
Coles spotted "The Color Purple" star Cynthia Erivo in the crowd. "You have to meet her," she told one guest. "She's going to be nominated for a Tony Award." (Not only was Miss Erivo nominated for best actress in a musical, but she won.) Erivo hugged her friend and said Miss Coles had protected her with her wings since she arrived in New York.
Coles didn't stay long at the after-dinner party. She took a taxi. While passing Columbus Circle, she mentioned Donald Trump. If he were elected president, she said, "it would be a terrible thing for women and human rights."
She sighed. "Maybe Valentino did the right thing," she said, recalling her first meeting with the designer. "Maybe we should shield ourselves so we can see the beautiful things."
Translation: Liu Zhuolan
