About Me

TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY

“It’s a different breed of wordsmith that makes the grade on Madison Avenue.  Which brings us to Nancy Angiello.  Nancy… a full-time writer, is poised to become that quintessentially Mademoiselle sort of literata, as conversant with Bendel’s as with Grendels and Beowulfs. For her, The Naked and the Dead will forever more be a diatribe against the average man’s post-coital behavior.  Malamud’s The Natural will transform itself into a tale of blondeness.  The Metamorphosis will become a story of liposuction and tummy tuck.

Which is not to sell Nancy short.  Over the past decade, the Westchester native has earned her cerebral stripes.  She’s the centerpiece of an Upper West Side salon that has become a veritable Left Bank of intellectual ferment.  The members of her “rat pack” if not in every case artists, are at least from San Francisco, friends with a sculptor, not from America, gay, and/or underpaid (or, in one suspicious instance, 92-years-old and German…)

And the rat-pack life-style pays off.  Every night, it’s martinis, Cole Porter, and gab, gab, gab…”

Written by the brilliant New York Times writer Alex Williams, my co-worker, cohort and co-mischief-maker—like all of the other smart, savvy and hilarious writers, editors and characters with whom I worked at New York Magazine—this “article” on me (a traditional, mock New York “Fast Track” tribute that was a rite of passage at the mag) pretty much sums up my life as a New York City writer.

I might not be using a highlighter that much any more (see photo!), and especially not as a Surrealist-objet d’art sort of lipgloss as I’m doing á la the Man Ray print behind me….I’m not using highlighter much now,  because the days of mock-ups and proofs and print-outs are over.  When this tribute was written, and when I was at New York, the way things were edited may have been different (Paper.  Pen.  Proofs).  But I’m still the same, and anyone who has ever worked at New York Magazine, or at a NYC daily or weekly, knows the deep passion, the chaos, the delicious insanity, and the beautiful madness that occurs while running, in all that metaphorical glory, to get the story.

Truly, Madly, Deeply is one of my favorite films of all time.  But it is also always my cris du coeur. A little 400-word story or a major feature – I want to get thrown in.  Immerse.  Submerge. Mingle and get inside.  Stay in there, in all of the places where you’re swimming with all of the senses, and stay down inside there and write.  Then come up for air.  I loved New York Magazine and for the same reason love the wild pitch of writing stories all of the years since then, and now and forever will…because it leaves me breathless.  But the perfect combination of a story is the breathlessness with the stillness of letting the story unfold.

The foundation of intense research, reporting and learning to write at New York with my beloved, crazy co-workers and some truly legendary writers and editors, led me to well over 20 years experience as a Features Writer for top national style publications, digital content writer, creative marketing copywriter/brand strategist, and senior digital & print copywriter, from Mademoiselle, InStyle, Glamour, Self, Redbook, Bon Appétit, More, to nyandcompany.com, msn.com, match.com, many other digital sites, and for luxury fashion, retail and cosmetic companies like Saks Fifth Avenue and L’Oréal.

Of course, as anyone who’s known me for more than 5 minutes knows (because it’s astounding how much fun it was, and how lucky I was, and if I’d known how unreal and unusual it all was, I would have filmed every minute, documented every day of my life…walking arm-in-arm with Karl Lagerfeld as I toured him around Bergdorf’s, going to Andy Warhol’s opening of the Limelight...), I started my career as fabulous NYC  pseudo “It Girl” (written with all relevant irony) public relations young thing, from Armani to Bergdorf Goodman to Henri Bendel, and never had so much fun in my life…that is, until I started flexing my pen, typewriter and computer (and now digital content, blog, Twitter, Facebook and countless articles and essays) and began interviewing, writing and getting published.

By now, I do have (and better have!) a way in writing…in other words, I have a special way that I write, a way for writing…and writing is my way…I sound like a Taoist monk, but it’s been called highly original, and creative, and charming, and smart, savvy and sassy, moving and thoughtful and digging below the surface, and I won’t argue with any of the kind editors and creative directors who have said that.  I thank them for saying so, and I will freely use and re-post, as they say in new-media-land, here.

After being the one behind the notebook for so long, here’s little bit of my own story, and samples of my decades of mostly New York City-based feature writing, editing, research, reporting, and digital content writing. For print and Web, I cover beauty, fashion, news and trends, and write feature stories, interviews and profiles of fashion designers and celebrities.  And for the past two years, I’ve become a senior copywriter for clients like Saks Fifth Avenue and L’Oréal USA. I write digital content, entire websites, advertising campaigns, store collateral, direct & creative marketing, branding and press materials for luxury brands and designers, such as my work for my international client Alena Gorchakova Joiallerie, a haute jewelry company in Moscow, Geneva and Paris.

I’m truly, madly and deeply passionate about the story within the story, of writing between, under, over, above, and finally in the lines…and finding the little things in life that make such big, beautiful stories in writing, and make such a difference to, and in, a writer’s life.

–by Nancy Angiello 2011