Anne Slowey dons a new hat for Elle

ANNE SLOWEY, the fashion news editor of Elle, stars in a reality competition show called "Stylista," in which contestants compete for an editing job -- it premieres Wednesday on the CW. We caught up with her last weekend at her country house, right after her trip to the town dump. Seriously.

You're Elle's fashion news director. Is that competitive? Do you and Vogue's Sally Singer slug it out?

Neither one of us has that much anger in us, I don't think. I think it's pretty clear, the magazines are so distinctly different, there are people who want to be in Vogue and then people who want to be in Elle.

What do assistants -- or "junior editors" -- at Elle do?

Well! This will be interesting to figure out when it comes time for the person to begin the job! People keep saying they're working for me -- I haven't been told they are. . . . So they'll probably do a rotation -- like a first-year med student!

Usually that position makes like $20,000 a year or something, right?

I think it's more than that! I should know. I think my assistant makes closer to $30,000. I feel like when we started it was $18,000, $20,000.

You must be overworked! After all, last year, 1 in 3 staffers left the magazine!

I think there was a lot of fat that could be trimmed -- and was trimmed. I mean, we have not reduced our numbers on the features side at all. So it's the same balance of work pretty much, though I did take on Elle Accessories and then the TV show. I'm feeling overwhelmed on the day-to-day side of things.

What's your biggest fear about doing this show?

Watching it! Which we haven't. We don't have any control over the editing. . . . I'm just not going to pay attention.

Smart!

There's no turning back. You know it's serious too. These kids -- they really wanted the job! They didn't want to be on TV. The bottom line is these kids all desperately really want to work in fashion. . . . We were kept separate from them. We didn't know anything about them, and the internecine warfare that I'm sure was going on.

Speaking of warfare! You and ["Project Runway" judge] Nina Garcia were painted in a crazy way in the press!