Shulman began working at
Condé Nast –
Vogues publisher – upon joining
Tatler in 1982, under the editorship first of
Tina Brown and later
Mark Boxer. Shulman began working in fashion journalism at
Tatler, working subsequently for
The Sunday Telegraph,
Vogue and the British edition of
GQ, where she became editor in 1990. As Shulman took on the role as editor-in-chief of
Vogue in 1992, some speculated that she was not experienced enough for the role. Furthermore, others commented that her personal appearance did not conform to previous
Vogue editors; as
The New York Times observed: "The British press has made much of the fact that when it comes to personal wardrobe, Ms. Schulman could learn a thing or two from
Ms. Tilberis's trademark Chanel, and that she could also become better acquainted with a hairbrush". It has been observed that it is still remarked upon that she doesn't "look" like an editor of
Vogue. Her tenure at
Vogue included iconic issues of the magazine. Her December 1999 "Millennium Issue", possessing a simplistic page layout and a reflective, mirror-like cover – giving the illusion that its reader was on the front cover – became the highest selling issue of
Vogue, with circulation of 241,001, including a newsstand sale of 142,399. A 1997 cover in memoriam of
Diana, Princess of Wales was included in a poll deciding the UK's best ever magazine cover. As
The Guardian observed, "
Vogue stood out with a simple bare cover using a
Patrick Demarchelier photograph of Diana in a red dress". The "Gold Issue," a December 2000 edition featured
Kate Moss on the cover in silhouette. As the editor of
Vogue, Shulman made decisions on the magazine's stance. She stated: "we never publish diets. We've never published things on cosmetic surgery", She later became more sensitive to the issue acknowledging that anorexia is a "huge problem" in a January 2005 interview with
The Scotsman: "I really wish that models were a bit bigger because then I wouldn't have to deal with this the whole time. There is pressure on them to stay thin, and I'm always talking to the designers about it, asking why they can't just be a bit closer to a real woman's physique in terms of their ideal, but they're not going to do it. Clothes look better to all of our eyes on people who are thinner". In 2009, Shulman spoke out over the sample sizes leading designers were producing – some were so small they restricted
Vogue using the models they wished in the magazine, resulting in some models being airbrushed to look bigger. Shulman wrote to designers to draw their attention to the situation calling for larger sized samples to be produced. Contrary to expectations, Shulman describes her own life as work-dominated and not particularly glamorous. In an October 2004 newspaper column on her
Telegraph portrait, she said: Leaving aside the obvious but unlikely criteria of beautiful and thin, I realised that there was no look that was achievable which was going to make me happy. In my mind I am a free spirit of about 25 wafting around in second-hand cocktail dresses; in reality I am a 47-year-old businesswoman and journalist. The pictures unfortunately, tell the whole story. She was a regular columnist for
The Daily Telegraph newspaper, but began writing a column for the
Daily Mail in 2006, which ran until 2009, when she was replaced by
Liz Jones. Shulman's first novel,
Can We Still Be Friends?, was published by Fig Tree in 2012. In 2010, Shulman was awarded an Honorary Master of Arts degree from the
University for the Creative Arts. In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by ''
Woman's Hour'' on
BBC Radio 4. Shulman was interviewed by
Kirsty Young on
Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 in June 2013. In 2016, Shulman collaborated with photographer Josh Olins to shoot
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on the cover of Vogue's centenary issue. On 25 January 2017, approaching 25 years as editor-in-chief, it was announced that Shulman was leaving British
Vogue in June 2017. Shulman stated: "last autumn I realised that I very much wanted to experience a different life and look forward to a future separate to
Vogue". Shulman was succeeded as Editor of Vogue by Edward Enninful. In 2018, she launched her personal website https://www.alexandrashulman.com/ Shulman is a Vice-President of
The London Library. In May 2020, Shulman was appointed as a strategic advisor to fast growing online fashion marketplace Atterley.com. Also in 2020 her memoir
Clothes..And Other Things That Matter was published by Cassell. ==Personal life==