Off the Record: Secrets of a 90s Fashion Insider in New York

Jessica Altman was in the room. She’s done keeping the secrets.

I wrote a novel I was never supposed to publish.

So I’m leaking it.

Off the Record is a fictional story inspired by real experiences inside the fashion industry, back when power lived behind closed doors and access was everything.

The first four chapters are free.

The rest? Behind the velvet rope.

When PR powerhouse Jessica Altman learns her longtime nemesis, Alexandra Baron, is about to cement her legacy with a glossy, revisionist memoir; she’s had enough. She launches Off the Record, an anonymous blog to dismantle the image of one of fashion’s most untouchable public figures—and expose the truth behind her rise: manipulation, reinvention, and the calculated destruction of anyone who got in her way.

Through posts that pull readers back to 1997, Jessica revisits her early years working in fashion magazines, where she first met Alexandra, revealing the toxicity and betrayals that fueled her ascent—only so she can finally bring her down.

But as Off the Record’s audience explodes, so do the risks. The industry isn’t just asking who’s writing it. They’re starting to recognize exactly who it’s about—and how much has been buried.

Moving between the rarefied, closed-door world of late-1990s magazine culture and the chaotic early days of social media in 2011, Off the Record is a sharp, addictive story about power, deception, and what it takes to control the narrative.

Because the truth doesn’t just set the record straight.
It decides who owns the story.