Miranda Priestly was born Miriam Princhek on October 25, 1949, in London’s East End. Her family were poor but devout Orthodox Jews, who relied on the community for support because her father worked odd jobs and her mother died in childbirth. Miriam's grandmother moved in with the family to assist in raising the children. Miriam saved the small bills that her siblings would give her and worked as an assistant to a British designer. She made a name for herself in London's fashion world, studied French at night, and was made junior editor of Chic magazine in Paris. When she was twenty-four, Miriam changed her name to Miranda Priestly and replaced her rough accent with a sophisticated one. Miranda spent ten years at French Runway before Elias-Clark transferred her to American Runway. She, her twin daughters, and her husband moved to a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue and 76th Street. She is the editor-in-chief of Runway, a very chic and influential fashion magazine published by the Elias-Clark company. She is known for wearing a white Hermès scarf with her everyday outfit, and treating her subordinates in a manner that borders on emotional and psychological abuse. While she reminds employees "a million girls would kill for this job", Priestly's cruel treatment of staff causes a high turnover rate among personal assistants. Priestly has twin daughters Caroline and Cassidy. She is a powerful New York City-based editor-in-chief of the fictional fashion magazine Runway. She is known as much for her icy demeanor, as for her outstanding power within the fashion world. She has a loyal style editor, Nigel, who often gives Miranda advice. Whilst she remains just as ruthless and manipulative as she was in the book she is seen in a few moments of vulnerability three quarters of the way into the film in she confides to Andrea her distress about her failing marriage and the effect she is worried it will have on her daughters. The film incarnation of Priestly also speaks with an American accent, which strongly suggests the film character is not a Briton as portrayed in the novel. She has an iconic short silver hair pixie cut with a forelock that curls just above her left eye, this is her signature hairstyle.