Joanna Coles, Editor of Marie Claire, Grabs Fashion's Spotlight Joanna Coles at the magazine's offices in Midtown Manhattan. THERE was something maternal about the way Joanna Coles, the British-born editor of Marie Claire magazine, wrapped an arm around Angelina Jolie at a screening last fall of Ms. Jolie's directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey," shielding her from interlopers as the two posed for the paparazzi. Afterward, though, the encounter became the punch line of a self-deprecating joke. Moments before introducing Ms. Jolie at a post-screening discussion of the film at the headquarters of Hearst, her magazine's parent company, she told the audience about a telephone conversation she had just had with her own mom. "What are you doing this week?" her mother had asked. "Well," Ms. Coles said, "I'm conducting an interview with Angelina Jolie." "Oh, really, darling," her mother replied. What is she going to be asking you about? The anecdote got laughs. More tellingly, though, in a room filled with film stars, top publishing executives and assorted glitterati, Ms. Coles had managed to grab part of the spotlight for herself. At a Golden Globes after-party at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles last month, given by the film executive Harvey Weinstein, she moved with much of the same alacrity, getting herself photographed, joined at the hip with the likes of Madonna and Michelle Williams. Then, there is her star turn on reality television. In January Ms. Coles bowed on "Project Runway All Stars," on the Lifetime network, as the straight-talking mentor (think a female Tim Gunn with a Yorkshire accent) to a cast of aspiring fashion stars, flexing her take-charge personality. Later this month, she'll share the stage with Isaac Mizrahi as the host of a new "All Stars" after show. In the last 18 months, Ms. Coles seems to have encroached Zelig-like on fashion's landscape, popping up wherever the style tribes convene. Yet, as she tells it, that was never her plan. "I can't spend any times cultivating celebrity," she said in an interview at her office at Hearst. Obsessing about my image, that's not my shtick. But there is little doubt that her recent ubiquity has done plenty to raise not only her magazine's profile but also her own. Ms. Coles is one in a generation of editors in their 40s and 50s who might well be called the Annas-in-waiting, each eager to investigate career opportunities that might arise when Anna Wintour, 62, finally vacates her power seat at Vogue. Ms. Wintour's retirement is but a distant prospect. And at this point, no one has a clue who will succeed her - though the names of Cindi Leive of Glamour and Glenda Bailey of Harper's Bazaar have been bandied about. Few in the industry think it will be Ms. Coles. Regardless of who may get the job, the departure of fashion's reigning queen is bound to change the competitive landscape for the women's magazines that now operate in Vogue's shadow. Ms. Coles seems determined to position Marie Claire for that game-changing moment. Since arriving at her post in 2006 with little fashion expertise to speak of, she has steered a publication widely perceived as down-market into a mainstream glossy aimed at young, style-conscious working women. Her mandate, as she described it, was "to make the magazine much more upscale." That meant ditching the second-tier fashion lines and strident, sex-driven content that had characterized the magazine under previous editors, including Bonnie Fuller and Ms. Bailey, and replacing it with inspirational features (young novelist goes blind, but endures to tell the tale; B-list actress turns powerhouse director) and a surfeit of luxury brands. Her strategy, which partly involves balancing high-end fashions with designs well within the reach of her mostly 21- to 34-year-old readers, has reaped rewards. In an industry shaken by a dodgy economy, its authority eroded by bloggers and style-savvy Web enthusiasts, Marie Claire reported a 31-percent jump in advertising pages over 2011. With 181 advertising pages, the magazine's March fashion issue may yet play second fiddle to competitors like Elle and Bazaar, but it holds a record nonetheless: the largest spring issue in the American edition's 17-year history. Despite its populist profile - 87 percent of her readers, Ms. Coles estimates, are young working women, many in entry-level jobs - Marie Claire has become a magnet for the luxury labels, from Gucci to Gap, from Bulgari to Benetton, that pay the bills. Nor do its editors have trouble wrangling high-powered celebrities like Ms. Jolie, Katie Holmes or Eva Mendes, who is on the magazine's March cover.