She’s on her way. Tell everyone and gird your loins because we are weeks away from the return of film’s most fashion-forward boss from hell. On May 1, a sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” hits theaters, 20 years after the initial release. But before we grab the Chanel boots and the pageboys, we need to have a chat.
For those who need a refresher, the original film follows Andrea “Andy” Sachs, a recent college graduate seeking a job in journalism and, through either the best or worst luck, is hired at the fictitious fashion magazine, Runway, as personal assistant to the publication’s editor-in-chief, Miranda Priestly, our story’s devil in Prada.
What follows is Andy struggling to live up to the expectations of a high-maintenance boss who can’t be bothered to remember her name and demands around-the-clock attention to her most impossible tasks. Meanwhile, Andy is forced to push herself to meet these expectations and finally respect the fashion industry that she had never thought twice of before.
If you haven’t seen the film, you’ve deprived yourself for far too long. It is a love letter to fashion as an art, and a scathing satire of its industry. From a costuming wardrobe of designer clothes to the iconic cerulean blue monologue, “The Devil Wears Prada” captures the shallow and the special of the fashion industry. The film digs at the sexism shown to women in high corporate positions, with characters going back and forth from calling Miranda a “dragon lady” and a woman “just doing her job” so the magazine won’t suffer.
It even foreshadows the eventual rise of the work-life balance movement in Gen Z and Gen Alpha, as Nigel says, “Let me know when your whole life goes up in smoke….that means it’s time for a promotion,” and the comedic gag of Andy’s constantly ringing phone. And overall, the film carries themes of finding where in the world you want to be and how far you will go to stay there.
It shows, in a comedic way, the real sacrifices that the fashion industry is notorious for enforcing; fashion is either your entire life, or you don’t belong in the field. That’s all.
But exactly how accurate was the film? “The Devil Wears Prada” is based on the book of the same name by Lauren Weisberger who openly admitted the characters and plot were based off her time as a personal assistant to Anna Wintour, the (at the time) editor-in-chief of Vogue.
This has been a debate for years now. Nylon actually broke down this discrepancy in an interview with eight different professionals in the industry with a variety of job levels and experience in the field. Laura Caruso at StyleCastor assures the industry is not “nearly as catty” as the film portrays it and points out the absurdity of Andy being given impossible tasks out of pettiness.
Meanwhile, Landon Peoples, an associate editor at V Magazine, insisted that “Working in fashion, you’ll encounter every personality represented in that film—the nice ones, the mean ones, the backstabbers and people who will really help you and want to see you succeed.” If you want to read more about different points of view in the fashion industry, I highly suggest it.
Personally, if I had to choose which told the best story, I would stick to the film. The book is not awful, but I found it rambling at times, and the character of Andy is given more development and likability with screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna than with her creator, Lauren Weisberger.
So, now for the million-dollar question. Why a sequel?
Haven’t we all been asking that for a few years now? “Jurassic Park,” “Beetlejuice,” the new “Sex and the City” spinoff and every other film Disney is producing these days….a remake, a spinoff, a sequel, a ‘return to the world you love’ we’ve heard it all before.
But does that make it necessary?
Greenlighting a sequel is like mixing patterns on an outfit. Not necessarily a bad thing if you know what you’re doing. A solid cast of characters in a beloved world and an interesting new dynamic to play with can breathe fresh life into something. Franchises like “Star Wars,” “James Bond” or the “Addams Family” get a fresh coat of paint and a reboot to go with them every decade or two and have found success in it. “Wednesday,” anyone?
Granted, there is a sequel to the book, two actually. And judging by what the trailers give us, the sequel film is only loosely based on the sequel book, “The Devil Returns,” where, a decade later, Andy returns as an editor of a new fashion magazine, though the film makes Andy an editor for Runway and seems to be more about assisting Runway through a scandal.
However, one look at the previews and trailers for our designer-clad diva and it’s clear that continuing a story that needed to be told is not the point of this venture. From quoting the first movie and reenacting its scenes, to flat-out describing plot points from the first film to characters, accompanied by clips from the first movie, I think it’s fair to say the sequel is meant to be nostalgia bait for audiences that grew up quoting its predecessor.
Despite the sequel books, the “The Devil Wears Prada” film ended with a completed narrative and an unspoken understanding that Andy’s time with Miranda was over. She worked, she conquered and she discovered that she didn’t want to be like Miranda, even if she could admit she learned from her and, to an extent, respected her.
The film ends with Andy having moved on to a different field, more stylish and confident than when she entered the movie, but not dressed in Parisian glamour. She has a new job, she’s gifted all her French designer clothes to Emily and when she sees Miranda on the street, she acknowledges her with a wave and accepts the blank stare Miranda gives as she turns to go into her car. A silent, last goodbye on good terms. In a word, perfect.
Meanwhile, between the trailers constantly pointing out they remember the first movie, and outside promotion trying to make inside jokes and references into a franchise, I am left feeling empty. The fictional magazine Runway having its own ‘issue’ is fun, seeing Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour doing press coverage together is cute, but what else is there? Andy appears to still be a fish out of water like in the first movie. Nigel loans her designer clothes to wear like in the first movie.
She gets scolded by Emily, like in the first movie. Miranda acts like she doesn’t even know who Andy is. It doesn’t feel like a loving homage; it feels like we are being brought back to square one. Only this time, instead of a sensitive, cocky 20-something who needs to learn and grow into an adult, we have Anne Hathaway in her 40s being given “the talk” on fashion again like when she was fresh out of college.
I love the first movie, and I admit I want to see the sequel. Whatever new or interesting crumbs are in this film, I want to see. But so far, it feels like a complete story has been skinned and stretched into the thinnest pair of leather boots you’d find being up-charged to you as the hottest accessory for the season.
Maybe next time we should give florals and enamel another shot. Maybe not groundbreaking, but it doesn’t look like this film will be either.