In The Devil Wears Prada 2, Andy Sachs returns to Runway as Miranda Priestly navigates her career amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing. Together, they reconnect with another former colleague, Emily Charlton, who is now the head of a luxury brand that possesses the advertising dollars which could ensure the glossy’s survival. “Hmmm…,” and I quote Vogue’s culture writer, when the plot was first leaked. “A movie about how there’s no money left in digital or print media? Sounds like something I can really escape into!” Indeed, the jet-set era of magazine publishing may have (entre nous) faded out along with Concorde, but fashion, as we all know, still trades in fantasy.
That much has been evident in the film’s red carpets, which have seen its figurehead Anne Hathaway pose and pivot in shimmering Stella McCartney minidresses in Mexico, ruffled Valentino gowns in Tokyo, leather Balenciaga cocoon coats in Seoul, tulle-licked Susan Fang confections in Shanghai, and Louis Vuitton tea dresses in New York as the press tour built up to this evening’s pit stop in London, where, on a red carpet splintering the heart of Leicester Square, Hathaway emerged in a deconstructed tux-cum-corset dress care of Versace, with a high-flung power pony. It was a fitting end to the work she and stylist Erin Walsh have been cooking up for the past few weeks, and a fashion coup that might (might) have mustered a rare half-smile from Miranda Priestey herself.
Mike Marsland
“It’s been an exercise of joy – having the opportunity to tie in layers of Andy [Sachs] with Annie, and playing with all of the different designers,” Walsh, who has been working with Hathaway since 2019, told Vogue, for whom she used to work as an assistant to the legendary sittings editor Phyllis Posnick when the original The Devil Wears Prada movie was released in 2006. “If there’s one word for the whole tour, it’s ‘supernova’,” she added. “If you look at all the major houses that have these new [designers] leading them, there’s this idea of leaning into joy, and clothes that make you feel like the supernova version of yourself. It’s going to be joyful, irreverent, empowering, confident and strong.”