What ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ taught us about fashion and everything in between
Meryl Streep showed up to the Shanghai premiere of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” in a cerulean blue coat. Yes, cerulean. That word is the whole joke and also the whole point. If you’ve seen the original film, you got that immediately. If you haven’t, the cerulean speech is the moment Miranda Priestly (played by Streep) explains to Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), with barely concealed contempt, that the “lumpy blue sweater” she’s wearing didn’t come from nowhere. It trickled down from a designer to a retailer to a clearance rack. Fashion chose it for her. She just didn’t know.
Streep wearing cerulean to the Shanghai premiere isn’t a coincidence. It’s the whole point. And that’s exactly what made the original film so different.
What the first film actually got right
Before “The Devil Wears Prada,” most fashion in movies was set dressing. Pretty things on pretty people. The clothes existed to show you the character had taste or money, or both.
But this film did something different—it made fashion an argument. Every character dresses exactly like who they are, and the film trusts you to read it. Miranda’s wardrobe never changes because Miranda never changes. And she doesn’t need to. Her clothes aren’t fashion—they’re power. Emily’s (Emily Blunt) looks move fast, reach hard, try too much, because that’s Emily. And Andy starts out completely disconnected, then slowly becomes fluent.
The cerulean speech is the film explaining its own logic out loud. Fashion isn’t something that happens to other people. It’s a language everyone is already speaking, whether they know it or not. That idea hit differently in 2006. It still does now.
The press tour is doing the exact same thing
Hathaway’s stylist Erin Walsh has described the press tour approach as “supernova joy.” Big, bold, fully intentional. Meanwhile, Streep’s stylist, Micaela Erlanger, has been building a character arc one outfit at a time. These aren’t just good looks. They’re telling a story, city by city.
It started in Mexico City, where Streep arrived at Frida Kahlo’s home, La Casa Azul, in a head-to-toe red custom Dolce & Gabbana suit with a satin bow at the neck and scarlet slingbacks. It is not subtle. It is also a direct nod to the original film’s poster, where a devil’s pitchfork heel became shorthand for the ruthlessness of fashion. Walsh has been bringing the slingback back on this tour, quietly and deliberately, at every stop she can.
Hathaway’s look told its own story entirely. Walsh framed the Mexico City Schiaparelli choice around Frida Kahlo’s surrealist legacy, and the look delivered: a black two-piece with a dramatic fringed collar, a golden eye motif on the bodice, and a floor-length pencil skirt. The price tag on that outfit was reportedly $14,100. A figure that circa 2007 Andy could only have borrowed from the Runway fashion closet.
Tokyo kept the momentum going. Streep stepped out in a red-and-white Chanel Métiers d’Art co-ord, shoulder-padded, abstract-printed, with fringe running along the hem and cuffs. Still red. Still Miranda. Still completely non-negotiable.
Hathaway, on the other hand, went strapless in a black-and-white ruffled Valentino Haute Couture gown from the Specula Mundi collection—its foldover bodice accented in red, the skirt built from three-dimensional ruffles that moved. She finished with Rockstud heels and Bulgari jewelry.
Seoul delivered the most talked-about swap of the tour. At the press conference, Streep wore a custom red Prada suit, double-breasted with a brown leather belt, while Hathaway stepped out in a voluminous Vaquera blouse in taupe, off-the-shoulder with layers of padded ruffles and a corset-style bodice, paired with black leather trousers.
That evening on the red carpet, they switched entirely. Hathaway turned up in red Balenciaga with a dramatic bomber-style top, stepping into Miranda’s signature color for the first time. Streep, meanwhile, went all-black custom Celine with sunglasses—straight out of the Anna Wintour playbook. The one time she dropped the red, and somehow it landed as her most powerful look yet.
Then came Shanghai, and the cerulean coat. Streep in a fitted, belted, high-necked Saint Laurent coat in the exact color Miranda once used to dress down Andy’s fashion ignorance. The speech namechecked Yves Saint Laurent. Streep showed up wearing Saint Laurent. In cerulean. It’s self-aware in the best way.
Hathaway beside her in a frothy Susan Fang ruffled dress, soft pastels, knee-length, playful, with clear Gianvito Rossi slingbacks tipped in gold and Bulgari diamond earrings. The silhouette echoed her 2006 press tour for the original film. The shoes echoed Andy’s entire arc.
Why it still matters
Method dressing is everywhere now. Stylists give interviews about “character-driven wardrobes,” and fans build entire Reddit threads decoding premiere looks. It has a name, a language, and a whole ecosystem around it.
But “The Devil Wears Prada” was doing all of this in 2006, before any of that existed. It understood that clothes carry meaning before you say a word. It built a story around that idea and delivered it as a comedy.
And somehow, nearly two decades later, it’s still the clearest example of how to do it right.
The press tour isn’t separate from the film. It’s the film making its case again, in real time, across four cities and counting. NYC and London premieres are still ahead. If Mexico City, Tokyo, Seoul, and Shanghai are anything to go by, the best looks haven’t landed yet.
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