SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses plot details for “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” in theaters now.
After reading the script for “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” costume designer Molly Rogers had one thought, “I have to put the cerulean blue sweater in 2.”
It was the first call she put into 20th Century Studios, and director David Frankel agreed. It seemed right that the sweater would be honored after the original’s monologue about Andy’s basic cable-knit sweater evolved into its own cultural moment.
Meryl Streep, as Runway’s editor-in-chief Miranda, Emily (Emily Blunt) and Andy (Anne Hathaway) effortlessly slip back into their roles, and Rogers was eager to dress them knowing there are high expectations.
She knew where to put the cerulean sweater. She also knew the Chanel boots had their place in the first film, and didn’t need to be revisited for the sequel.
Rogers worked closely with Streep, Blunt and Hathaway to explore where their characters would be and what their clothes needed to say and express in the world of Runway Magazine in 2026.
Here Rogers breaks down key looks from the film.
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Emily Charlton, Girl Boss
Image Credit: Courtesy of 20th Century Studios Emily is now in a senior position at Dior, and she revels in the power she yields.
Meanwhile, Andy is back at Runway as the magazine’s features editor after it comes under fire for endorsing a fashion brand whose items are built in a sweatshop. With advertising dollars under threat, Miranda, Nigel (Stanley Tucci), and Andy come face to face with Emily.
This look was bought in a secondhand store. Rogers says, “We tried very hard to wear that blouse backwards. She was going to turn in that hallway and waltz them back to her office, and that’s when I wanted you to see that Dior brand on that shirt.”
But it didn’t work out. So, she wore it front ways.
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Miranda’s Grand Entrance, All Hail Balenciaga
Image Credit: Macall Polay Rogers turned to the luxury fashion house Balenciaga to find Miranda’s return.
When Rogers and Streep met for the first time, there was no question. “The devil comes back in red. We were both like, ‘There is no other choice.’”
Miranda makes her grand entrance at a red-carpet event wearing a Balenciaga red ballgown made from silk taffeta. It was perfect and was paired with a red heel. “It was so malleable, and it just framed her like a picture frame in that white hair.”
At one point, Rogers says they had played around with the idea of a hat. “Balenciaga sent a couple, but that framed – a hat, we knew, was not the correct choice. It would have added something and taken a lot away.”
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Miranda’s Tasseled Look
Image Credit: 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS Despite the threats facing print journalism, Miranda Priestly is still at the top. She’s still powerful and her global reach has grown, and that was something Rogers wanted to express.
Rogers moved away from the cropped jackets and pencil skirts, giving her a softer look with a clean silhouette. She was “someone that has nothing to prove,” Rogers says.
In one scene, Miranda sports a tassel jacket by Dries Van Noten. It was from a runway show that Rogers became fixated on, but she didn’t know where to put it.
And then, it came to her. Miranda has to go down to the cafeteria, a place she has never been. But it’s where the bankers and accountants are meeting to discuss Runway’s future.
The tasseled jacket spoke volumes amid a sea of tailored men’s suits. Rogers says, “It spoke, ‘This is an editrix. She’s wearing a jacket with tassels.’”
It also served as a bookend to a previous outfit. In the first film, during the Cerulean soliloquy, Miranda is in a cropped Bill Blass jacket with dangling coins. “It’s really ornate. That tassel jacket, for me, was the sister of that jacket in the first movie. It made a connection for me.”
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Andy Sach’s ‘Annie Hall’-Inspired Look
Image Credit: Macall Polay The first film’s costume designer Patrica Field drew distant inspiration from Diane Keaton’s look in “Annie Hall.”
When audiences first met Andy Sachs 20 years ago, she was Miranda’s newly hired assistant, and a fish out of water. Since then, she’s traveled the world and has become an award-winning reporter, and that was something Rogers and Hathaway discussed when putting together Andy’s closet.
Says Rogers, “From the beginning, I said to myself, ‘A reporter needs a messenger bag.’ It was the props department that found a beaten-up Coach bag. “It belonged to her the minute she slid it on her shoulder.”
Now that Andy is a reporter, Rogers noticed feminine menswear was in stores, and she found a “Giorgio Armani vintage jacket that hung like a boyfriend jacket” on Hathaway, and it was a perfect place to start with the character.
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Rogers observed it was “pitiful” that only men wear ties. So, look no further than this film to see a smorgasbord of ties on the women.
She noted the many ways a tie or a scarf could heighten a look. Roger says, “They’re a little clue to a character in the way you tie them.”
At the end of the film, Emily no longer works for Dior. She’s working at Coach. Her final punk look “fit Emily’s character.” “That tie was important that it was either skinny leather or it was chain mail because she’s edgier.”
With Hathaway, Rogers incorporated them into her wardrobe, but there was one scene where it didn’t quite work out. “We did a loosened tie and we took it away. It just was too self-conscious.”
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