Making a sequel to The Devil Wears Prada wasn’t ever just going to be about getting Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci back into a room together.
What would they be wearing?!
The answer to that question fell to costume designer Molly Rogers, who served under the legendary Patricia Field on the first film. Rogers understood not just the task in front of her, but also the risk involved. “You’d better not screw it up,” Field recalls.
Speaking to Gold Derby, Field explains the careful thinking that went into clothing the sequel and how drastically the world of fashion has evolved since the original.
Gold Derby: How has the culture of fashion changed since the first Devil Wears Prada? I know I’m starting you off with a big one.
Molly Rogers: I’ve got a good story to illustrate it. On the first movie, Pat and I drove out to New Jersey in her car, went into a warehouse, and together, we got up on ladders and went through the Donna Karan archives for Miranda Priestley. Can you imagine if I asked one of my assistants to go to a warehouse and get up on a ladder and look for clothing? The way you procure it now is so, so very different.
On the first movie — which is beloved, and everyone has memorized every millisecond of it — I couldn’t get on an app and meet a designer in Nicaragua who was knitting some incredible sweater from a llama. The access is just mind-boggling. So the biggest difference, and I hope this answers your question, is that on the second movie it was about being able to edit this vast ocean of clothing, when you have access to everything.
But also, now you’re dressing characters that the audience has a relationship with.
You’d better not screw it up. Everyone is so familiar with each of those characters, but that served me greatly, because Patricia, in the first movie, created such a powerful DNA for each of them, just like she did in Sex and the City, in that they have their own lane, and it’s so defined. The only character who really changed greatly in the second movie was Andy, because in the first movie she was a fish out of water. She got to go in the closet with Nigel, but she really didn’t flip a switch and drink the Kool-Aid, or turn into a clacker.
How did you try to balance the film’s fashion being of-the-moment, but also timeless?
It was really important to me, because when I watched the first movie, I can’t figure out what year it is. Those clothes look pretty timeless to me, even a Chanel thigh-high boot, which was very specific. I did not want the second movie to be an advertisement for anybody. I really wanted to keep it under the radar and as timeless as I could. Yes, there are special pieces, like the tassel jacket that Miranda wore in that scene, but I didn’t want people to be able to pinpoint them and take away from the experience, since everyone’s so knowledgeable. I didn’t want a trendy handbag. To me, a Paco Rabanne metallic chainmail dress, they’ve been coming at us since — what — the ’60s? You can’t define that dress, that blue one that Andy wore to the birthday party. You can’t pinpoint a year. I like that idea.
You mentioned Andy changing between the two movies. Who were your main collaborators in figuring out how that character change would be reflected in her clothing?
That was a huge, ongoing discussion between the writer [Aline Brosh McKenna], the director [David Frankel], and the actor, Annie [Hathaway]. When I told Annie she did not get access to the Runway closet to pilfer it with Nigel until the 26th outfit in the movie, she was like, “What? I can’t have anything?”
There were little nudges to suggest she has access to more now. She may not know what the it bag is, because she’s not writing about it, but we tried to creep those moments in. There’s a dialogue mention of “Yeah, I bought this vintage Maison Margiela.” She knows things, but it was always a question of “Where did she get that?” in the back of our minds.
You mentioned the tassel jacket. I think it was the item I heard the most people talking about after seeing the film.
It was literally the first thing I saw that I wanted for the movie. I didn’t know where it would go, but the scene it ended up in — art versus commerce, good versus evil — it was amazing that we set it there.
Did you have to convince anyone that this was right, or did it have fans immediately?
I showed it to Meryl on the runway, and I said, “I don’t think this is going into production. It’s under the radar.” And she was like, “We’ve got to get it in.” We [camera] tested it. Higher-ups, when they don’t understand something, they’re afraid of it, like it’s going to pull focus or something. But those of us in fashion know, no, it’s going to be the thing. It’s going to be the it thing. So after the camera test, it was kind of like, we’ve got to put it in the right place. Is there a scene for it? We love it, but that doesn’t matter. A lot of things I love don’t get in. So that scene came up and developed. I did not know [Streep] would do that shimmy in the elevator. That’s why she’s who she is.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is now available on digital.
