’The Devil Wears Prada’: Revisiting Miranda Priestly’s Best Insults

When reviewing outfits for a photoshoot, Priestly asks about the belts, and an assistant brings two for her while noting, “It’s a tough call. They’re so different.” Watching the interaction, Andy laughs, which catches the attention of everyone in the room. After arguing that the belts look the same but that she’s still “learning about this stuff,” Miranda was not pleased and dove into an education in fashion while insulting Andy’s cerulean sweater.

“You go to your closet, and you select I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, but what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it who showed cerulean military jackets. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of ‘stuff.’”

Miranda makes sure to remind everyone that she doesn’t have the time nor care to worry about your excuses. When Emily Blunt’s Emily needs an appointment to be rescheduled due to a medical emergency, Miranda doesn’t bother to hear the rationale. Instead, Miranda blames the rescheduling on Emily saying, “The tales of your incompetence do not interest me.”

Miranda needs things done efficiently. When she is asking for something from Andy, Andy is searching her bag to retrieve it. However, when she doesn’t go fast enough for Miranda, the fashion boss tells Andy, “By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.”

When an employee mentions florals as a potential theme during a meeting about a spring issue, Miranda makes it known how boring the idea is. “Florals? For Spring? Groundbreaking.” That employee knew they had to go back to the drawing board immediately.

Sick while working? Miranda could care less. Ahead of Emily accompanying Miranda to a benefit, Emily comes down with the flu. Despite trying to power through, Miranda asks Andy to go to the event, which Andy questions given the “first assistant” is the one to usually attend. “Only when the first assistant hasn’t decided to become an incubus of viral plague,” Miranda responds, clearly showing no sympathy to a congested Emily.

Miranda is a hard boss to please and employees are constantly operating in fear and desperate to ensure everything is as close to perfect for her. When Miranda is being shown a model who was chosen for a new campaign, she doesn’t mince her words. “I asked for clear, athletic, smiley. She sent me dirty, tired and paunchy,” Miranda says at one point of the models.
 

“Is there some reason that my coffee isn’t here? Has she died or something?” is a question Miranda asks after Andy is sent on a list of errands but is struggling to get all of them done in a timely manner — well, on Miranda’s timeline. Getting her coffee order was one of the tasks. When Andy returned, Blunt’s Emily was frazzled and told her she was holding her pee until she returned to be present in case Miranda needed something.

When Miranda states her opinion, don’t mistake it for a question or hypothetical. When meeting Hathaway’s Andy for her first interview, Miranda stated her observations including a direct critique of Andy that she has “no sense of fashion.” When Andy interjected to defend herself, Miranda cut her off saying, “No, no. That wasn’t a question.”

Not only are Miranda’s harsh criticisms not questions, but she also doesn’t care to hear anyone else’s list of inquiries for her. When giving tasks for Andy to complete, one of which is to get her skirts from Calvin Klein, Andy attempts to ask questions to get clarification on which skirts Miranda wants. But that was the wrong move, given that Miranda brushes her off, telling her to bore someone else with her questions.

Arguably one of the most iconic pieces of dialogue in the franchise is Miranda’s signature “that’s all” phrase. She first says it when brushing off Andy during her interview for the assistant job. She later says it when Andy asks her whether she needed anything else after surprising Miranda with her accomplishment of getting the unpublished Harry Potter manuscript to her twin girls.