A Fashion Classic

Even though the movie is nearly four years old and I've seen it several times, I happily spent the majority of my Saturday night watching The Devil Wears Prada on FX.

For anyone living under a rock, the movie is loosely based on Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea "Andy" Sachs, a recent college graduate who comes to New York City and gets a job as co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci co-star as Emily and Nigel, respectively. (Synopsis from SceneItIn.com.)

Devil's Miranda Priestly was rumored to be based on Vogue's Anna Wintour. But I'm sure that really wasn't the case.


The fabulous stylist Patricia Field −most known for her work on Sex and the City− had just $100,000 for the movie's costumes; the paltry budget was supplemented by favors from industry friends. In fact, Field estimates that $1 million worth of clothing was used in the film, making it the most expensively costumed movie in cinema history.



There are so many great lines in Devil (The movie was much funnier than the book, in my opinion.), but the following five are my absolute favorites.


"This... 'stuff’? Oh, OK. I see… You think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select, oh 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 or lapis. It is, in fact, cerulean.

"You are 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 and countless jobs, and so it's sort of comical how you think you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of…stuff." ~Miranda Priestly


"I’m on this new diet. It’s very effective. Well, I don’t eat anything and when I feel like I’m about to faint, I eat a cube of cheese." ~Emily

"I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight." ~Emily


"Oh, never mind. I'm sure you have plenty more poly-blend where that came from." ~Nigel

"Don’t you know that you are working at the place that published some of the greatest artists of the century? Halston, Lagerfeld, de la Renta. And what they did, what they created, was greater than art. Because you live your life in it." ~Nigel