This Week, According To Rani...
The Devil Wears Prada 2 And The Death Of Fashion Fantasy...
The Devil Wears Prada is one of those movies that completely re-wired the way we think about fashion and the fashion industry. It pulled back the curtain on a world that felt so elusive and untouchable. I remember watching it for the first time and thinking this was it, the dream world, the ultimate aspiration. Fashion looked glamorous, ruthless, creative and terrifying all at once. So when rumours of a sequel started circulating, I couldn’t wait.
I ended up watching it sitting beside three generations of women in my family, which honestly made the experience even better. Every few minutes I found myself stopping to take notes because there was so much layered into it beyond just clothes and fashion references.
The biggest shift for me was Miranda. In the original film, she felt almost mythical. Untouchable. Cold. This time around, we saw a much more human version of her, and I think that completely changed the emotional tone of the story. The grounded side of Miranda was beautiful to watch because it reflected something happening within fashion itself right now. The industry is becoming more emotionally transparent. We are seeing conversations around sustainability, burnout, ethics and individuality enter spaces that once only valued perfection and status. These powerful figures are no longer being presented as gods of fashion. They are being shown as people.
That evolution also came through in Miranda and Nigel’s relationship. In the original, their connection felt heavily professional, but here it evolved into something deeper. There was loyalty, understanding and genuine friendship there, which is something audiences had been yearning for all along.
Emily’s storyline also felt incredibly relevant to the current fashion landscape. Her position in the film reflected this larger conversation around taste and personal style that we are seeing online right now. The film subtly points out that money can buy luxury, but it cannot buy style. Style comes from instinct, self expression and knowing yourself. It’s built through personal combinations, references and emotion, not through dressing for approval or performance.
What I found most interesting though was the film’s commentary on the future of fashion and creativity. We are moving into an era where AI, trend cycling and mass production are beginning to overpower individuality. Fashion is becoming faster, more disposable and increasingly detached from artistry. Luxury and fashion have always held value because of exclusivity. The rarity of certain pieces, ideas and craftsmanship is one of the things that give them meaning. Without that exclusivity, fashion risks losing the very thing that once made it aspirational. When everything becomes accessible, replicated and mass produced, the magic starts to disappear. The film touched on this heavily through Miranda, who suddenly felt less like a villain and more like someone desperately trying to protect something meaningful.
There’s a moment where Miranda references Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, explaining that she loves it because it is one of the few depictions where Jesus is not wearing a halo. He is brought down to a human level. That detail felt incredibly symbolic. Miranda herself is being pulled down from this god like status we once gave her and revealed simply as a woman trying to preserve the art form she has dedicated her life to.
Maybe that’s the point of the sequel entirely. We used to think Miranda Priestly was the devil. But the real devil was never Miranda. It’s the people behind the scenes pushing mass production, trend exhaustion and profit over creativity. Miranda was never cruel. She was trying to preserve a world on the edge of extinction.