Arriving two decades after The Devil Wears Prada, the sequel has piqued immense excitement ever since it was announced — its “leaked” shoot scenes, topline returning cast, global promotional campaign and mammoth brand tie-ups — guaranteeing a massive opening for the film that arrives in cinemas worldwide today. With the original quartet of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci in the lead, the promise (and the deliverance, if early reviews and reactions are anything to go by) is a redux of the magical and enduring appeal of the 2006 film, and perhaps even more. Before we plunge into The Devil Wears Prada 2, that also marks the return of director David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna, here are some celebrated lines (and moments) from the first film that continue to define and commemorate what it is.
The ‘Cerulean blue’ sweater monologue
An iconic moment in the film in which Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), the formidable editor-in-chief of Runway fashion magazine, noted, (and, more significantly) feared for her penchant for extreme perfectionism and ruthless professionalism, turns around, her icy-cold demeanour at its most biting, to tear apart her newly-minted second assistant Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Anne Hathaway) in front of a roomful of people, when the latter — who initially looks at her job as a stepping stone to a future career in journalism — nonchalantly smirks and says she can’t gauge the difference between two belts that seem “exactly” the same shade of “blue” to her and that she is still learning her way around “this stuff”.
Andy in the cerulean blue sweater from the film
That is enough for Miranda — who no one dare mess with — to launch into a stinging monologue about “cerulean” — the shade of blue that Andy has on herself in the form of her “lumpy sweater” — that ensured that the colour, famously cited as a pivotal, trend-setting hue in the fashion industry, moved from style storyboards to cine-goer chatter. When Miranda notes how Andy isn’t serious about her job and believes that the young assistant thinks that she is placed above self-indulgent consumerism, she puts her in her place by pointing out how fashion is serious business and that Andy, with her choices, already has everything to do with this “stuff”.
Too precious and pointed not be reproduced, it goes like this: “This… ‘stuff?’ Oh, okay. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you are 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 is not turquoise, it is not lapis... it is actually cerulean. And 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 who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And 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 it is sort of comical how you think that you have made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you are wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room... from a pile of ‘stuff’.”
‘By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me’
Sure-shot proof that a movie dialogue is one for the ages? When it is produced and reproduced as a meme over 20 years. Miranda’s frosty sarcasm is at its peak when she delivers this legendary line, expressing her impatience with Andy — who, by now, has, however, firmly entrenched herself in the business of Runway, as also Miranda’s eccentric ways — fumbling with a particular seating chart for a luncheon. Miranda holds her hand out, waiting for Andy to fish out the chart, and then moves it away, with a mix of despair and disdain.
The dialogue comes at a rare vulnerable point for Miranda — she is visibly shaken, having been given some devastatingly personal news — but that doesn’t take away from the iciness that is second nature (or is it first?) to her. The sass never holds up. And yes, “glacial pace” has maintained its stronghold in our vocabulary — sarcastic or not — ever since.
‘Can you please spell ‘Gabbana?’
A subtle, but deeply impactful, moment of humour in the early stages of the film arrives courtesy Andy, who is still in her tartan skirts and frumpy blouses era, much before her fashion transformation takes place. Andy exposes just how foreign she is to the fashion world with this line, which is spoken during one of her first attempts to take calls for Miranda. Her nonchalance is also on full display as she clumsily scribbles on a Post-it. Unware of what it means to not even know how to spell the name of an iconic fashion brand while working at one of the foremost fashion magazines in the world, Andy merely shrugs when the caller hangs up without answering her question.
The throwaway line not only brings on laughs even today, but also becomes a comparison point to Andy’s metamorphoses later in the film where she reaches a position where she can almost always read Miranda’s mind. She also becomes a fashion encyclopedia of sorts (“the Chanel boots? Yeah, I am”) where she can identify any fashion brand at a glance. And that includes Gabbana.
‘That is really what this multi-billion dollar industry is all about anyway, isn’t it? Inner beauty’
Nigel Kipling, played by the inimitable Stanley Tucci, is the wizard behind this dialogue. Nigel is Miranda’s right-hand man, but he isn’t immune to his career ambitions being sacrificed at the altar of her own interests. Nigel may share the prerequisite derisive tone of his Runway colleagues, but he is the one who proves to be Andy’s cheerleader of sorts right from the beginning.
This particular moment comes when Andy — who has more than a spoonful of corn chowder (carbs, what?!) spilt on her sweater (she doesn’t know it is called cerulean yet) — says that her outward presentation is irrelevant to her job as Miranda’s assistant. When she says that she sees no point in changing herself since she believes she “won’t be working in the fashion industry forever”, Nigel eyerolls at Andy’s belief that in the industry they are in — one worth billions that operates predominantly on optics — work ethic and integrity matter more than aesthetics. In doing so, Nigel takes a stab at Andy’s sense of moral superiority and dismisses her rejection of fashion as being equally uptight and performative as Andy considers those who worship it.
It is significant that it is Nigel who Andy later turns to for her fashion transformation, with the former being only too happy to peel off pieces from Runway’s shoot archives to contribute to Andy’s new drool-worthy wardrobe. Even though he does tell her that “six (her size 6) is the new 14”. Of course, by fashion standards.
‘That’s all’
Two words that carry the weight of unspeakable dread — and often, impending disaster. Miranda’s clipped “that’s all” has as much power (if not more) over anyone as her cerulean monologue. She delivers her terrifying catchphrase after rattling off a list of her demands — most of which are often Herculean, if not impossible to meet (remember the nonchalant order for the unpublished Harry Potter manuscript?). It speaks to the power she wields not only over those at Runway, but almost everyone in the industry (“her opinion is the only one that matters”). Once Miranda says “that’s all”, it signals the end of any conversation, with her always having the last word. And when she delivers that line after taking a bemused (or so we think) look at Andy’s unfashionable shoes, it becomes a moment we simply can’t forget in a hurry.
‘Everybody wants to be us’
Yet one of Miranda’s iconic lines. This comes towards the end and sums up what Miranda (and the fashion industry, as shown in The Devil Wears Prada) is about. “Everybody wants to be us” is uttered at a pivotal moment in Paris when a shocked Andy, seated in the car with Miranda after the latter has triumphantly turned the tables on her adversaries, tells her boss that she couldn’t do to Nigel what Miranda had done to him (read: crushed his career to suit hers).
Miranda, her signature lopsided leer in place, shoots back with: “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Andrea. Everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us”. According to the film’s behind-the-scenes trivia, Streep reportedly changed the line in the moment, from “everybody wants to be me” to “everybody wants to be us”. It alludes to the fact that Andy, despite her denial, has already become a lot like Miranda (“I see a great deal of myself in you”). It serves as a wake-up call for Andy who chooses to walk away from it all, disposing off her ringing pager in a fountain in the vicinity and striding off triumphantly.
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