On Monday Australian fashion week kicks off (not with a bang but a whimper). So I thought I better celebrate with a suitably #FASHION themed cinematic style. The world was my oyster. My initial thoughts ran to Robert Altman's wonderful Pret-A-Porter, but I couldn't find any screencaps (but anyone who wants to see what the fashion world must have been like in the 90s, and Julia Roberts as an intrepid columnist in double-breasted skirt suits should definitely try and see it). I then paused over characters like Reese Witherspoon's Stella McCartney-esque fashion designer in Sweet Home Alabama or Audrey Hepburn in the wonderfully underrated Funny Face (Paris!) but then I thought, you already know who you want to feature don't you. Miranda Priestly.
The devil herself, the HBIC (and yes she does wear Prada), Anne Hathaway might be the wide-eyed supposed ingenue running around in Chanel 'borrowed' from the fashion closet but Meryl Streep is the main event in The Devil Wears Prada. She's the crossover point between fashion and the real world ("What was the editor like?" My friends would ask me when I interned at magazines, "Was she like Miranda Priestly?"), she's overwhelmingly quotable ("Details of your incompetence do not interest me", "why is no-one ready", "Florals, for spring? Groundbreaking"), and she's a total badass. She tells it like it is and she runs a tight ship at Runway. She's miles ahead of the wide-eyed supposed ingenue Andy (and apparently we all love a bit of Hatha-hate at the moment, hmm?) and she tells her so. She knows what's going down. Her wardrobe in the films is age-less and trend-less. Styled self-consciously, I think, on Anna Wintour, it's all house coats, fur stoles and cocktail dresses with statement necklaces. She rocks a silver coiffe combed over to the side with a snakeskin leather jacket and a pencil skirt. It's a fantastic representation of the American magazine editor, who by and large wears a variation of these outfits everyday when they get up to go to work (And maybe two more during fashion week).
I think you know a character is a real icon when it becomes impossible to replace them in your mind. The Devil Wears Prada could have been made with a host of other actresses in the lead role, but I can't imagine anyone other than Meryl Streep as the horrifyingly harsh editrix. Only Meryl Streep could make Miranda Priestly simultaneously terrifying and immensely watchable. You don't exactly feel sorry for her, what you feel is more of an empathy. You understand. It's not easy to make it in publishing, but it's a little easier in tailored trench coats, chandelier earrings and, of course, Prada.
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