From Cerulean to Crimson: Costume Designer Molly Rogers Redefines Power Dressing in “The Devil Wears Prada 2”
When award-winning costume designer Molly Rogers picked up the style mantle from mentor Patricia Field for The Devil Wears Prada 2, she knew the job was about something much bigger than just serving looks. The tapestry of legacy, social commentary, and change needed to be reflected in everything.
Art imitates life in the comedy-drama, in which Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly and her iconic Runway magazine face uncertain futures. Reenter Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs, an award-winning investigative journalist whose own career has been turned upside down, to help her formidable former boss. Also returning to support Miranda is her right-hand man, Nigel Kipling, played once again by Stanley Tucci. The trio faces off against a fleet of management consultants who value clicks over quality and another of Miranda’s former employees, Emily Blunt’s Emily Charlton, who has risen in the ranks of luxury fashion.
Here, Rogers, who was associate costume designer on the original film, shares with The Credits why she loves to highlight new talent alongside the world’s greatest designers, breaks down the film’s key looks, and explains why we need to protect cinema’s creative voices.
What were the conversations you and director David Frankel had about tying the two movies together through the costuming?
It was important to have touchstones. The original is such a beloved film that you have to honor that DNA. I have an apartment in Miami Beach, and David lives near me, so we were lucky to bond there very quickly. I read the script, and we started talking about how much their world had changed, but it’s centered on a still very powerful editor in Miranda, a fish-out-of-water reporter in Andy, a creative director in Nigel, and the ambitious, sharp-edged Emily. To honor the original, the first thing I said to David Frankel was, “I need that cerulean sweater.” There would have been a riot if we hadn’t done that. It needed to be something that had holes in it, like that t-shirt none of your friends will let you wear in public, but you’re not going to throw away. The perfect scene for it was the full circle moment at the end of the movie.
There is also Nigel’s ring.
They couldn’t find it in the studio’s archive, so the wonderful prop master had to recreate it from photos. It was pretty damn close. I thought Stanley had taken it as a memento, but he denied it, so I believe him. Do you know where I think that is? Before studios held on to important costumes, when you finished a movie, everything went into the studio lot wardrobe, where other productions could rent pieces from. I bet it’s sitting somewhere on a studio wardrobe lot among some medieval stuff because it has that vibe, and no one recognizes what it is.
The first fashion moment is Miranda getting out of a car; the focus is on the shoes and the drop of her dress. How important was styling that reintroduction?
There was originally a sequence before that set up the gala. It was Emily Blunt running through a hotel delivering a gown, but it was cut because it made the opening too long. Now, the first thing you see that is fashion is that dramatic, crimson, custom Balenciaga gown.
I’ve done a lot of shoe shots in my time. Balenciaga sent that pair. It was pretty flat, and I said to Meryl, “I think we might want to heighten this shoe.” She said to me, as a purist, “This is what Pierpaolo Piccioli, the Creative Director of Balenciaga, intended for this gown, and we should stick with this idea of a lower shoe.” It does have a princely, royal vibe to it, like a boudoir slipper, and I thought, “She’s right.”
New York is reflected in the look. Did you use local talent to bring that authenticity?
Absolutely. I do have a Rolodex. It makes me sound like a dinosaur, but I do have one. I tell people that if you send something and it’s sitting in the fitting room, there’s a chance that somebody is going to grab it and use it. A lot of people want to push their “it” bag, something of the moment, and we will edit it so it’ll be appropriate for these characters. I take great pride in finding someone undiscovered and super talented and giving them a spotlight. A fashion student at SCAD in Atlanta asked if they could send me the dress they had in their graduation runway. We never got it on a person, but it’s in the closet scene, and the camera goes past it. It’s like, “Can I give someone a moment where they can actually say, ‘My piece was in The Devil Wears Prada 2!’ It wasn’t on Meryl, but it was deemed worthy to be in there. For a student, an unknown designer in Brooklyn, or someone I met on Instagram from Ethiopia, it can change their world.
You worked with many fashion houses, taking their pieces and tweaking them. It’s a very different way of working as a costume designer.
There was a lot of ready-to-wear, so we didn’t have to build much. It is not historical like Wuthering Heights. You’re not going to go to Bergdorf and find that stuff. This calls for custom pieces like the gala gown. We also got to shoot in the Dior store, which was brand spanking new and an incredible location. JW Anderson had literally just stuck his toe in that door.
Two of Meryl’s standout outfits are the bejeweled trouser suit she wears in Milan and the tassel jacket.
When I started preparing a digital deck for the director that would be sent to the actors, the first thing I saw for Miranda was the tassel jacket. I had definitely never seen it in a store, so I thought maybe it didn’t go into production and was under the radar. I showed it to Meryl the first time we met, and she said, “We have got to try to get that in.” There’s a scene where she marches into the cafeteria, and it’s all those suits and pencil pushers. One end of the table is commerce, and the other is art. I thought it was such a great moment for that jacket, and it speaks volumes.
The story of the bejeweled Armani Privé coat that Meryl wears walking through Milan is that it was Fashion Week, and David wanted to shoot the cast in the front row of as many fashion shows as he could. We were going to Armani, and it was his 50th anniversary. It was going to be 100 models, a retrospective, but I think Armani died that week. We spoke with the Armani people, and they were like, “Out of respect, we don’t think we should have a film crew coming in and documenting people who are celebrating and or mourning him.” We didn’t get to do that, but Meryl and Anne, in that scene with the Last Supper, are both in Armani Privé. It’s our little tip of our hat to that gentleman. I wanted to get the sequin suspenders and high-waisted velvet pants on someone for years. I was trying to dress Andy in feminine menswear, so I took that, and she wore it to that dinner.
I also wanted to ask about the beautiful jacket worn by Miranda’s assistant, Amari [Simone Ashley], using men’s ties and, of course, Lady Gaga’s outfit.
I don’t get out of the office much, but one day I tromped around Manhattan and ran into Tokio7, a really cool downtown vintage store. I saw this bustier that was all men’s ties and thought, “That’s feminine menswear. Maybe I could do that on Andy?” It was a little too fashion-forward, so I didn’t think Nigel would have given the piece to Andy, so it ended up on Amari. It’s a real scene stealer.
With Gaga, I only knew two weeks before that she was going to be in the movie. I called her and said, “I’m working on things. What are you bringing to the table?” and she said, “I’m going to bring some archives from LA. I think I should bring Italian.” She brought about 12 archival Versace pieces, and rehearsed in three things. The third was from her closet, not from me. She asked me, “Out of the three, what do you think?” and I said, “I think it’s the cat suit with the McQueen style sculptural shoulder pad.” That was Versace, but I don’t know what year. I got the mask from a place in Rome and crystallized it. I felt like I was at a concert of hers when she wore that. She didn’t look like she was a part of the fashion show. She was doing a performance.
The narrative is about protecting journalism that promotes the work of creatives like you. How important is it to you that we celebrate and we protect both industries?
We’d better hurry. We need to stand together because there is no way you can recreate what I would bring to a project, costume design-wise, with an AI algorithm that hasn’t gone to see Gaga live in a concert. It is the human element, and this is under attack.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in theaters now.
Featured image: (Center – Right) Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly and Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs in 20th Century Studios’ THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. Photo by Macall Polay. © 2026 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
