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“Is she wearing the…” The Jacquemus look, the Phoebe Philo shirt, the Chanel sandals? Yes, yes she is.
The long-awaited sequel to The Devil Wears Prada will hit US theatres on 1 May 2026, almost two decades after the release of the original film. And by the time we watch the movie, there will be few surprises on the fashion front. The internet has taken care of that.
Thanks to pervasive coverage of what’s happening on set, stills from upcoming movies and TV shows are all over our social media feeds. We know that Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly will be wearing Jacquemus and a piece from Julian Klausner’s first collection for Dries Van Noten. We know that Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs is carrying a Coach messenger bag and wearing Phoebe Philo. We also know that Emily Blunt will be wearing Dior as Emily Charlton, as indicated by the gigantic logo across the front of her T-shirt, which sits underneath a corset.
We also know that Ryan Murphy’s Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy was not carrying the right Birkin in those test shots, and that Margot Robbie’s wedding dress for the upcoming Wuthering Heights film was from the “wrong time period”, according to online armchair critics. Our feeds are full of potential spoilers months before a show or movie is released, exhausting our appetites well before we even see the final cut.
It’s not just plots being spoiled, it’s the fashion. When everyone can see the costume design splashed on social media beforehand, it invites commentary and criticism before a film or show can even speak for itself. For the brands involved, it’s more noise to contend with. Are brands the winners when it comes to their clothes being plastered all over social media, or does the intense level of exposure — and often criticisms of costume choices — overshadow the future on-screen moment?
Pros and cons of pre-release virality
Fashion being a silent but crucial character on TV and film is nothing new, but the way in which it has become part of the pop culture news cycle certainly is.
There was a time, pre-Instagram, in which what characters wore on-screen was integral to their persona but did not necessarily determine their effectiveness in front of audiences. Think Sarah Jessica Parker’s famous Sex and the City wardrobe as Carrie Bradshaw. Fashion was part of Carrie’s character — something that developed over the course of the series and only in syndication became part of the discourse. Only now does it matter that her green skirt with a tiny tulle bustle was Vivienne Westwood, or that her famous newspaper dress was John Galliano for Dior. It’s part of the show’s lore as much as her affair with Mr Big.
As he exits Maison Margiela, John Galliano walks us through his most treasured moments on the runway, red carpet and pages of Vogue.
Which brings us to And Just Like That… the Sex and the City follow-up series that came to a close on Thursday upon its final episode. This time, the fashion was heavily scrutinised. The online fashion set questioned Carrie’s wardrobe choices: whether she’d choose wedges over heels, or, God forbid, wear crossbody bags. An Instagram account, @JustLikeThatCloset, appeared as soon as the show started filming in mid-2021, to document the wardrobe. Carrie wore runway looks and vintage pieces. She carried a viral JW Anderson pigeon clutch and resurfaced some of her own greatest hits. For the most part, people criticised the fashion. Because of that, And Just Like That… proposed a new way of baiting audiences and fashion fans to pay attention. It’s a formula that’s now been endlessly replicated, for better or for worse.
Similarly to the way runway collections and celebrity dressing have become a crucial part of our social media ‘content’ diets, dissecting costuming and the effectiveness of a look has become integral to the shows themselves. Everyone is Joan Rivers now — the famed Fashion Police host — and everyone has an opinion. It must be said, too, that snarky or negative feedback often gains the most traction. Consider Robbie’s Wuthering Heights dress and how much press that gave the upcoming film, or think of the way the internet created a storm around Murphy’s Bessette-Kennedy based on a simple set of test images. In a way, this seems to have become part of the strategy around promoting these projects, even if inadvertently. The way to get people talking is to give them something to talk about — whether all press is good press is a different conversation.
When it comes to fashion brands, however, they can be trapped in the crosshairs of these premature on-set images and the fury of negative press. Sure, dressing a beloved TV or film character can be good ‘exposure’, but how positive is it if the would-be audience seems to agree it’s a fashion fail more than a win?
Last week, fashion reporter Lauren Sherman reported on the brand ‘winners’ of The Devil Wears Prada 2 in her newsletter for Puck based on Launchmetrics’s media impact value (MIV). The breakdown places Gabriela Hearst at the top of the MIV leaderboard ($1.4 million) based on a dress Hathaway wore; though, that it was the first look to be photographed and reported on must have helped. Other big earners include Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Coach and Jacquemus. (MIV calculates the monetary value of brand mentions across various voices and channels.)
Similarly to And Just Like That… the internet has a lot to say. Some good — including praises for Priestly in Dries Van Noten and Sachs in Sacai — and some not quite — why Sachs would pair that Coach crossbody with a true fashion cult label like Phoebe Philo, or whether Priestly would wear monochromatic grey.
It’s too early to know if the film will be a smash hit, and we’ll have to wait and see whether fashion brands can turn their features on-screen into a real commercial opportunity. Simon Porte Jacquemus posted an image of Priestly wearing his label on his Instagram — it remains to be seen whether or not the scene will be in the film, or stay on the cutting-room floor, but does it matter? She wore it, he posted about it, that was the moment.
In a way, that’s the potential issue with this current online fascination with on-screen fashion. By the time the looks hit the screen, the excitement of the surprise has been sapped. Could clout-by-association be the magic trick? Only, presumably, if the film is actually good.
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