Disney Loves Prada, Size 2 Please
The second go-around of “The Devil Wears Prada” had its New York premiere on April 21, with a re-creation of the costume department of the fictional Runway magazine.
There was the fabulous red ballgown the key figure, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep, wears in the film as she enters the Met Ball.
The asymmetrical ballgown as seen in the movie. (Courtesy, Devil Wears Prada 2 Instagram)
The first movie came out in 2006. released by 20th Century Fox. Meryl Streep is repeating the role of the demanding fashion magazine boss (modeled on Anna Wintour). Both women are now 76 years old, and look fantastic.
But Meryl Streep does not look as fantastic as Disney marketing people are used to seeing women in ballgowns. Note the way Ms. Streep is portrayed on the poster for the movie. The film is nominally being distributed by 20th Century Fox, but Disney owns Fox, and Disney’s fingerpints are all over the heavy-handed marketing. Disney made deals with Walmart for clothes, with the International arrivals terminal at JFK for giant billboards, for pop ups at Disneyland PARIS. And has been campaigning the film at openings all over the world.
Most of all, Disney has a specific way of seeing the female form, especially in graphics, where all you need is a few swipes of a pen. Think of Cinderella, Belle, Merida, Rapunzel, or even Ariel, a mermaid. The male gaze tends more toward Barbie than toward Reubens. A Disney female has big eyes, a tiny waist, nice shoulders and pretty breasts. The internet is full of “tiers” of “smash or pass”/ “hot or not” lists of Disney’s cartoon femmes.
Thus we come to Meryl Streep’s waist as displayed in the ads. Let’s be honest. Grown women who have not been starved or corseted, or are naturally thin or French are not going to be Disney size, with waists about a third of the width of their shoulders.
Yet look at the advertising for The Devil Wears Prada 2. There are two different poses for Ms. Streep at the top of the stairs in her ballgown. Perhaps it was the ballgown that set Disney’s graphics sensibilities off. (Is there a Halloween costume in its future?) Someone could not resist whittling away at her waist, and turning Meryl Streep into a cartoon character.
Courtesy Devil Wears Prada 2 Instagram
How do we know the art department got a little CGI with it? Here is a photo of her with Stanley Tucci, who plays a snippy art director in the film. They are off-camera, relaxed, no fancy lighting. They are not standing up straight, or positioned to show off their best attributes. Even the dress looks cheesy. But her waist is normal in proportion to her shoulders.
Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep during a break in filming The Devil Wears Prada 2 last year on the steps of the Metropolitan Museeum. (Courtesy InStyle magazine)
The advertising community is going to claim poetic license. It’s a poster! They needed a dramatic shape, something eye catching.
The difference between real Meryl Streep and the one in the ads may have driven Ms. Streep’s wardobe adviser to pick her outfit for the New York premiere. They have worked together for years and have an understanding. Let Anne Hathaway, a young and beautiful actress, wear the form-fitting red dress. Streep and her team chose a more demure look, one where no one could compare her waist with that of the mannequin in the lobby.
The dark sunglasses were in keeping with her character, Miranda Priestly. The rest, not so much. (Courtesy Devil Wears Prada 2 Instagram)
It was a fall/winter 2026 Givenchy by Sarah Burton cape with black gloves added for even more coverage.
Meryl Streep speaks her mind. It’s possible her outfit said to Fox and by extension to Disney: It’s my body, guys. You are not going to get another chance to alter it. — LINDA LEE
