In a culture so fixated on image, Sean Burns explores why what’s beyond ‘the look’ is more important than ever
In David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Meryl Streep’s Anna Wintour character, Miranda Priestly, admonishes her new assistant, played by Anne Hathaway, after she sniggers during a meeting with a group of flustered stylists.
Priestly reads her apparent outsider stance and lack of style, detailing how her cerulean – not turquoise, not lapis – ‘lumpy’ sweater is the result of a long chain of decisions initiated in that very office. Priestly is a powerful character and, indeed, the film is about how outsiders negotiate such dragons and their enormous egos.
Pic: Fashion priestess Michèle Lamy
