Fans of "The Devil Wears Prada" might have never imagined Miranda Priestly stepping out of her sleek high heels at work, but alas, here we are. When the trailers for the film's sequel, which is out on May 1, started rolling out earlier this month, there was, as expected, a surge of commentary buzzing around the internet about the return of a beloved storyline that first graced our screens 20 years ago. Heck, even before anything was finalized, everyone had something to say based on all the street photos taken at the filming locations in New York City.
But once viewers were able to see the costumes in action, well, they had even more to say—and that was unfortunate for Miranda (played by Meryl Streep) and her Valentino Rockstud heels. In one of the trailers, there's a powerful shot of the Runway editor-in-chief's bold red and gold stud-embellished shoes, which then pans up to her entire ensemble. But the scene was never meant to pan out this way, according to costume designer Molly Rogers, who said in an episode of Vogue's "The Run-Through" podcast that she was "innocent" in making the polarizing decision.
"I'm gonna give you the real story," Rogers began. "I had gone forward to Milan, where we were gonna shoot some scenes. I wasn't there that day when they were shooting another scene, and they just popped the shoes on Meryl. I had chosen another shoe."
"I got panicked phone calls from assistants saying that the marketing team had decided that they liked this other shoe, which at the time, I took great offense to because I knew that a marketing person didn't know anything about a Rockstud, and I did not think it was appropriate for Miranda to wear a Rockstud," she continued.
"From afar, I was sending pins into voodoo dolls," she joked before explaining her point of expertise. "I was telling someone the other day, you could give most of us, especially me, a rack full of white blouses, and I could choose the one that Miranda would wear and the one that Emily would wear and the one that Annie would wear. There are nuances, just like the two blue belts in the first movie. We know the difference. When I saw that hubbub about that shoe, I was like, 'I'm innocent.' I'm glad if people like it because it's a callback or whatever, but if you don't like it, I understand that too."
The shoe is indeed nostalgic for fashionistas who would know that the style debuted in the Fall 2010 collection under past Valentino creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri. It was then recently updated by current creative director Alessandro Michele. But it was also an intentional marketing placement as written by Quoc-Anh Truong Cornette, head of integrated marketing at Valentino, according to WWD on LinkedIn.
"The teaser just dropped and is already going viral, hundreds of millions of views in only a few hours, with Valentino at the heart of this cultural moment. Incredible strategic work behind the scenes Aleix Llimona and Mafalda Lavisci!" read his post.
Rogers also explained that "Mr. Valentino" (likely in reference to Valentino Garavani, who died on Jan. 19) "was the first designer who saw Meryl on holiday in Italy and said, 'Whatever you need, I'm here to supply.'"
"The Devil Wears Prada" costumes from 2006 were designed by Patricia Field ("Sex and the City," "Emily in Paris"), whom Rogers had worked with prior. "I knew I was the best person for it—it really helps having that historical perspective," Rogers told Vogue about her participation in the sequel. "It felt like coming back to summer camp with people that you missed and wanted to see again."
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