One of the best things Anna Wintour ever did for her image and legacy was completely embrace the “Nuclear Wintour” label and openly adore Meryl Streep’s barely-fictional version of her in The Devil Wears Prada. Wintour’s delight with Meryl’s portrayal of Miranda Priestly was a masterstroke of PR and probably quite genuine on Wintour’s part – I mean, I would imagine most women would love it if Meryl played a version of them in a successful film. Wintour really embraced Meryl, embraced Miranda Priestly and embraced the Devil/Prada world. And now Meryl and Anna are on the cover of Vogue, ahead of the release of the Prada sequel. It’s a great cover shot too! You can read the full Vogue story here. Some highlights:
Wintour on how women are meant to communicate power: “I don’t think wearing a power suit to the office is in any way necessary. Think about the women that one admires: Mrs. Obama comes to mind. Whether she’s wearing J.Crew or Duro Olowu or Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel, she always looks like herself. I’m full of admiration for New York City’s new first lady because she looks so cool and wears a lot of vintage—young and modern and also entirely herself. To be fair, Melania Trump also always looks like herself when she dresses.”
Meryl on how to dress to communicate power: “I have so many thoughts about this. I think the most…powerful message that our current first lady sent was in the coat that said “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” when she was going to see migrant children who were incarcerated. All dress is about expressing yourself, but we’re also subject to larger historical and political sweeps of expectation. I’m stunned at how women in power have to have bare arms on television while men are covered in shirts and ties or a suit. There’s an apology built into women. They have to show their smallness. It’s compensatory: The advancements of women in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of this one have been destabilizing. It’s as if women have to say, “I’m little. I can’t walk in these shoes. I can’t run. I’m bare, not threatening.”
Meryl on why she wanted to come back to Miranda: “I was interested in the business part of it, that thing of carrying the weight of many, many people’s jobs, running a big organization, keeping it going somehow. With this one, I thought, Well, where are they going to go? Now that everything’s disintegrating, now that these institutions are being undermined or exploded in a way that who knows what is happening in the world right now—I wondered what they were going to do. And I do think they’ve located something true about the business now.
Wintour on why she liked the first film: “What I liked about the first film is that it showed the world what a huge business fashion is. It’s a true economic force globally, and the first film acknowledged that. So much has changed. But I like to think we’re evolving rather than disintegrating. We are still here. We’re all doing our jobs—in different ways and across multiple platforms instead of just one, but how wonderful is that? We’re reaching far more people.
Wintour on when she heard about the sequel: “When I heard rumors that this new film might be happening, I called Meryl to ask if it was true. I knew she would tell me if it was going to be all right. She hadn’t yet read the script, so she said she’d call me back. And that’s what she did. She read the script. She called me back and said, “Anna, I think it’s going to be all right.” She told me very little about what happens in the film, but I trusted her implicitly.
Wintour on being played by Meryl: “First of all, I’d like to say it’s such an honor to be played by Meryl, however distant Miranda is from myself. Who wouldn’t think that that wasn’t the most extraordinary gift? I like my age. I feel as alive, excited, and aware as ever, and I like to learn from my children and from all my teams around the world. It’s always exciting. And I think with experience, you have a sense of balance and proportion, and you know that life is not perfect and that things will go wrong and you’re just going to give it your best shot. But if it doesn’t work, you have to move on. I feel age is actually an advantage.
It’s a lovefest but it doesn’t feel fake or ass-kissy. Meryl and Anna are the same age and they genuinely admire each other and like each other. It’s nice. Refreshing, even. The interview was conducted by Greta Gerwig, who was the ass-kissy one, but Anna and Meryl handled that part of it well. Anyway… Anna approves of The Devil Wears Prada 2, go out and see it!
Cover & Instagram courtesy of Vogue.