In 2006, The Devil Wears Prada had one truth about the fashion industry: there is one Miranda Priestly, and everyone else orbits around her. One magazine, one set of taste-making rules, one center of gravity. You either made it to Runway or you didn't matter.
Twenty years later, the sequel opens with Emily Charlton once the assistant who made your life hell running a global luxury conglomerate. She and Miranda are now competing for the same advertising revenue, the same talent, the same cultural relevance. The power has split. The monoculture is gone.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens in Italy on April 29 and globally on May 1, 2026, with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci returning. Kenneth Branagh joins as Miranda's husband. The film is directed by David Frankel and written by Aline Brosh McKenna the same team as the original. The third and final trailer dropped on April 6, featuring the original song "Runway" by Lady Gaga and Doechii. And the press tour currently running through Seoul, Shanghai, New York (April 20) and London (April 24) has already become its own fashion event.
But here's what most coverage is missing: the costumes are not the story. The power structure is.
2006 vs 2026: How the Industry Map Changed
When the original film came out in 2006, the luxury industry operated with a logic that the film captured perfectly: concentration. A handful of editors-in-chief controlled what was fashionable. A handful of conglomerates LVMH, Kering, Richemont had already consolidated the major houses, but the cultural power still radiated from one source at a time. Anna Wintour. Vogue. Paris.
The sequel's premise maps exactly onto what happened next. According to the film, Emily Charlton has built her own media and luxury empire described in the trailer as a competitor to Runway itself. Miranda, nearing retirement, fights to keep control of a magazine facing the same existential pressure every print title has faced since 2015: declining advertising, digital disruption, generational audience shift.
This is not a fictional premise. It is the actual biography of the luxury media industry between 2006 and 2026.
What changed in 20 years:
- Print advertising revenue in luxury fashion titles fell by over 60% between 2010 and 2025
- The number of global luxury conglomerates with revenues above €10 billion grew from three to six
- Brand power shifted from editors to creative directors — and then, partially, to algorithms
- The UHNWI consumer base expanded from a Western-dominated group to a genuinely multipolar one: Asia-Pacific now represents 45%+ of luxury revenues globally
- Meryl Streep in Seoul for the press tour is not a coincidence. It is the geographic reality of where luxury money lives in 2026
The Press Tour as a Fashion Show: Every Verified Look
The press tour for The Devil Wears Prada 2 has functioned as a runway in itself confirming which brands are at the center of luxury's cultural conversation in 2026. All looks below are verified from primary sources.
Mexico City — March 30, 2026
- Meryl Streep: custom red Dolce & Gabbana suit, satin bow, custom Olympia Le-Tan book-shaped clutch
- Anne Hathaway: sequined Stella McCartney mini dress, black boots
Tokyo — April 6, 2026
- Meryl Streep: red Chanel two-piece fringed set
- Anne Hathaway: strapless Valentino dress
Seoul — April 8, 2026
- Meryl Streep (day): all-red custom Prada suit
- Meryl Streep (evening): all-black custom Celine suit with matching sunglasses
- Anne Hathaway (day): off-shoulder top with black pants, Vaquera
- Anne Hathaway (evening): red Balenciaga dress with billowing bomber jacket top
The pattern: Streep rotates between the three most powerful Italian houses Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Celine all in red or black, no exceptions. Hathaway uses the tour to signal range: McCartney, Valentino, Balenciaga, Vaquera. Two different readings of luxury, two different strategies. Exactly like the characters they play.
The Film's Fashion: Brunello Cucinelli, Schiaparelli and the New Luxury Grammar
The costumes inside the film tell a different story from the press tour. Costume designer Sarah Edwards who also worked on the original has built a wardrobe that maps the fragmentation of luxury taste in 2026.
The film features Schiaparelli (spring 2026 collection), Brunello Cucinelli, Toteme, Fendi, Gabriela Hearst, archival Jean Paul Gaultier couture, and pieces from John Galliano's namesake line.
NSS Magazine identified this accurately: the film's fashion aesthetic represents "multipolar luxury" no single house dominates the visual language. In 2006, the film was a love letter to a specific moment in French fashion power. In 2026, the wardrobe reflects a world where Italian quiet luxury (Cucinelli, Toteme), French surrealism (Schiaparelli), archival couture (Galliano) and contemporary minimalism coexist without hierarchy.
Prada the name in the title plays a deliberately limited role. Andy wears Prada Modellerie spiked leather pumps ($1,450). The house appears as a reference, not as a dominant force. This is intentional. In 2026, Prada the brand doesn't need to dominate a film to be culturally relevant. The title alone is a logo that transcends the product.
The Soundtrack: Lady Gaga, Doechii and the Music-Fashion Convergence
The original film's soundtrack featuring Alanis Morissette, Madonna, KT Tunstall was a snapshot of mid-2000s pop culture. The 2026 sequel does something more precise: it commissions an original song.
"Runway" by Lady Gaga and Doechii is the centerpiece of the final trailer. The collaboration is deliberate: Lady Gaga has been a fashion industry figure for 20 years, from Alexander McQueen to Versace to her own Born This Way Foundation aesthetic. Doechii is the most critically relevant rapper of 2025-2026, with a Grammys performance that crossed into fashion discourse. Together they signal that the film is not nostalgia it is positioned at the intersection of fashion, music and culture in 2026.
The musical adaptation, separately, is running at the Dominion Theatre in London until October 17, 2026, with songs by Elton John and Vanessa Williams as Miranda Priestly. Two versions of the same cultural property running simultaneously in different formats film and stage in the same year. This is not a coincidence: it is the sign of a franchise that understands how to maximize cultural saturation across different audience segments.
What the Film Gets Right About Luxury in 2026
The plot Miranda fighting to keep Runway alive while Emily builds a competing empire is more accurate as an industry portrait than most business journalism.
Print vs digital: The film's conflict mirrors the actual existential debate that Condé Nast, Hearst and their European equivalents have been navigating since 2015. Vogue has lost print advertising revenue consistently. The power of the magazine as taste-making institution has been partially transferred to social media, brand-funded editorial content and the creative director as public figure. Miranda Priestly fighting to keep her magazine relevant is Anna Wintour, Franca Sozzani, Carine Roitfeld every editor-in-chief who built authority in print and has had to renegotiate that authority in the digital era.
The conglomerate as the new Miranda: Emily doesn't build a magazine. She builds a conglomerate. This is the structural truth of luxury in 2026: the concentrated power that used to reside in individual cultural figures now resides in corporate structures. LVMH has 75 brands. Kering has 14. The creative director is powerful but only within the architecture that the conglomerate allows.
Seoul as the third premiere city: The film's press tour going to Seoul before New York is not a marketing decision. It is a geographic statement: the luxury consumer of 2026 is Korean, Chinese, Southeast Asian. The Miranda Priestly of 2006 was definitionally Western. The luxury system of 2026 is not.
