The costume designer behind The devil wears Prada 2 distanced itself from one of the most talked about fashion moments in the film’s trailers, and the story behind how those Valentino Rockstud heels ended up on Miranda Priestly’s feet is quite a story.
Molly Rogers revealed to Vogueexplaining that the bold shoes adorned with red and gold studs that appeared in a widely discussed trailer were never her choice.
She had already traveled to Milan for filming when the decision was made without her.
“I had gone to Milan, where we were going to shoot a few scenes. I wasn’t there that day when they were shooting another scene, and they just put Meryl’s shoes on. I had chosen a different shoe,” she said.
What followed was a series of frantic phone calls.
“I got panicked phone calls from assistants saying the marketing team had decided they liked this other shoe, which I was very offended about at the time because I knew a marketing person didn’t know anything about Rockstuds, and I didn’t think it was appropriate for Miranda to wear Rockstuds.”
She added, with her characteristic dry humor: “From afar, I was sending pins into voodoo dolls.”
Rogers pointed out that costume decisions for a character as precisely defined as Miranda Priestly require a level of expertise that goes far beyond just liking a shoe.
“You could give most of us, especially me, a basket full of white blouses, and I could choose which one Miranda would wear, which one Emily would wear, and which one Annie would wear. There are shades, just like the two blue belts in the first movie.”
It was measured on the response the shoe received online.
“When I saw this hubbub about this shoe, I said to myself, I’m innocent. I’m happy if people like it because it’s a recall or whatever, but if you don’t like it, I understand that too.”
It turns out the Rockstud was a deliberate marketing placement.
The style debuted in Valentino’s fall 2010 collection and has since been updated by current creative director Alessandro Michele.
Valentino’s head of integrated marketing confirmed the strategic intent on LinkedIn, noting that the trailer generated hundreds of millions of views with the brand at its center.
Rogers also shared a heartwarming detail about Valentino’s connection to the franchise, noting that the founder himself, likely a reference to Valentino Garavani, who died in January, told Streep while she was vacationing in Italy that anything she needed, he would provide.
The devil wears Prada 2 opens May 1.
