Content warning: This post discusses body image issues.
As you probably know, Meryl and Anne are reuniting as Miranda Priestly and Andrea Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada sequel, which comes out on May 1. And, last year, the cast shot scenes for the movie during the real Milan Fashion Week.
Recalling this experience as part of Anne’s new Harper’s Bazaar profile, Meryl said she was “struck by how not only beautiful and young — everyone seems young to me — but alarmingly thin the models were.”
Meryl said that Anne “clocked it too,” and took it upon herself to make some important calls.
“She made a beeline to the producers about it, securing promises that the models in the show that we were putting together for our film would not be so skeletal!” Meryl said, calling Anne a “stand-up girl.”
With the rise of weight-loss drugs and the current prevalence of thinness in Hollywood, I personally think this is a great decision. However, not everyone is on board with it. Allow me to explain.
On X, some fashion fans have suggested that excluding this type of runway model “will sanitise the realities of the fashion industry” rather than “satirise them,” as they did in the first movie, which, in case you forgot, is filled with references to diet culture and thinness.
However, others have highlighted that it’s important for powerful people in the industry, like Anne and Meryl, to push back against potentially toxic or damaging issues — no matter how normalized they may be.
“to everyone saying ‘why not depict it accurately’ or that anne is ‘policing thinness,’ no. she doesn’t want her movie to perpetuate or encourage dangerously thin/disordered bodies,” someone wrote in Anne’s defence. “i think you guys underestimate how serious eating disorders are and how they can kill you.”
I have to say I’m on board with the latter crew here. But LMK your thoughts in the comments. Here’s where you can find the full Harper’s Bazaar profile, too.