Friday, January 03, 2025
How I made the costumes for the West End hit The Devil Wears Prada — and why I don’t care about the criticism
The Standard: It’s tricky to design the costumes for a show that is modern dress and, on top of that, uses fashion as the backdrop of the story. There is a lot of pressure to “get it right” but what that means exactly is hard to define.
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When designing the costumes for the West End musical adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada the costume designer Gregg Barnes grappled with the immense pressure to “get it right”, but what exactly does it mean to “get it right”? Does it mean period accuracy, copying the movie? For Gregg it didn’t. Gregg made it his goal to make everything onstage look like something you’d want to wear, rather than sticking to documentary-style 2005 period accuracy. To maintain the authenticity Gregg used as many designer pieces as possible, thanks to enthusiasm from designer brands to donate to the production. When criticized about the female ensemble’s costumes looking like “faux Channel” Gregg responded that they were never told to be channel and many young women can’t afford the label. As Gregg shows sometimes to “get it right” is to honor what came before by making something unique and staying true to your vision despite outside criticism.
When I first heard that The Devil Wears Prada was being adapted into a musical, I was so excited. The plot of the movie, adapted from a book by the same name, is delightful and the characters are fascinating in the ways that they do, and don’t, change. I loved reading about the costume designer’s approach to the musical in this article, especially about their main concern being “the community of actors who wear the clothes.” It’s always vital to consider and work with how the actors will exist with a design, but I think especially with this show. So much of what makes the characters in this story who they are, especially the fashion editor Miranda Priestly, is how comfortable they are with themselves and who they are. Or at least how comfortable they appear to be to others. The brilliance of the movie and subsequently the musical is translating that to their clothes. Taking the actors’ comfort into consideration is not only a good thing to do, but also gives a head start to making sure the characters read to the audience as being comfortable in themselves.
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