Costume Designer Molly Rogers Breaks Down The Devil Wears Prada 2's Biggest Fashion Moments

22:01Molly Rogers:Well, like I said earlier, the DNA for the first film is so strong. You know, a woman that, a character that Meryl and Pat created, we weren't shooting a documentary on Anna, you know. It's true, they needed to create a character that didn't exist appearance-wise and other reasons. But, you know, it was obvious that a powerful woman like that would have a very strong silhouette. She would need a lot of frills or bows and whistles. And with an actress like Meryl, you don't need to adorn them, you know. You just need to create a frame. So that was kind of my moda operandi. I followed that rule to just go very clean and powerful and confident and all those buzzwords for a woman of that stature.

23:03Molly Rogers:And Emily Blunt's character, because she's so sharp-witted, British, that rotten, biting humor that we all love so much, her costumes got to have the edge in the first movie. And we went to Century 21 all day long and scooped Vivian Westwood and Rick Owen and Margella and threw that all together for her. So she's the most fashion forward of the characters in the first movie. So I followed that through line. And Andrea Sachs was not as difficult in the first movie as she was to formulate an idea in the second one. She was a fish out of water in the first movie, the end, okay? Her transformation scene is the Chanel thigh-high boot, you know?

23:55Molly Rogers:That's when she, you know, she has access to this fabulous closet. But in the second one, she's a world traveler because she's a reporter. She's been exposed to a lot. She didn't totally reject the fashion world because she's a New Yorker and she's smart and she shops consignment stores. so she needed a real mix of believability and her transformation in the second one is because Nigel throws her stuff for loan from the closet so it also had to be something her character would wear just heightened a label let's say so she was a bit she was a process for sure speaking of the

24:38Alice Newbold:fashion cupboard it feels like a pivotal moment in the film again how did you deck it out there's been so much discussion online about that totem embroidered two-piece.

24:47Molly Rogers:Really? Well, that was in the script. You know, when things are referred to in the script, we try to follow that rule. And set decoration had a great deal to do. It's really not my job to deck a closet out. But of course, they come into our room and say, what do you recommend? Who should we ask? Who's generous? Where should we go? No open-toed shoes. You know, rules to kind of make the eye candy delicious. There's a friend of mine that has this little picnic basket that looks like a three-tiered wicker cake. I made sure you'll see that right in the middle of the table in one of the, it's adorable.

25:29Molly Rogers:Things like that that are really special that people have done their damnedest to get to us, but we haven't gotten on a character, I try to feature in the closet scene. A SCAD student, which is a fashion school in the U.S., their students submitted their graduation fashion lines, and I chose a dress to, and you see it right, it has feathers on it. There's a mannequin in the closet of something we were all in love with, a Gautier archive gown that had fishnet Eiffel Tower on it. No one wore it in the movie, so we made sure it got in the closet. Those kind of things I think are important, like they were on Sex and the City.

26:15Molly Rogers:When she went into her closet, she was creating a moment, a magazine moment, watched Carrie style herself. So those closet scenes I think are really looked forward to, and people examine them.

26:30Alice Newbold:They do. We love to here that fashion grads are included. That's fab.

26:33Molly Rogers:I like to support that kind of thing.

26:35Alice Newbold:Mower Streep said unbelievably that no brands wanted to be part of the first Devil Wears Prada. Now brands are obviously fighting to be part of the film. How did you manage that?

26:44Molly Rogers:Let's see. I would say in the first movie, there were three design houses that said we really can't participate. We don't know what the backlash would be. And for example, one totally understood, Mr. DeLaRenta, who was very, very close to Anna and had no idea how this was going to be portrayed or, you know, a loyal friend. So Pat just kept saying there's a lot of clothes in the world. And Mr. Valentino was the first designer who saw Merrill on holiday in Italy and said, whatever you need, I'm here to supply. So that was lovely. So there was participation, but not like the second one where this was we've got to edit there's so much coming into this room we've got to be able to take all of these it bags and figure out which one you would want to see 10

27:40Alice Newbold:years from now totally i mean there's been a lot of chat in our office about editors living in the same navy jumpers and jeans every day rather than the catalog of fashion that we see play out in the film. Were you worried about tapping into reality or did you just want to make it above all fun?

27:55Molly Rogers:That is such a good question. And I haven't gotten to really talk about this. In my mind, Andre Leon Talley and Karl Lagerfeld and numerous people wear a uniform. It's true. It's easy. You are recognizable as the icon that you are. And it's a uniform. It's great. So in the beginning, Early in the pre-production, I thought, I think Miranda should continue her pencil skirts and her short crop bolero jackets. It looked great on her in the first movie. So all of that was shopped, that kind of silhouette that's just clean and streamlined. Well, we stuck our toe in the first fitting with Meryl, and it was not working.

28:45Molly Rogers:even though it was modern designers it looked dated it wasn't fresh we weren't bringing anything new to the picture and this was my thought process which luckily for me Meryl is one of those people who wants to experiment does not mind trying on an idea until we find it you know she thought yeah let's give a pencil skirt, you know, a chance again. So it was just luck that there was a skirt and a blazer there, a sport coat, that had a totally different feel from everything we were trying on. And the minute she put the jacket on from this company, I saw her walk differently towards the mirror. Like it was a Miranda Priestly walk.

29:35Molly Rogers:And I knew, and she looked at me and she was like, we found it. It's this shoulder pad. It's this cuff that I can use in the scene to exclamation point, whatever I'm talking about. So that was lucky because for a minute there, I was like, are we going to find it?

29:52Alice Newbold:I mean, I read that you and Meryl collaborated a lot on her outfits for the film and she wanted a big say in the shoulder pads, which I think is maybe the best thing I've ever heard. How involved were the other actors in their wardrobe choices?

30:02Molly Rogers:everyone I tell you it's been my experience in my career and in fitting rooms if an actor is collaborative and there's a healthy change of ideas and no one feels afraid to offer an idea or no one feels timid to try it you make a better outfit and you make a better movie and everyone's like that. Meryl was so generous with her time, of which she has none, and she kept coming back again and again, just honing things, honing the length of something, or was it the right ear? You know, just giving us time, which is what you don't really have. And Annie Hathaway had many, many references that she wanted to share with my department.

30:57Molly Rogers:And, you know, when Annie did the first movie, they were all babies, Emily and Annie, and Annie had never worn a high heel. She had not worn high heels in the Princess Diaries, and she told us, I have never worn a shoe like this. She was an innocent. So she came to the second one, extremely knowledgeable, and it was helpful because you can make a fashion reference and she knows exactly what you're talking about. And Emily, I mean, she's a national treasure. She has such an instinct. I had really wanted to put this porcupine needle Rick Owen gown on her in one of the scenes where there's a birthday party.

31:42Molly Rogers:And she bravely tried it on and then we proceeded to scratch her to death getting it off of her. But it looked incredible. If I could have figured out a way to not make her bleed that gown would have been in the movie.

31:56Alice Newbold:The ultimate fashion is art.

31:59Molly Rogers:What is there if there's not pain?

32:05Alice Newbold:The Run-Through will be back in a moment.

32:16Alice Newbold:And we're back. after the cerulean blue jumper made a diy comeback such a nice nod to the first film in what context did you imagine andy wielding a pair of scissors to make it her own when i read

32:31Molly Rogers:the script and i closed the you know fade to black closed the last page i knew immediately if that sweater still existed it needed to come back into this movie like that is a no-brainer and I spoke to the director about it and it was the first phone call I made to the archives out at the studio. You know, stuff disappears. You know, that's the thing. You finish a movie, all of the clothes go to the lot where other productions can rent them. And it was only recently, you know, that people really started hanging on to things or studios did because they saw the value or the beloved aspect of a piece of clothing.

33:15Molly Rogers:So I called. There were three pieces in storage. They could not find Stanley's ring. Props had to recreate that. And they had the sweater, and it still had the corn chowder stain on it. So we just searched and searched and searched until we found one. Very close, very close. and they said we can fix the color in the editing room. And I said to Annie, you know, those pajamas that have holes at the elbows or you've just worn it to death and your friends won't let you wear it out in public, but you're not throwing it away. I said, we need to do something to this sweater. And so I went to get the tailor and while I was leaving the room, I heard snip, snip.

34:03Molly Rogers:Amazing. And she had grabbed scissors and chopped the sleeves off. And that's what I had wanted to do. But she had just done it without marking. It was so do-it-yourself. But I liked it because it continued this feminine menswear that I was trying to sneak into some of her clothing because it was a vest.

34:28Alice Newbold:I mean, we also love the amount of ties that are in the film, on Annie in particular. tell us about the Thai moments.

34:35Molly Rogers:I hope that there's not too many. You know, Pat's original inspiration way off in the corner of the room for Andrea Sachs was Annie Hall. And that is such a strong silhouette if you're old enough to know.

34:55Alice Newbold:Totally explains the waistcoats as well, right?

34:57Molly Rogers:Yeah. And I just, I love ties on women. And, you know, Andrea Sachs is a reporter, and there was this image that kept coming up in my mind of old newsrooms where the guys have the rolled up and the cigars. And I just kept thinking, we need to really explore vests and ties and suspenders and whatever we can to just hopefully not knock you over the head with it. But it's a part of her closet that's organic, she would go for.

35:33Alice Newbold:I like the nods to thrifting as well, like Andy's Margiela blazer, her assistant's Galliano dress. Why was that important to you?

35:39Molly Rogers:They felt it was important to add some dialogue, giving a little hint to that. She's well-traveled on her reporting gigs, and so she would stop in a city where she was doing a story and roam around and see what was at resale shops. And I think they wanted to not explain that, but just to give it a little throwaway line that she wasn't steeped in fashion and might not know what the current it bag was because she's a serious reporter. But she had a takeaway from the first experience at Runway.

36:18Alice Newbold:And can you tell me about Miranda's insane Dries tassel jacket? I like the little shoulder wiggle she gives to get her in the zone.

36:25Molly Rogers:I was furious that that was in the trailer. they give away so much of not locations necessarily but clothing it's like save it save it I was devastated when I saw that little tassel shake the tassel jacket was one of the first things I saw that I thought had a chance on Miranda Priestly in the second movie and I earmarked it and I showed it to Meryl and she responded immediately. She saw it as over the top and I saw it as a rarefied piece that an editor would have. Then it became apparent that there was an actual scene for it when she goes to meet this huge table of, let's say, corporate banker types, and they're all in their dark pinstripe, and she is there in what I consider to be the thigh-high Chanel boot, a tassel jacket.

37:28Molly Rogers:I mean, what a piece to have amongst all these pencil pushers. I thought it was a great place for it there, and I was amazed at what she did in the elevator. I love it. I hope people enjoy it. The studio was very, very nervous about that. As they were in the first movie, they were super nervous about her white hair.

37:56Alice Newbold:That's crazy.

37:57Molly Rogers:They had no fashion reference who we were nodding to, Polly Mellon or Carmen, that famous model. And so they see it and they don't understand it. So the tassel jacket was hotly debated. And I warned Meryl. And she was like, we'll see about that. So we tested it. We camera tested it. And she was like, nobody's, they're going to pry it from my dead fingers. It's got to be in the movie.

38:26Alice Newbold:Go on, Meryl.

38:27Molly Rogers:I wonder how the sales are for it. I mean, I bet they're thrilled. I love tassels. I love them.

38:34Alice Newbold:Did you have any say on the script? And thinking also about the rodeo bow tie moment in the meeting, did that come from you guys or was it a scriptwriter decision?

38:42Molly Rogers:You know, those conference room scenes in the movie are like a coffee shop in Sex and the City. A lot of storytelling needs to be told, you know? And that day we were shooting a scene and I was in love with these ties from a girl here in London. I thought they were so unique, and they were beautiful ones, green ones, small ones, you know, just beautifully embroidered and glittered and sparkled and rhinestone and just the perfect, if you don't want a pussy bow blouse, you could put that there. And I had pulled them for Mr. Tucci, and he was like, oh, you'll never get me in that. And I knew that it wasn't really his character to do that.

39:30Molly Rogers:It's a little too far flung. But I had them on my desk on a tray, and I knew they were calling the actors to a big conference scene. And I went to Meryl, and I said, I have a great tray if you want to pick anything up in the scene. And she did probably ad-lib that, and they're in. So at least I got them in. You got them in. And I got one of this designer's butterfly chokers in another scene. People will see it. It's at a dinner.

40:03Alice Newbold:There's so many fashion montage moments. Tell me how many outfits you pulled for scenes in which Andy walks across the road with a spring in her step, a heel boot on.

40:12Molly Rogers:Honestly, montages, as much as I love them, they create chaos, despair, depression in my department. You want the very best. It's less than a second, some of those flashes, and you need something strong. I was sitting at the Fendi show in Milan, and they had a lot of blue. I knew something from that show had to happen in one of these montages. It was just so striking. Annie wears a Fendi spring look in one of them very, very fast. But the other problem, although I love them, they're not on the shooting schedule usually. It's always at the bottom of the call sheet saying, if time permits. So you're like at the starting gate of a horse race.

41:08Molly Rogers:You don't know if it's going to happen today. You may be waiting on a shoe from Chanel that may not be there the day that you— you kind of style it on the fly. You have these massive amounts of clothes for each of the characters, and then they're like, we're going to have time today. We're going to have enough sunlight or this is perfect. We're going to use a corner of that restaurant. And you just art direct it on the fly and you pin it or glue it on them because it's so fast you don't have to tailor it. But everything, when I art direct scenes like that, I always go off of what Meryl's where she determines what color or print someone else is going to be in.

41:48Alice Newbold:Do the big party and fashion show moments give your team similar PTSD? What does it take to pull that many extras costumes together?

41:55Molly Rogers:No, that you usually have time to prep. It's not on the fly, you know. You, of course, have the generosity of everyone in the fashion world. And you usually know ahead of time what cameos are coming in. And that is usually an organized confusion. Yeah, it's fun.

42:16Alice Newbold:The question we all want to know, did anyone steal anything from set? Was it Stanley Tucci?

42:21Molly Rogers:I don't think they would admit to it, but I don't think so. I don't think, I don't remember. Meryl asked for something as she was leaving. I don't remember what it was. Annie, Emily, no, they didn't take anything. There was something I wanted really bad, and I forgot that I wanted it, and now it's in the nether regions of Italy somewhere. What was it? I am in love with the jeweled, encrusted tops of Mary McFadden gowns. And I like to hack off the bottom half and wear the top half, make it into like a jean jacket. And I had found one on the Upper East Side that was actually a proper jacket. And it was stunning.

43:08And I forgot that I wanted it.

43:11Molly Rogers:and it stayed in Italy and is in some storage, you know.

43:15Alice Newbold:It's hopefully making its way back to you after this.

43:17Molly Rogers:I hope so.

43:18Alice Newbold:Is there a piece of clothing that you wish could have made it into the film, but you couldn't get in?

43:22Molly Rogers:I hate you for asking that. One of my favorite outfits did not make it into the movie. Tell us about it. It broke my heart, and they warned me before I went to see a cut of the movie. They were like, okay, sit down. Don't hurt us. this did not make the movie but when that happens and it does to every department you follow you kill your darlings is the saying right it happens for a reason and it the sequence that this particular garment was in was on Emily Blunt and it made the movie too long and it was the opening sequence of the movie and it just to make sense it went on too long and who wants the slow start to that movie, you know.

44:10Molly Rogers:It was intercut with Miranda and Nigel on the red carpet in her red. And this was custom made by J.W. Anderson for Dior. He had just stepped foot into that door. And because we were shooting a big scene at the Dior flagship store in New York on 57th Street, we got access to Jonathan and his team. And I needed a gown for her. And I wasn't really concerned. I knew that he had just landed there and it would be his fresh take and maybe what he was thinking about for his first show. So that was really exciting and it was super top secret when we would talk to that team. But I was concerned because sometimes when I think of Dior, I think of Charlotte and Bows.

45:06Molly Rogers:But then when I dug a little deeper, I think of harnesses, I think of braes, and it's Emily's Lane. So he just carried that through with this gown that was black satin and lace, and it moved insane, and with her red hair. and I had dressed her two assistants on either side of her in these Richard Quinn feather balls kind of, black balls. They looked like three cockroaches running through a New York hallway. The crew was going wild for these outfits, so I knew if the crew who've seen everything react, it's a keeper and a good one. so yeah that'll be on some show where it's like what didn't make it in before we let you go can

46:01Alice Newbold:you share any other nice anecdotes in the many many many fittings you've been in i will say

46:07Molly Rogers:that meryl streep is the most generous person i have ever worked with my whole department we worship her i don't know if that's said enough in other costume departments about her and Sarah Jessica Parker is a rare bird. She will try on everything until her elbows are raw from pulling stuff over her head. She is a curious person. Other actresses, some of them go, oh, that color, it never works on me or that's not going to look good on my ass. She will try it on, whether it's flammable, no matter where it's from, she wants to know. She wants to know that she eliminated it for a reason because it was brought into the room for a reason by someone.

46:56Molly Rogers:Someone saw something in it and they wanted to show it to her and present it to her. That is abnormal. Abnormally wonderful.

47:05Alice Newbold:How was it starting the new gen fashion assistants in the film like Simone Ashley and Caleb Heron? Did you have a lot of fun?

47:12Molly Rogers:I did. Simone was also a process, which it, you know, you just don't walk in the room and slide something on and everybody goes, oh, you're a genius. We found it. She's young. She's beautiful. My concern is that she would most likely always be behind Miranda's shoulder in a scene. I had thought without having seen her, I had thought that we needed to do her very what I consider to be a vogue girl. posh, Carolyn Bissette Kennedy. Very, I'm in the row, I'm in this, I'm in that. It's a blank canvas. I can be anything, but it's moneyed. I tried that on her. She was written to be in all Tom Brown, and I was like, don't do that.

47:59Molly Rogers:You're going to be sorry in 10 years. It's wonderful, but we need to be able, we need the liberty to mix things and give characters layers and depth. So I went back to pieces of Tom Brown and younger, younger things. And there's a Monse dress, I think, that I found out that Taylor Swift had worn. But yeah, it was a process with her. But new cast members are great. You get to explore what's happening now, especially Annie's assistant, Helen. I think her name is Jen in the movie. She's cute. She is the smart one, just like Annie was. It's like she's there for a great purpose, and we just love doing her in vintage.

48:47Alice Newbold:And lastly, we have to talk about the show-stopping Pierre Paolo red look that Meryl wears.

48:52Molly Rogers:I cannot believe it turned out to be them. It was just so organic and just was supposed to be. When we found out There was a runway gala at the beginning of the movie. The first words out of Meryl and I's mouth when we had lunch was, there is no other color. The devil comes back in red. Okay, don't even think about something else. Although we did try on tons of things. But it was always going to be red. On her mood board, some assistants had placed a lot of photos. and there was an archival Balenciaga dress or gown and it had a feather hat and the neck of it just looked like the most incredible frame for a white shocking hairdo.

49:41Molly Rogers:And so we called them and he was also just landed from Valentino, just landed, just like JW. And we just implored them get up to running, we need you. And they flew over twice to New York and fit her. She is the one that had the idea to make one sleeve long and the other sleeve not, which is that little twist that a refined fashion person would find something to do of their own to make it personal. And that color, the swatches they sent, I mean, the reds, oh my gosh. She looks phenomenal. Beautiful. I loved it. And she wanted something that was malleable. You know, she is greatly a contributor in, a welcome contributor in fittings.

50:39Alice Newbold:Well, Molly, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Thank you. I enjoyed it. Good.

50:48Alice Newbold:All right. That's it for the show. See you next week.

50:55Alice Newbold:The run-through is produced by Chelsea Daniel, Alex DePalma, and Alex John Burns, with help from Emily Elias. This episode is engineered by Pran Bandy and Luke Mosley and mixed by Pran Bandy.

51:14Molly Rogers:From PRX.