When it comes to Andy, she has parlayed her brief first stint at Runway into forging a breezily stylish wardrobe of slouchy blazers and white jeans, pleated skirts and shirts. She’s got canny with her shopping and makes a point of saying she has thrifted a Margiela jacket. As she ups her fashion game, it all goes a bit more Sex and the City in its theatricality, via the aforementioned ties and a chainmail Rabanne dress chosen by Anne Hathaway herself. Overall, the costumes strike a good balance between realism and an amped-up, campy glamour many viewers expect from the genre. Let’s call it a fash-com.
Rogers aimed for a timeless look rather than an exact snapshot of 2026, but adds that over 20 years “the most revolutionary comparison . . . was how you procure things and product placement. Brands just wanted to be involved in this project. In the first film Pat and I were up on a ladder in New Jersey ourselves — no assistants — looking at Donna Karan archives. If I tell a kid that works in my office, go to some warehouse and get on a ladder, they’d be, ‘Why? I’ve got the digital look book here.’”
The film has partnered with Dior, Mercedes, Tiffany and L’Oreal among others, and Vogue is understandably milking its association, putting Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep on its cover together, and dedicating a recent Vogue Book Club to the original novel. The fashion industry is a bigger juggernaut than ever, but who holds the power is changing.
Some things don’t change, though. In the new film, one Runway editor asks of a corporate type intent on cost-cutting: “Does he even like fashion, he wears Drakkar Noir,” dismissing him as “dressing head to toe in performance synthetics”. Magazines may have passed their heyday, but the spicy put-downs endure.
Carola Long © 2026 The Financial Times.
This article was originally published in The Financial Times.