As a movie buff and keen observer of high fashion and brand DNA, I found that The Devil Wears Prada (2006) enables me to have a double lens – one is a film lover, the other is someone fascinated by how high fashion relates to social stratification. Now, with Part Two arriving in 2026. I wonder if I have missed anything in twenty years? Why Prada? Who wears it, and why? These questions take me back to a time when I nearly crossed the country to study the very answer.

Often, I can’t differentiate fantasy from reality while watching a movie. But the cast is ultimately important for my choice of a film. I have always found myself obsessing over the costumes in a film, and look to the end to spot the designer’s name. Revisiting the original, I was mesmerised all over again by Meryl Streep. But this time, I found myself equally captivated by how the wardrobe tells the story. Anne Hathaway feels naturally woven into the high fashion setting, while Stanley Tucci serves as the indispensable glue of the fictional Runway magazine – the gatekeeper who translates Miranda’s brutal vision into tangible style. I have a soft spot for Tucci dating back to his days in the famous TV courtroom drama Murder One.

If PART ONE is a fun, fashion-forward piece to watch, ‘Prada ‘- the title itself stands as the torchlight. Why Prada? I wonder: Was it simply because of the box office success, or is there something deeper? A fact known to too few is that during the mid-1980s to early 1990s, the US textile and apparel industry played a significant role in the national economy. Soon after, manufacturers started to shift out. 1985, on the Billboard charts, Bruce Springsteen’s songs deeply lamented the closing of cotton mills and factories. I still remember listening to his ‘My Hometown’ in my room, feeling the weight of his lyrics about communities coming undone. In our classroom discussion, we debated quota restriction/delima, labelling requirements, and place-of-origin laws – could a simple Made-In-USA label save a job?

Amid this shifting landscape, many European brands found a safe landing in the US retail market. Yet their price tags placed them far beyond most people’s reach. Through the power of magazines and the theatre of window displays, Americans began to see high fashion not just as clothing, but as a market of social stratification. Prada opened its first boutique in New York during those years. Its iconic visual identity is the ‘Black luxurious nylon‘.’ The Prada bag, with a tightly woven, lightweight material, the triangle plaque repeated beyond the logo on bags and accessories, mirror-polished metal hardware, a horizontal red strip carrying the PRADA name, and the austere black nylon, became a Prada signature.

Then, in 2001, its flagship was in the Broadway Epic Centre – a store not just a shop in a strategic location; its revolutionary Prada Nylon bag and accessories became the major fashion statement, a statement that drew massive media coverage from the likes of Vogue, Seventeen and The New York Times. The 2006 release of The Devil Wears Prada coincided with the brand’s 10th anniversary as a rich and famous name in New York. As the old song and song goes – if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. And make it, they did. Small Prada boutiques began appearing inside Neiman Marcus stores in California. By 2008, a full flagship opened in San Francisco’s Union Square. The European luxury house had planted its flag firmly on both coasts.

To me, high fashion and luxurious merchandise are not just about price tags. But by finding Prada, the brand had entered the consciousness of the aspirational shopper – the one who might not buy today, but who would remember the label. It was the talk of American retailing. Perhaps that’s why the sequel feels timely. It’s not nostalgia. It’s a fantasy. But the world of ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ satirised in 2006 has now become people’s daily reality. The high-fashion price tags still create distance, and social stratification remains visible through what people wear- and what they cannot. Yet even as we stand before the window display, there is no price tag that can touch – something that never fades, never shifts with the seasons.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” James1:17