The Devil Wears Prada Media Analysis - Movie Review Example

The Devil Wears Prada – Media Analysis The main character at the movie is Andrea ‘Andy’ Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway) a recent graduate who startsworking at the Runway Fashion Magazine, run by the powerful and sophisticated Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Andrea knows nothing about fashion and people at the magazine makes fun of her. Throughout the film, her sense of style changes and she becomes a true fashionista. But as everything comes with a price, her relationships with friends and boyfriend starts falling apart. At the end of the movie, Andy understands that life is made of hard choices and she needs to go after what she wants. This movie represents the fashion industry as a world full of narcissistic and shallow people. An example is the way that everyone at Runway Magazine starts treating Andy differently when she decides to dress “accordingly”. She became respected by Emily, the first Assistant, and only after the makeover that she started to get thinks right that Miranda asked her. The fact is that the movie emphasizes the change of her behavior on the fact that she gave in into the fashion world, but the truth is that she changed her perspective and decided to have a positive attitude towards the things she needed to do. To create this high fashion atmosphere, the use of costuming is indispensable. As Stutesman would argue, “[costume] must express something far beyond the outfit: the costume designer must use clothes to create basic movie elements” (Stutesman 20). If the right clothes were not used, then the movie would not make as much sense, or it would not make the same impact as it did when it first came out. The right costuming it is as much important as the right script or the even the characters. Stutesman adds that “the costume is an object, a literal building that the actor enters, “wears”, or inhabits in order to perfom” (21). It is possible to endorse that the use of costumes in movies is a key piece to create and support the story, to reinforce the connections visualized by the director, make visual references and showing the identity of the characters through fashion. The power relations in this movie, mostly played by Miranda’s character, are extremely dependable with the clothes she wore. “Power, class, and wealth are recognized by what is worn” (20). In other words, the narrative is extremely dependable of which type of clothing the characters use, why they use it and also how they use it. Miranda’s character express her female power also with verbal and nonverbal actions, for example the way she walks, the way she looks at people and so on. Fashion delineates and develops character through costume as in traditional novels and films, yet also in the meditational use of fashion and fashion brands to assume their own identity as a sign of their social importance (Peirson-Smith 184). Combining the use of specific costumes and the character’s actions, it was possible to create the fashion industry atmosphere and the power relations that the director wanted. The fashion industry is hugely important economically. It is worth over $1 trillion globally and ranked the second biggest worldwide economic activity for intensity of trade (Corner 71). No one is immune of fashion, because even the simplest piece of clothing from any store has in a way been influenced by the fashion industry, even if you don’t realize it. This is made clear when Andy makes fun of two almost identical belts and Miranda starts talking about the sweater Andy was wearing “that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff” (qtd. in Meares, “The Devil Wears Prada”). What we can infer from this is that people might think that caring for fashion can make you look like someone frivolous or even not trustworthy, but it is a serious business who creates a lot of jobs and has a huge impact in the world’s economy. Another huge topic shown in the movie is the female figure in power, in this case Miranda’s character. It is important to represent powerful women in executive positions in order to break the stereotype that women cannot handle pressure and power and that only men can hold this type of job. The influence by the media on women’s views of their own roles within society is pervasive and influential (Spiker 18). Empowered women in television and films plays a major role in shaping the idea that women are not fragile human beings and that they do not have to conform in being submissive of the male figure. Young girls growing up with this type of positive side of how a woman can be successful and powerful is crucial to break the patriarchal dominance we usually see in the media. Although the film show Miranda as this super powerful woman, Andy’s character is often confronted by her friends and family along the movie when she starts “becoming” one of the Runway girls, whom she used to judge. She is constantly listening that she has put her career over her relationships, which is something common in our society. Women are supposed to do what their parents want them to do, be available and supportive to their boyfriend’s wishes, and not be any different from their female friends (19). When a man is successful in his job he is not pressure about it, because in the patriarchal society the man is supposed to work and provide money to the family while the woman is expected to stay home and take care of it. In the end of the movie, Andy decides to leave Runway Magazine and goes back to her boyfriend saying that he was right about her putting her work in first place. Society tells the Andrea’s of the world that women really should not have too much power because if you do you will be portrayed as a Miranda. The Miranda’s of the world are labeled with negative names and a pay high personal price for their successful use of power (20). In other words, in order to be a successful woman, you have to give up your personal life. The truth is that it does not matter if you are a woman or a man, this can happen to anyone, it is not something entirely related to gender. In the end the movie stills shows how incredible it is to be a woman in charge, as they continue to focus in how Miranda is influential, as she is the one who gets Andy the job at the New York Times. It is possible to infer that the movie The Devil Wears Prada portraits the fashion industry as a big economy who moves a lot of money in the world’s economy, even though it seems to be a field full of narcissistic and shallow people. The movie also shows how women can be powerful and hold executive positions in important companies and how they are just as good as men when it comes to pressure and hard work. The costuming in the movie was critical to create the right narrative and give the right meaning to the plot. The importance of the costume designer in movies is just as important as the director, as it is the costume who gives meaning to the entire story, as it would be impossible to tell a story, in this case, about the fashion industry without properly addressing the characters with the right clothes. Works Cited The Devil Wears Prada. Directed by David Frankel, Fox 2000 Pictures, 2006. Peirson-Smith, Anne. “Redressing the Devil’s Wardrobe: Representing and Re-Reading the Darker Side of Fashion in Chick Lit Novels.” Fashion in Popular Culture, edited by Joseph H. Hancock, et al. Intellect, 2013, pp. 171-190 Corner, Frances. Why Fashion Matters. Thames & Hudson, 2014. Stutesman, Drake. Fashion in Film, edited by Adrienne Munich, Indiana University Press, 2011. Spiker, Julia. Gender and Power in the Devil Wears Prada. The University of Akron, 2012. Meares, Joel. “The Devil Wears Prada.” Columbia Journalism Review, 2011 Read More