Inside the Making of Vogue’s May Cover Story ~ Fashion & Style

I remember attending the New York premiere of The Devil Wears Prada with my mother. I wore my prom dress—a sage-green beaded ’20s shift from the Paris flea market—and we sat behind Anna (in…Prada) and her daughter, Bee.

Years later, when the team at Vogue learned about the forthcoming sequel, we all felt strongly that Disney shouldn’t be allowed to have all the fun. The Devil Wears Prada 2 conveniently hits theaters the weekend before the Met Gala, so if we wanted a cover tied to the film, it would need to be May’s. But who to ask? Should it be Meryl? Or what if we asked both “Mirandas”—Anna and Meryl?

With a little persuading, that’s just where we landed: May’s cover story sees Meryl and Anna photographed by Annie Leibovitz and interviewed by Greta Gerwig (Meryl’s very good idea!). Topic A in their conversation was The Devil Wears Prada 2. What did Anna do when she heard it was happening? (Answer: She called Meryl.) Meryl revealed she would never actually want Anna’s job (“I would dread the shoes”). Nor could Anna imagine doing Meryl’s (“There’s no way”). I was there to keep things on track but really I just enjoyed myself.

Annie photographed her fellow septuagenarians (she, Anna, and Meryl are all 76—as is Miuccia Prada!) at a studio in Red Hook under the darkest cloak of secrecy. Anna treated our cover like the Pentagon Papers, even shushing The Gilded Age star Louisa Jacobson—Meryl’s youngest daughter—when Louisa happily brought the whole thing up front row at Calvin Klein. With sittings editor Grace Coddington, Virginia Smith did store pulls at Dries van Noten and Prada and traveled with the clothes to set, loading and unloading the trunks herself. Also read into the plan? Anna’s assistants, Emily and Caroline… fitting, considering the subject at hand. That’s all!