The Devil Wears Prada 2 arrives as fashion film grapples with tech power

Twenty years after the original film, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has arrived to find a fashion and publishing industry transformed by technology and wealth concentration. According to The Guardian's film critics, the sequel retains the glossy aesthetic of its predecessor while updating its central conflict: the new villain is a tech oligarch seeking to buy his way into fashion's inner circle, a character that The Guardian's Louis Staples suggests may have been inspired by real-world tech billionaires attempting to reshape established industries.

The Guardian's review describes the film as a stylish but familiar retread that reunites the original team—including Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly—and recycles the original plot with updated trappings. The film's decision to make a tech entrepreneur the antagonist rather than a traditional fashion insider reflects broader anxieties about how digital disruption and venture capital have reshaped creative industries over the past two decades.

The sequel's focus on the intersection of technology and fashion speaks to real transformations in how the industry operates. Social media has democratised fashion criticism and trend-setting; e-commerce has disrupted traditional retail; and billionaires from outside the industry have increasingly sought to acquire or influence major fashion houses. The film's narrative choice to centre this conflict suggests that the fashion world itself recognises technology as its defining challenge.