The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, based on Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. The movie stars Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, and Emily Blunt. The story follows Andrea Sachs, a recent college grad, who takes a job as a junior assistant to Miranda Priestley, the demanding editor-in-chief at the fictional fashion magazine Runway.
The story of Andrea Sachs is highly reminiscent of the experiences of Lauren Weisberger, whose real-life boss was Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of American Vogue. Weisberger wrote the novel while working as Wintour's assistant until 1998. Similarly, in the movie, Miranda Priestly is partially based on Wintour. For example, both Wintour and Priestly have a cold, no-nonsense approach to their work, favouring a black outfit and often wearing big sunglasses. They also have a relationship with the photographers Karl Lagerfeld and Patrick Li at the end of the movie, which could be seen as a reference to the relationship between Wintour and world-famous photographers Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz.
Additionally, some of the plot points in the movie could reflect Weisberger's experiences while working with Wintour. For example, in the movie, Priestly's assistant Andrea is charged with scheduling and attending a number of events surrounding the showing of a new collection by a famous designer. Weisberger had a similar role while working at Vogue, and recounted in interviews a particularly hectic experience with accompanying Wintour to the premier of a Christian Dior couture show in Paris.
Overall, although it is unclear how much of The Devil Wears Prada is based directly on Weisberger's experiences, it is possible that Wintour granted Weisberger some insight into working in the fashion industry which she skilfully used in creating the persona of the intimidating Miranda Priestly.