We’ve been covering the global appeal of The Devil Wears Prada for a couple of weeks now as Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway have been on the press tour for the sequel. As I wrote on Tuesday, with three weeks to go before the film opens, box office tracking has been very optimistic, updated projections that came out yesterday gave it a $65 million for the domestic opening weekend, but it’s obvious they’re going for a global haul here. Which explains why the movie’s two leads have put so much energy into the East Asian audience before returning west.

After stops in Japan and Korea, Meryl and Anne are in Shanghai today and just as we saw in Tokyo and Seoul, the vibes were excellent. There’s no doubt they’re probably tired, from all the travel and so much press, it can wear down the internal battery. At the same time, it really does also seem like they’re having so much fun together, and are rather touched by the reception they’ve received overseas. Here they are, dancing again to Vogue.

And here’s Annie getting emotional seeing how many people showed up and how they were reacting.

Just the design of the venue alone was spectacular. My people are extra – and they turned it all the way up with how they set up the steps and the floral arrangements and the giant stiletto. Understandable that Annie was overwhelmed by the scale of this production.

Meryl is in Saint Laurent, she looks divine and Annie, well, Annie’s a dream. I love this dress, it’s so frothy and light, so playful, so whimsical, and so…Chinese. In many ways.

The designer is Chinese, as Annie explains:

Anne Hathaway always does her homework. She pronounced Susan Fang, the designer, correctly – not “fang” as in rhymes with “hang” but “fang” as in rhymes with “long”. It’s a dress that also 100% appeals to Chinese taste. In Korea, for example, on red carpets and award shows, celebrities tend to dress in neutrals, without too much flair. The Chinese celebrities, however, go all the f-ck out. There are never too many feathers and bows and sequins and ruffles and lace and trains. A dress like this plays well in China, not just because of who the designer is but also the design itself.

And then there’s always being in China when “Made in China 2025” or “Created in China” has been such a national preoccupation. Over here in the west, it used to be that you looked at a label on a piece of clothing, saw “made in China” and made an assumption about the quality – whatever that assumption was, the takeaway certainly wouldn’t have been an association with luxury or high craft.

But there’s been a new initiative that started about a decade ago in China, moving away from manufacturing focus to innovation, across all fields. In fashion, that means less emphasis on factory and warehouse mass production and more investment in originality. The Chinese public has also leaned into a “created in China” preference, with young people driving the “neo-Chinese fashion [movement that’s] sweeping through China” and supporting domestic labels created by and for Chinese people. We’ve seen huge success in athletic brands rivalling the major athletic companies from the west – to the point where giants like Adidas and Nike have had to reset their approach to the Chinese market, engaging with Chinese creatives on Chinese-based products specifically for the Chinese buyer. And given how Adidas’s Chinese collection last year popped off, it only strengthens the resolve to keep pursuing this strategy.

To go back to Anne Hathaway in her Susan Fang dress, promoting a movie that is a conversation about fashion, the fact that she intentionally wore a piece by a Chinese designer to meet the moment in Shanghai would definitely have hit harder to the local viewer, beyond how a western viewer would perceive it, which is just that she looks really good. Is everybody looking up Susan Fang now?

Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep attend the premiere of film "The Devil Wears Prada 2" on April 10, 2026 in Shanghai, China
Photo credits: Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep attend the premiere of film "The Devil Wears Prada 2" on April 10, 2026 in Shanghai, China

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