Leslie Fremar is the ‘real’ Emily from The Devil Wears Prada
She is not happy with the book – and guess three times where she worked after Vogue
How wonderfully fresh is the wind that Chloe Malle, the woman who replaced Anna Wintour as editor-in-chief of Vogue US, lets blow through the offices of Vogue. She is the one who thought it would be really fun if Anna Wintour and Miranda Priestly appeared together on the cover of Vogue and also the one who, masterfully, came up with the idea to create a special called Dogue, featuring all sorts of famous dogs and their owners.
Podcast with former assistants of Anna Wintour
Anyway, Chloe Malle organized a podcast on the occasion of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and invited all former assistants of Anna Wintour . Lauren Weisberger, the author of the book The Devil Wears Prada, declined this honor but did write a piece for this edition of Vogue about how the book came to be and how it continues to influence her life.
Leslie Fremar: the real Emily
Anyway, leave it to Chloe Malle to get things done in life. She also managed, after all these years, to bring the real Emily forward. And that is… rapapa: Leslie Fremar. She was the one who occasionally forbade Lauren, the ‘real’ Andrea, from going to the bathroom because the assistants“ desk always had to be manned. And she was the one who said that eating at your desk is a no-go. She also spoke the words: ”A million girls would kill for this job.”
View this post on Instagram
From Vogue to Prada
Just like the Emily from part 2 of The Devil Wears Prada, Leslie got a job at a fashion house after her position as Anna Wintour's assistant. Emily at Dior, this Leslie at – oh, how fate sometimes is better than you could have dreamed – Prada. There she became the in-house director of celebrity relations and dressed Charlize Theron, Julianne Moore, Nicola Peltz, Léa Seydoux, and even Kamala Harris when she appeared on the cover of Vogue. “I have been doing this work for over twenty years and have styled many international covers, but until that moment never one of the American Vogue,” she says. “It felt like the circle was complete. It is probably one of my proudest moments ever.”
Why she is not happy with the book
Happy with Lauren Weisberger's book she was and still is not. When she read the pre-publication, she realized: “I am in it.”
There is no question of a sugary Wiedergutmachung like with Emily and Andrea in part 2. “We haven't spoken since. And if I were to speak to her, I wouldn't have anything to say, because there is nothing to say.”
The impact of The Devil Wears Prada
What she does say is that for her too, the Vogue editorial office was an intimidating workplace with strict rules. But with the difference that she perhaps fit in a bit better than Lauren. What I find interesting is that Lauren, in the article she wrote for this Vogue, also admits that she had no idea while writing her novel that it would have such an impact for such a long time. She did not write the book with a preconceived idea. It was an essay for a workshop that turned into this bestseller. “If I had written the book now, I would have had more empathy for the other assistants and the executives. I wouldn't necessarily have been milder, but it would have been a more layered book.”
Why we still love this story so much
I, and you surely with me, am anyway glad that the book has come out in this form. It has produced two delightful films with a lot of self-mockery, something that fashion people, just like shoes and bags, can never get enough of, if you ask me.
Source: Vogue US
