The Devil Wears Prada 2 is one of the cultural phenomena of the moment. In Italian cinemas from April 29, 2026, the sequel to "The Devil Wears Prada" is the quintessential performance art form.
The first installment of the American film “The Devil Wears Prada” featured a very young Andy Sachs—in her early twenties and with a degree in Literature with a major in Journalism—looking for a “springboard” job: in 2006, Andy, played by American actress Anne Hathaway, joined the editorial staff of Runway as an intern working for a corporate boss with a strong, authoritarian leadership. “The boss” in question was Miranda Priestly—played by actress Meryl Streep—a wicked 56-year-old director with experience in the fashion industry. And in fashion, performance began with the way one dressed.
PERFORMANCE (…) REFERS TO THE RESIGNIFICATION OF THE PERFORMATIVE ACT , OR THE REPETITION OF THE LANGUAGE ACT AS A RECITATION OF A SELF DETERMINED BY OTHERS, AN ACT THAT TRANSFORMS INTO A NORMATIVE AND PRESCRIBED IDENTITY. (From “Glossary”, F. Chicchi and A. Simone, 2017)
The Performance Society: The Digital World and the Competition to "Resist"
(First paragraph) Twenty years later, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” becomes a cinematic work immersed in a 2026 characterized by the digital world and social media platforms bombarded with memes, GIFs, and reels, endlessly scrolling by millions of users. The content promoted on social media is also the result of the work of qualified personnel. But journalism—the great dream of Andy Sachs, now in his early forties—is in crisis. We discover that Andy's pursuit of success becomes—once again—difficult in a world based on competition.
CLASS STRUGGLE, EMPLOYMENT, THE OPPOSITION BETWEEN CAPITAL AND LABOR AUGMENTED SMILES OF PITY. SOME WORDS SEEMED MEANINGLESS BECAUSE THEY WERE NO LONGER USED. OTHERS ARRIVED THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE FOR EVALUATION OF ACTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS: " PERFORMANCE ," " COMPETITION ," "PROFIT." Annie Ernaux, The Years
Let's return to Andy/Anne. A former intern (twenty years ago), she's now a brilliant investigative journalist who—while receiving an award on stage in front of an audience of colleagues—is fired via text or WhatsApp with a brief notification appearing on her phone's black screen, due to staff cuts dictated by "corporate downsizing."
Is it time to reinvent your job , your profession/ performance ? Or simply the time to come face to face with a certain Miranda/Meryl? In fact, "a great future behind us" (quoting the title of a book by political scientist Giuliano da Empoli, written in 1996) is what will soon await Andrea Sachs (Andy), who will become the new Features Editor of Runway. Journalist Andy will be dealing with the image revitalization of the fashion magazine Runway, which—years later—now, in addition to the paper version, requires the support of digital and social media.
Andy with “expertise” (competence) at work and the renunciation of burnout syndrome
By now, Andy has the "nerves of performance ." She's a woman who never suffers from burnout . Or at least she handles stress very well, unlike many young people who are choosy—demanding and picky—due to the demands of the job market (and the pace of their bosses, of those who act like "bosses").
By now, Andy is a woman who has picked up the pieces of her apprenticeship at Runway and, without burnout (absence of a nervous breakdown), returns to Runway after 20 years (you'll find out how in the film). It seems that Andy is able to tolerate a work environment that appears toxic to the majority of Gen Z (those born between 1996 and 2012) , precisely because of the pace required and the way employees are treated. Gen Z has rebelled against the system. In 2006, Miranda threw her coat at interns, but in 2026, this behavior is no longer acceptable. "They complained to HR," we learn in the sequel.
Viewers of the film “The Devil Wears Prada 2” may notice the precariousness of private life in the identity of a career woman in journalism: Andy’s “at all costs” professional life leads her to the almost political choice (in correspondence with the demographic decline in several Western countries, including Italy) to freeze her eggs to postpone the opportunity to become a mother, possibly beyond her biological time.
Performance society, but also spectacle society
Performance in the world of work —as depicted in the film "The Devil Wears Prada 2"—comes at a very high price: work is like a mission toward self-improvement ( professional empowerment ), and the two female protagonists, Andy and Miranda, sacrifice their loved ones to achieve their goals. They are two female individuals in a society based on the neoliberal social and political model, and empowerment is the proposal to this same model, in which neither pauses nor downtime are allowed (F. Chicci and A. Simone, 2017).
However, some movie audiences —naively—might have envied the leading figures in fashion, luxury, and their constant presence in the spotlight (or near it) for their media and business influence. But everything comes at a price!
The audience is one of those elements that can be linked to the regime of visibility and performance , drawing on the society of the spectacle—analyzed by French philosopher Guy Debord in 1979—and the impulses offered by new technologies, according to Simoncini (2016). Passive audiences (watching fashion shows and scrolling through clothes on social media on devices like cell phones) perceive the illusion of consumption. But behind those illusions lies a grandiose organizational machine made up of people, starting with its leaders. Leaders to be envied, according to a superficial and passive observer. But extremely fragile in their private lives.
Performance at work today
It's towards the end of the film that we receive yet another revelation of the sacrifices imposed by the pursuit of one's professional identity "at all costs." Millennial Andy Sachs (representative of the generation born in the early 1980s and who "appeared" on the job market at the beginning of the new millennium, the 21st century) has acquired the "Runway identity" (editor's note), which fits perfectly with a mix of mottos like "my work is everything," "I love everything about my work, " or "my work is too important," belonging to and echoing both within herself and that of her boomer boss (born between 1945 and 1964), Miranda Priestly.
(…) THE MORE WORK IS INVESTED AND CHARACTERIZED BY EXPRESSIVE AND VOCATIONAL ELEMENTS, THE MORE THE NEED FOR TRAINING AND CONTINUOUS INNOVATION OF ONE'S PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND GROWS STRONGLY TO INCREASE THE PERFORMANCE LEVEL OF ONE'S ECONOMIC ACTION ( EMPOWERMENT ). F. Chicci and A. Simone, 2017
Two personalities and two lives have met again. This time, the "pact with the devil" (editor's note) hasn't been broken. Perhaps. And Gen Z will have to rewrite the way they behave and perform at work , perhaps with an ability to better balance their professional and private lives.
In conclusion, the film “The Devil Wears Prada 2” can be analyzed as a warning – on a sociological level – about the risk of performance , that is, a “formula to legitimize the spread of an idea of creativity based only on economic value and on an idea of communication without meaning, that is, incapable of depositing social meaning” (F. Chicchi and A. Simone, 2017).
Human resources still have power. Those who work and produce—including high-fashion clothes and newspaper articles—are shaped by social actors who manage personnel. HR management will have to reorient neoliberal capitalism and the neoliberal performance society. This is the challenge. And this cultural battle begins by redefining the boundaries between private and work life. Redefining the boundaries of performance . And social critique of the world of work in the West appeared precisely in an American film that blends comedy and drama: "The Devil Wears Prada 2."
References
- F. Chicchi and A. Simone, The performance company, Rome, Ediesse, 2017.
- G. from Empoli, A great future lies ahead. Young people and the Italian crisis., Venice, Marsilio, 1996.
- A. Ernaux, The Years, L'Orma, 2015.
- G. Debord, The society of the spectacle, Baldini&Castoldi, Milan (La societe du spectacle, Editions Gallimard, Paris, 1992).
- A. Simoncini, Entertainment. Old and new entertainment scenarios, in S. Cingari, A. Simoncini (ed.), Post-democratic lexicon, Perugia Foreigners University Press, Perugia, 2016
