Leslie Fremar, the celebrity stylist who inspired Emily Blunt's sarcastic and workaholic character in The Devil Wears Prada and its upcoming sequel, has publicly identified herself for the first time. Known throughout Hollywood for her star-studded clientele, Fremar confirmed that she served as the model for the antagonistic senior assistant to Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly during an interview on Vogue's The Run-Through podcast.
"I know I am. I am Emily," Fremar, a former Vogue employee, told editor-in-chief Chloe Malle. Since her days as Anna Wintour's first assistant, Fremar has built a high-profile career, working with clients like Julianne Moore, Charlize Theron, and Demi Moore. In 2022, she worked as Nicola Peltz's bridal stylist, helping secure the custom Valentino gown that sparked widespread debate after Peltz's wedding to Brooklyn Beckham. Fremar described the dress as the most beautiful she had ever seen.
The Devil Wears Prada Origins
The film was adapted from Lauren Weisberger's bestselling 2003 novel, based on her eight-month stint as a junior assistant at Vogue. The fictional Runway magazine mirrors the real-life Vogue. In the movie, Blunt's Emily Charlton delivers the iconic line: "A million girls would kill for this job." Fremar confirmed she said those exact words to Weisberger. "That was definitely my line, because I actually really believed that, and I knew that she didn't necessarily want to be there," Fremar explained.
Fremar described Weisberger as uninterested in fashion, adding, "I probably was not very nice, and I probably was high-strung because I felt like I was having to do her job as well. So for me, that was really frustrating. I think she was probably just sitting there writing a book and not necessarily taking the job as seriously as I did."
Fallout and Reflections
Fremar told Malle that the book "felt like a betrayal" when it first came out, and she never spoke to Weisberger again after leaving Vogue. Weisberger has not responded to requests for comment but wrote a Vogue article published Tuesday about her life after the novel. "It wasn't an attempt to take anyone down or exact some sort of revenge," Weisberger wrote. "I was just writing something that felt true to my experience as an assistant in very close proximity to a powerful woman—one who filled me with abject terror—before I had the distance or the maturity or the sense of self-preservation to round off the edges."
The Devil Wears Prada 2 hits theaters May 1.
