by 
If you think about memorable fashion in the 2006 film “The Devil Wears Prada,” your mind might go to a certain pair of Chanel boots, which not only stood out in the movie but also went on to have a second life as a meme.
So fans of the film might be wondering about the boots when they go to theaters to see the long-awaited sequel “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” out May 1, which reunites Anne Hathaway‘s aspiring journalist character Andy Sachs with Meryl Streep‘s demanding editor in chief character Miranda Priestly at the fictional fashion magazine Runway. But don’t expect to spot the boots.
Costume designer Molly Rogers told FN, “I wouldn’t touch those with a ten-foot pole. They belong encased, entombed, forever sacred in that scene. How are you ever going to bring them back again and it would beat that scene? That scene is just iconic.”
The scene in question comes when Andy, once a fashion neophyte, gets a makeover courtesy of Stanley Tucci’s character Nigel and the Runway fashion closet. And just as first assistant Emily Charlton, played by Emily Blunt, is insulting Andy to a coworker played by Gisele Bündchen, Andy struts in wearing head-to-toe Chanel — including a pair of fall 2005 stiletto boots so tall they’re partially obscured by her miniskirt. Emily asks in shock, “Are you wearing the…?” to which Andy responds, “The Chanel boots? Yeah, I am” — an exchange now cemented in history.
The costume designer did have the option to access the shoes: “Chanel asked me, they had them, I believe, and they were like, ‘Do you think you need them?’ They were available, but no. Let’s just always remember it like a great dream.”
“I didn’t want to see them again,” Rogers said of the boots, though she added, “I didn’t have an attraction or emotional connection like I did the [cerulean] sweater.”
The boots were simply untouchable.
“Like Marilyn Monroe’s gown,” Rogers said. “Why would you ever wear it?”
The absence of the Chanel boots in the film is actually explained in the much-anticipated sequel. Revealing their fate in a conversation with Miranda’s current first assistant, Amari, played by Simone Ashley, Andy reminisces about her assistant days, sharing that she wore looks from the Chanel collection of the time, including the thigh-high boots. But she tells Amari she gave it away as they weren’t befitting of a newsroom.
Amari wonders to herself, “Who gives away Chanel?”
