BODY AND FASHION IN THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

Abstract

Questions central to the body encapsulate the idea of power that has been the fundamental ideological apparatus shaping the dominant, easily consumed cultural practices and their representations. Considering the associations attached to the body in the course of history, it can be construed as the locus of power as well as the basis for the circulation of good and evil. In the Foucauldian sense, it is the bed of germs or viruses while it is also the seat of pleasure in both material and visual terms. Positive and negative connotations ascribed to the body have long been related to dominant ideologies, as it is prone to interpellation, alteration, and/or appropriation. As such, this article discusses the ways in which the body is challenged and appropriated by power mechanisms in David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006), based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel of the same title. The movie revolves around the issues of the body, its appropriation through certain determinants such as fashion and consumerism. It poses critical questions as to how fashion as a mechanism of power alters, shapes, and transforms the human body, experimenting with the perceptions of beauty and femininity. Placing a critical light on such issues, the movie moves beyond classic romantic comedy in its attempt to problematize the fashion industry as an instrument of power that structures bodies and identities. Building on the view that the body is a political entity, this article analyzes the transformation of the protagonist, Andy, in her relation to the fashion industry, exploring the ways in which fashion appropriates Andy in her quest from her initial rejection of fashion to her later struggle to find herself a place in the merciless and precarious milieu of Runway fashion magazine.