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The fashion industry may be the most vivid example of the Red Queen Effect. What is celebrated in spring is passé by fall. Directed by David Frankel and based on the novel by Lauren Weisberger, the movie tells this story not as a business study but as a comedy about ambition, exhaustion and the question of how long you want to keep running in such a race.
A job as a stepping stone
Situation
Andrea Sachs, known as Andy and played by Anne Hathaway, has just graduated and wants to become a journalist. She takes a job as junior assistant to Miranda Priestly, the feared editor-in-chief of the New York fashion magazine Runway, played by Meryl Streep. Andy thinks fashion is superficial. She wants to do the job only until a position in journalism comes along.
Link to the principle
Andy enters a race she does not take seriously. She believes she can watch without running. The movie soon shows that this is not possible.
The cerulean sweater
Situation
In a well-known scene, Miranda makes it clear to Andy that even her plain blue sweater is not exempt from fashion. The color, Miranda explains, was chosen by designers and fashion magazines, and only through many stages did it make its way down to the mass market. Andy is wearing what others decided earlier.
Link to the principle
The scene shows that no one stands outside the race. If you think you are not playing, you are simply following, with a delay, the pace others set. That is exactly what the Red Queen Effect means: your environment moves whether you want it to or not.
Learning to keep up
Situation
At first, Andy fails to meet Miranda’s demands. Nigel, the magazine’s art director, played by Stanley Tucci, helps her with clothes and advice. Andy changes, takes on more responsibility and soon outshines the first assistant, Emily, played by Emily Blunt. For Paris Fashion Week, Emily keeps to extreme diets that endanger her health. In the end, Miranda takes Andy to Paris, not Emily.
Link to the principle
Emily runs as fast as she can and still loses her place, because someone else runs even faster. That is the harshest side of the Red Queen Effect: effort alone secures nothing at all. It counts only in comparison with others.
Even the queen has to run
Situation
In Paris, Andy learns that Jacqueline Follet, the head of the French edition, is to replace Miranda. She warns Miranda, who brushes it off. Then Miranda announces that Jacqueline will become creative director for the designer James Holt. That position had been promised to Nigel. Miranda had long known about the plan against her and fended it off by sacrificing Nigel’s chance.
Link to the principle
Even at the top, there is no rest. Miranda holds her position not because she once reached it but because she constantly thinks ahead and acts. The movie also shows the price: she becomes hard and lonely and sacrifices people who were loyal to her.
Getting out of the race
Situation
Andy realizes that she is on her way to becoming like Miranda. When Miranda’s phone rings, she walks away and throws it into a fountain on the Place de la Concorde. Back in New York, she applies to a newspaper and gets the job. Miranda, it turns out, has given her a recommendation.
Link to the principle
The Red Queen Effect applies within a competition. You can choose which race you run in. Andy does not stop working; she moves into a field that suits her. There, too, she will have to run, but for something she wants.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Don’t believe you are outside the competition. If you do, you are just following other people’s pace.
- Effort alone does not secure your place. It counts in comparison.
- Even at the top, the running does not stop.
- Check what keeping up is costing you, in strength and in relationships.
- Choose deliberately which race you want to run in.
Summary
“The Devil Wears Prada” shows an industry in which every season devalues everything before it. Andy learns to keep up, Emily runs and still loses, and even Miranda Priestly has to fight constantly to hold her place. The movie shows the Red Queen Effect with its price and with the freedom to choose your own race.
Sources
- The Devil Wears Prada. Directed by David Frankel. Screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna. U.S.: 20th Century Fox, 2006.
- Lauren Weisberger: The Devil Wears Prada. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
