The woman who inspired Emily Blunt’s character in The Devil Wears Prada has been revealed as Nicola Peltz’s wedding dress stylist, Leslie Fremar.
Leslie worked as first assistant to Vogue’s former editor-in-chief Anna Wintour alongside junior assistant Lauren Weisberger, who went on to write the bestselling novel The Devil Wears Prada about her time there.
Now one of Hollywood’s most in-demand stylists, Leslie spoke with Vogue’s Head of Editorial Content Chloe Malle on the Run-Through podcast, during which she claimed to be the inspiration behind Emily Charlton, played by Blunt in the film.
‘I know I am. I am Emily,’ she said.
In the film 2006 film – adapted from Weisberger’s novel – Emily is a highly strung and irritable first assistant at editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly’s New York based Runway magazine – a fictional fashion bible, inspired by Vogue.
From her opening scene, villainous Emily behaves in a condescending manner towards the film’s protagonist Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, and ultimately finds herself out of favour with Priestly as Sachs’ editorial career takes off.
Leslie, who helped source Nicola Peltz’s Valentino wedding dress for her wedding to Brooklyn Beckham, also said one of the film’s most famous lines was a direct quote from her.
The woman who inspired the character of Emily in The Devil Wears Prada has been revealed as Nicola Peltz’s wedding dress stylist Leslie Framer
Leslie spoke with Vogue’s Chloe Malle on the Run-Through podcast where she claimed to be the inspiration behind Emily Charlton, played by Emily Blunt in the film
‘I definitely told her a million girls would kill for the job,’ she said. ‘That was definitely my line, because I actually really believed that, and I knew that she didn’t necessarily want to be there.’
‘Even though someone obviously advised her to make it fiction, it was really based off of a lot of things that, you know, I lived, she lived.’
Weisberger worked as a junior assistant at Vogue for only eight months, with Leslie saying they were not friendly outside the office. She also felt the future author did not take the fashion business as seriously as she did.
‘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,’ she said.
‘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.’
Leslie said Weisberger’s book ‘felt like a betrayal’ and she never saw or spoke to her again after she left Vogue. She also thinks if the pair were ever to cross paths again it would be ‘awkward’.
Raised in Toronto, Leslie moved to the United States when she was 16 to pursue a career in the fashion industry.
Weisberger wrote an essay for Vogue where she recalled writing The Devil Wears Prada at age 23 and she was not at all prepared for the global phenomenon it ended up becoming.
‘It wasn’t an attempt to take anyone down or exact some sort of revenge,’ she wrote.
Is it ever justifiable to turn real workplace experiences into tell-all novels that expose colleagues?
Leslie worked as first assistant to Vogue’s former editor-in-chief Anna Wintour alongside Lauren Weisberger, who went on to write the novel The Devil Wears Prada about her time there
‘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.’
She added: ‘If I wrote The Devil Wears Prada today, it would undoubtedly be different. Not softer, necessarily, but more layered. I have more empathy now—for the assistants and the bosses, for the 20-somethings trying to prove themselves, and for those who already have.’
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is slated for a May 1, 2026 release, marking exactly 20 years since the original took audiences behind the glossy yet cutthroat world of high fashion.
The sequel finds Runway editor Miranda Priestly (Streep) struggling against Emily, her former assistant turned rival executive, as they compete for advertising revenue amid declining print media, while Priestly nears retirement.
Emily is now a high-powered executive for a luxury group with advertising dollars that Miranda desperately needs.
