“Who is this? Do you know her? Do I know her?”
Thus the incomparable Meryl Streep, reprising her role as Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” waves off her former assistant Andy Sachs, the Anne Hathaway character everyone, in fact, knows so well. Miranda’s hauteur is at peak volume, but her alpha attitude is evident even before she speaks, throned as she is at her editor-in-chief desk in a heather gray suit, her legs folded beneath its generous skirt, the sleeves of her surgically well-cut blazer pushed up to her elbows.
Yet Miranda Priestly is not wearing Prada or any powerhouse maison of high fashion, but rather a niche Milan label you’ve most likely never heard of: Sasuphi, poised for only its sophomore runway show this week.
“That’s her!” Ms. Streep reportedly exclaimed during fittings for the character of Miranda, when, amid oceans of blazers and assorted editorial-office attire, she slipped on a Sasuphi jacket. Founded in 2021 by two seasoned fashion industry professionals, Sasuphi makes striking wardrobe staples in luxurious fabrics: versatile duchesse trenches and satin palazzo trousers that transition from day to evening; sculptural cashmere knits and silk dresses with slits that allow the silhouette to be belted and reshaped, multiplying the possibilities of a single piece. The label’s signature Lauren blazer, the one that won over Ms. Streep, is tailored but not tight, with double buttoning options, a waist that can be belted and sleeves with elastic that keep them pushed up when it’s time to get to business.
“I was so excited,” said Molly Rogers, the film’s costume designer. “I’d discovered the perfect jacket.” She had stumbled upon Sasuphi’s Platonic ideal of the blazer on a rack in Bergdorf Goodman.
“The lapel was sharp, the shoulder was strong, the sleeve with that elasticated detail was fabulous, the way the fabric hangs would look great on camera — it’s just so chic,” she said. “I tend to dress a lot of leading ladies, and I knew someone would want to wear this.” Ms. Rogers now owns a Lauren blazer herself.
“It’s a brand by women,” she said. “A man would never have thought of the elasticated sleeve.”
Ms. Rogers assisted Patricia Field during her zeitgeisty costume-design tenures for the first “Devil Wears Prada” film and the entire “Sex and the City” series. With Ms. Field engaged in styling “Emily in Paris,” Ms. Rogers took the reins of “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
“I don’t have things in fittings that I don’t personally love,” Ms. Rogers said, but the process of dressing actors “is collaborative.” She comes equipped with heaps of options and styles them into screen-ready looks; the stars then get to determine what they like. After Ms. Streep’s chemistry with the Lauren blazer, Sasuphi received a request to supply dozens more garments. Disney, the studio behind the sequel, has kept wardrobe details strictly under wraps (beyond the trailer spotlighting the Sasuphi gray suit), but Instagram spies captured images of Ms. Streep filming in a crisp beige Sasuphi coat, steely authority on Miranda’s face, her sleeves firmly pushed up.
“When they requested so many pieces, I was a bit skeptical,” said Sara Ferrero, who founded Sasuphi with Susanna Cucco. “I had to confirm it was legitimate.” Only then did the pair realize the significance of the production — the heralded return of a cult film with its original stars and millions of fervent eyes on what its characters would wear.
Much has changed in fashion since the original film premiered 10 years ago — and not just the clothes. The sequel arrives in a landscape in which print magazines like Miranda’s are gasping for relevance, eclipsed by social media, which upended even how we consume a film like this, with sidewalk sightings of its looks broadcast by citizen paparazzi. Embargoes are so 2006.
Fashion credits have been sleuthed out and breathlessly itemized — Chanel, Valentino, Jean Paul Gaultier, Jacquemus, Khaite, Gabriela Hearst! — though most failed to identify Sasuphi. The label is still a micro-affair without a marketing team or investors.
According to the data analytics company Launchmetrics, all of the unauthorized publicity has already generated $38.5 million in media attention, with a label like Gabriela Hearst earning more than it garnered from putting on a fashion show in Paris.
Films have long made great fashion billboards. Consider “American Gigolo,” another high-water mark in suits on the silver screen, in which Richard Gere canonized the sex appeal of Giorgio Armani’s soft and unstructured jackets. Today, such film looks rocket around the world, sometimes with shoppable links, months before opening night.
Miranda’s restrained, pin-perfect suit in the trailer says a lot about what a woman with her kind of clout wants to look like today. The 2006 Miranda loved a flashy Fendi coat with a tiger-striped collar and cuffs, but today she favors understatement. “Feminine power dressing,” Ms. Ferrero called it. “There’s an ease and an effortlessness that didn’t exist 20 years ago, with an emphasis on sumptuous fabrics and structured styles that don’t constrain the body.”
Ms. Cucco added: “Power dressing comes from the 1980s, when women were entering offices in big numbers but still struggling to be listened to, and wore big-shouldered jackets as a way of demanding respect. Women are still fighting for power, but today we dress for ourselves instead of dressing to impress our male counterparts.”
Both women are Italians who have lived all over the world, but they are “Milanese by adoption,” Ms. Ferrero said. Sasuphi as a label name is a formula: Sa (Sara), Su (Susanna) and Phi, for the symbol of the golden ratio and the harmonious equilibrium it represents — a play on the French “ça suffit,” meaning “that’s enough.”
Ms. Cucco has led an art direction agency serving major fashion houses for decades. Ms. Ferrero is a former chief executive of Valextra and Joseph, and remains a board member at Salvatore Ferragamo. As high-powered industry veterans with formidable taste, they recognized that contemporary power dressing with the versatility and flair they sought was absent from a market skewed toward youth.
“It’s easy to make clothes for a 20-year-old model,” Ms. Ferrero said, “but we wanted to design for women of all ages.”
“We started with ourselves,” Ms. Cucco said. “We’re women designing for women, and we inhabit the sphere we’re designing for.”
With their fall 2026 collection about to hit the runway, Ms. Ferrero and Ms. Cucco have created a line of elegant, easy-to-wear clothes punctuated with look-at-me colors like poppy red, sea-foam green and champagne pink. Color is soft power.
“You notice a woman in pink,” Ms. Cucco said. Ever wearable, the palette is offset by what the designers call “Milanese colors”: midnight blue, loden green, charcoal.
Rendered in Italian silks and cashmere, the garments take the form of boxy knits, shirts with cascading scarves, cropped blazers and flare-shaped capes. With the fall collection, the women are also introducing Sasuphi’s first accessories: wide-brimmed cashmere hats, cashmere zip-up collars to replace winter scarves and cutaway stilettos with cashmere gaiters to transform into boots.
“Women deserve to be confident and powerful,” Ms. Ferrero said. “Fashion isn’t just superficiality. It’s an important part of feeling good.”
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