A Celebrity Stylist Says She’s The Real Emily From The Devil Wears Prada

The first Devil Wears Prada film was based on Lauren Weisberger’s novel of the same name, which, in turn, was informed by the author’s experience as an assistant to Anna Wintour at Vogue. But while viewers have long known about that inspiration (even Wintour herself is a fan of Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly), is there a real-life counterpart to Emily?

It would seem so! In an April 28 episode of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast, celebrity stylist Leslie Fremar said that she is the inspiration behind the ambitious and uncompromising first assistant played to chic perfection by Emily Blunt.

In her conversation with Vogue’s new editor-in-chief, Chloe Malle, Fremar recalled joining the magazine in 1999. She was quickly promoted to being Wintour’s first assistant, and hired Weisberger for the No. 2 spot.

“I definitely told her, ‘A million girls would kill for the job,’” Fremar said. “That was definitely my line, because I actually really believed that. And I knew that she didn’t necessarily want to be there.”

Fremar said Weisberger was “very smart,” but, like the fictional Andy Sachs, was more interested in writing than fashion.

The stylist also owned up to some of the “tension” depicted in the book and on screen, explaining: “I think this idea that the Emily character is not very pleasant or nice or seems high-strung is because 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. So for me, that was really frustrating.”

Weisberger ultimately left Vogue, while Fremar pivoted to the magazine’s fashion department. Then one day, Wintour called her into her office to discuss a pre-publication copy of The Devil Wears Prada, which would arrive in early 2003.

“She said, ‘Who’s Lauren Weisberger?’ And I said, ‘She was your junior assistant. She was only here for a short period of time, maybe eight months,’” Fremar recalled. “And she’s like, ‘Well, she wrote a book about us. And you’re worse than me!’”

Indeed, Fremar said the draft felt “quite mean,” noting that a “much lighter, nicer version of what she actually wrote” made it to shelves. And while Fremar acknowledged that the book is technically a work of fiction, it felt like an “exposure” in several ways. “I remember feeling like it was a betrayal at the time,” she said.

Unlike Andy and Emily — who reunite in The Devil Wears Prada 2 — Fremar and Weisberger have never spoken since their time at Vogue. “I think it would be very awkward,” Fremar said, before clarifying that she doesn’t hold a grudge. (And for what it’s worth, she enjoyed the movie.)

Fremar once got to tell Blunt that she was the inspiration for her character at a mutual friend’s gathering. “I was like, ‘I just need to let you know: I’m Emily,’” she said. “She was not that interested, to be honest.”