She said, “A million girls would kill for this job,” and she meant it.
Celebrity stylist Leslie Flemer has admitted that she was the real-life inspiration for Emily Charlton, Miranda Priestley’s poisonous first assistant, played by Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada.
The stylist has since built a high-profile career, working with clients such as Charlize Theron and Julianne Moore. In 2022, she teamed up with Nicola Peltz to source a Valentino wedding dress, which then turned out to be a huge flop.
After years of speculation, Flemer said he felt the sequel’s release was the perfect time to speak out. “Everyone really enjoyed the movie. Anna[Wintour]obviously embraced it,” Flemer said on Vogue’s podcast “The Run Through.” “So why not? Let’s get it out there.”
Flemer, a Toronto native, joined Vogue in 1999 as Wintour’s second assistant and was quickly promoted to the role of first assistant. She hired a young Cornell graduate named Lauren Weisberger to fill her junior seat, and the two shared a desk for eight months.
Weisberger went on to write a 2003 book based on his time in Winter’s office.
“I absolutely told her a million girls would kill for this job,” Flemer told host Chloe Malle. “That was definitely my line. I actually believed that and I knew she didn’t necessarily want to be there.”
She explained that Weisberger (the real-life Andy Sachs) was indifferent and indifferent to fashion and often treated work as something beneath him.
“I was probably nervous because I wasn’t a very nice person and felt like I had to do her job too,” the stylist recalled.
Ms. Fremar didn’t know about the novel until she left Winter’s office. She was working at Prada, among others, when her former boss gave her an early manuscript.
“The galley was actually pretty bad,” Flemer said. “I think what’s been put out into the world is a much lighter and better version of what she actually wrote.”
After reading that, she said, “I felt betrayed.” The two have not spoken since Weisberger left Vogue.
“I think it’s going to be very awkward,” Flemer said of a possible reunion. “I don’t hold any grudge against her, but…there’s nothing to say.”
Fremar also debunked some of the story’s most popular plot points. A trip to Paris? “Anna didn’t travel with an assistant. That’s fiction.” Weisberger’s character transformed into a fashion darling? “I didn’t witness that.”
Despite the complicated legacy of the character modeled after her, Flemer credits Winter with shaping her career. “Anna is my mentor, through and through,” she said. “Everything I know I learned from Anna.”
The release of the sequel brought back all the old memories. “To think that a movie would come out 20 years later and suddenly it would come back,” Flemer said. “Obviously, I’ve been through everything…but now somehow it feels like it was yesterday.”
Vogue noted that Ms. Weisberger did not respond to a request for comment, but she has written articles for the magazine about her current life.
“I wasn’t trying to dethrone anyone or get revenge in any way,” Weisberger said.
