By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-23 20:30:37 | Updated at 2024-10-01 04:18:36
1 week ago
With her razor-sharp wit and impeccably fashion sense, Emily Blunt's character from The Devil Wears Prada captured hearts and instilled fear - but did you know she was apparently based on a real-life person?
Victoria 'Plum' Skyes, now 54, is a British journalist and author who worked as Anna Wintour's assistant and a fashion writer at American Vogue in the 90s and early 2000s.
With an aristocratic background and Oxford education, Sykes became a fixture of the New York fashion scene after arriving in 1997, and recently captured the attention of users on X, formerly Twitter, with a resurfaced clip of her going viral.
The video of Sykes from the 2000 BBC One documentary Boss Woman, which chronicles Wintour and the making of the February issue, has captivated viewers on social media, showing Sykes - then in her late 20s - describing a look she'd worn to the office.
'The clothes that people wear here in the day are probably clothes that normal people would wear on their most glamorous night out of the year,' the Wives Like Us author says in a posh British accent, as she shows off her designer outfit consisting of a sleeveless white tank, a long chiffon floral skirt, black tights and black heels.
A clip of Plum Sykes has gone viral, showing her office outfit which consists of a white sleeveless shirt, a floral Dolce and Gabbana skirt and black tights with black pointed heels
'Who's going to go wear a chiffon Dolce and Gabbana skirt like this to the office?' she asks, standing up to show off her stylish outfit to the cameraman.
'Only me,' she answers confidently. 'Or someone who works at Vogue.'
Her dedication and no-nonsense attitude have captured the attention of social media users, who delighted in finding out Emily exists in real life.
The description of her outfit - which was deemed highly unusual at the time by Sykes - sparked a discussion about her chic-but-simple outfit; which can probably now be seen on office workers in 2024, but it wasn't the norm in 1999.
'Yeah a chiffon skirt and casual top are common work attire that you can find at TJ Maxx in 2024. I remember 1999, work attire for women was pretty much a pantsuit or a pencil skirt and blazer. Sorry but once again the devil wears prada is right,' one user commented.
'So many kids on here that are too young to remember that EVERYONE wore suits and blazers to the office until not that long ago,' another chimed in.
'Some ppl were making a good point re: her clothing and how basic it looks and it's literally because people like her in the upper echelons of fashion society normalized it for the rest of us peasants,' someone else commented.
Others took issue with how much her outfits cost.
'Plum Sykes is only referring to the price tag. She thinks she's better than everyone because she wears expensive clothes to the office. Not because they're particularly fashion forward,' one person declared.
The author of The Devil Wears Prada, Lauren Weisberger, who was also a former assistant to Wintour, reportedly used Sykes as the real-life inspiration behind Emily, the assistant to terrifying editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly, according to Marie Claire.
The book was a huge success and later turned into a movie in 2006 starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.
Her dedication and no-nonsense attitude have captured the attention of social media users, who delighted in finding out Emily exists in real life
Victoria 'Plum' Skyes, 54, is a British journalist and author who worked as Anna Wintour's assistant and a fashion writer at American Vogue in the 90s and early 2000s (pictured in 2024)
Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt in the 2006 film, The Devil Wears Prada
The character of Emily in the film, played by Emily Blunt (pictured), was reportedly inspired by Sykes
The viral clip has sparked a wave of discussion about office wear and a 1916 secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France
The interest of attentive social media users was also piqued by the fashion writer's surname - uncovering her great-grandfather was Mark Sykes, a British diplomat who drafted the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916.
The agreement, made in secret between the United Kingdom and France after World War I, was the post-war distribution of land in Arab Middle East which essentially created the modern Middle East. It caused conflict over the borders in the area which changed, disregarding the ethnic or cultural regions that pre-existed.
'I keep seeing this video on my TL (timeline). This woman’s great grandfather was Mark Sykes who drafted the Sykes Picot agreement,' one user posted to X.
'A secret 1916 plan by the Brits and French, which divided the Middle East into boundaries that guaranteed perpetual conflict to benefit British oil extraction,' the user retweeted with the clip.
'The Plum Sykes thing really underlines current twitter 1. The bit (devil wears prada scene for real!) 2. The subject matter expects weigh in (just look at her! In 1999!) 3. Sociopolitical implications you couldn't have dreamed of (sykes-picot agreement in the middle east),' another pointed out.
Sykes currently lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, British entrepreneur Toby Rowland, and their two daughters: Ursula, 18, and Tess, 13.
