Devil Wears Prada 2 locations are as carefully staged as the film’s characters, with production designer Jess Gonchor shaping interiors from a recreated Last Supper museum to Villa Balbiano on Lake Como.
Devil Wears Prada 2 locations, Jess Gonchor returns as production designer
Jess Gonchor, the production designer who worked on Capote, No Country for Old Men, and the original The Devil Wears Prada, returned to lead the art department on the sequel, the production said.
Gonchor told reporters the goal was to create spaces that act as psychological extensions of the characters, not mere decoration.
Miranda Priestly’s office and the weight of print magazines
The production rebuilt Miranda Priestly’s office from the ground up, moving away from the original film’s set, Gonchor said.
To signal Miranda’s attachment to legacy publishing, Gonchor stacked hundreds of physical magazines throughout the office, a design choice he described as an attempt to recreate a childhood memory of his fathers National Geographic collection and the literal sense of weight those volumes gave a room, he said.
Runway magazine set design
The Runway magazine offices were expanded to nearly eight times the footprint of the first film, Gonchor said.
Inspired by the layout of Vogue magazine offices, the new set is a long open plan workroom designed to feel highly efficient and emotionally cool, the designer said, creating a sense of pressure that helps define the films workplace scenes.
Milan museum interior: a 1:1 Last Supper recreation
When production moved to Milan, Gonchor said the team could not film inside Leonardo da Vincis original Last Supper because on set lighting can damage fragile works of art.
Instead, the art department built a museum interior on a soundstage, hand painting murals and architectural details to a three quarters scale of the original, with background painters from Romes opera house leading the effort, Gonchor said.
Accademia di Brera hosts Runway fashion week
The film stages its Runway fashion week at the Accademia di Brera, the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, the production confirmed.
Gonchor said the team had considered staging the show in the piazza in front of Milan Cathedral, the Duomo, but chose the more enclosed academy to protect actor privacy and avoid leaking the cameo appearance of a major guest star. Local rigging crews constructed the runway in five days to industry standards used for actual fashion shows, a production spokesperson said.
U.S. estates stand in for characters’ private homes
For Sasha Barnes, the character played by Lucy Liu, the Vermont estate in the script was filmed at singer Billy Joels estate in Oyster Bay on Long Island, the production said. The property sits on about 26 acres, which the location managers said matched the films requirements for scale and privacy.
The production also used a nearby property on Center Island as the Hamptons summer house for the character Pui Mei-lan (裴美蘭), the location team said.
Lake Como and Milan landmarks
On Lake Como, Villa Balbiano served as the villa for Benji Barnes, the character played by Justin Theroux, Gonchor said.
The art crew relaid lawns and restored garden sculptures to match the films period look, and the production used the exterior and lobby of Palazzo Parigi for hotel sequences, a production spokesperson said.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and a pivotal corridor scene
The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milans 19th century shopping gallery, is the backdrop for a key moment featuring the character Pui Mei-lan (裴美蘭), the production said. The arcades glass roof and mosaic floor provided a naturally cinematic setting that the director wanted for the scene.
Across continents, Devil Wears Prada 2 locations were chosen to deepen character storytelling, from Miranda Priestlys magazine-stacked office to the classical spaces of Milan and the private estates that stand in for fictional family homes, Gonchor said.
For more production details, Gonchor and the production team plan a behind the scenes feature to be released alongside the film, a studio representative said.
