They had a lot of “Work To Do.”
Celebrity fashion designer Pamella Roland and actress Vanessa Williams were forced to “gird their loins” after having just two months to pull together an entire wardrobe for the hotly-anticipated “The Devil Wears Prada” musical.
“It was tough,” Roland exclusively told Page Six Style. “The biggest challenge was how quickly we had to do it.”
The musical — debuting at London’s West End on October 24 — is a not-so-subtle nod to the hit 2006 film of the same name, starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.
Williams, who stars as the Anna Wintour-esque editor of Runway magazine in the forthcoming production, unsurprisingly boasts a myriad of show-stopping ensembles she wears throughout the show, most of which were sourced and designed by Roland.
“I had a line coming out, my son was getting married so I was doing dresses for that, and all of a sudden I had to do this,” Roland, 65, recalled. “So the timing was tough because we had a lot going on around that time.”
“We only had a couple of months to get everything together and dig through the archives. Once we started, it was non-stop from there,” she added.
Roland, who boasts a close personal relationship with the “Ugly Betty” alum, had a careful approach to the costume design for this production.
“We knew that Miranda Priestly had to be sophisticated, and we didn’t want her to be the same as Meryl [Streep],” she notes. “She’s a different person, and so I took some inspiration from the film, but a lot of inspiration came from Vanessa herself.”
“I’ve dressed her since 2005. I know what looks good on her. We wanted to make it seem like it takes place in 2005, so we had to take some of our archives out. And of course we had to find some great coats she could throw around.”
Still, Roland notes that there’s a fine line between acing the wardrobe and it appearing “gimmicky.”
“The musical is about fashion, so we had to make it not gimmicky and costumey,” she said. “That’s not how we design clothes. So I just stuck to what I do and to what [Williams] likes.”
“There was a lot of collaboration on what she should wear, and what colors,” she added. “We really worked with a lot of the things we already had. We had a very big archive closet.”
While she remained tight-lipped about the specific outfits Williams wears in the musical, Roland did reveal that a personal item from the designer’s own closet ended up in the final wardrobe.
“One time, Vanessa was in my home during an engagement party for my son, and she was going through my closet and she found an item that ended up being in the show,” she recalled. “It’s a jacquard item with some feathers on the sleeve, from my very own closet.”
“We have a lot of suiting in there, which I love. I wear a lot of suiting myself. Even though we’re known for gowns and cocktail wear, we always have a suit in there because it’s back again. The nineties are back,” she added.
As for the “Desperate Housewives” alum, taking on this role was a no-brainer — despite the musical’s fate being thrust into chaos in its early days.
“I knew I really wanted to do this,” Williams, 61, told Page Six Style. “It’s such a great franchise and I knew I could kill it.”
Landing a strong female lead role was hardly new to Williams, who has built a glittering career as a leading lady in a multitude of films, TV shows, and theater productions.
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Still, when it came to making the iconic role of Miranda Priestly her own, Williams said she looked to certain elements of Streep’s 2006 performance for inspiration.
“There’s certainly bits from the film that I took inspiration from, like looking at Andy [Sachs] up and down, we’ve got that,” she said. “Of course, there’s music added to that which heightens the action.”
“There are motions and actions that I do similarly to Meryl [Streep] just because that’s what Miranda Priestly does. But of course when it comes to breaking out into song, they don’t do that in the movie.”
The musical’s director, Jerry Mitchell, had thought of Williams for the leading role last year, she recalled.
“I had worked with Jerry in 2010 and he came to me last summer and said, ‘Listen, there’s a production in Chicago of this show,’ and he said they’ve asked him to come in. He said, ‘It’s going to be a completely different thing. Don’t watch it, don’t listen to the reviews. I’m taking over, trust me. I’m going to come back to you with a real offer.’”
“So I knew that it was happening, and once I knew he was signed on, I knew I could trust it,” she said, adding that her agent and manager were not convinced.
Elsewhere, Williams said she ultimately hopes to take this production to broadway — a desire that Sir Elton John has also expressed.
Sir Elton, the production’s composer, added that he hopes Williams could snag a Tony Award for her portrayal.
“The Devil Wears Prada” musical debuts at London’s West End on October 24.
