In the ‘Devil Wears Prada’ sequel, Stanley Tucci is bringing back menswear’s most controversial shoe

Once a source of style cringe, monk straps deserve their time in the sun again

By Tyler Dane Wingco

Published: Jul 29, 2025

stanley tucci devil wears prada — Image: Getty

IT’S BEEN 19 YEARS since the release of The Devil Wears Prada, and I hope Nigel is doing okay. I’m not just talking about how the overlooked magazine creative director didn’t get his dream job at the end of the movie. Or how, in the upcoming sequel, which will follow the decline of the magazine industry, that dream job may no longer exist. Rather, I hope he’s okay since his favourite shoes, the monk strap, were slaughtered during the #menswear dark ages of the 2010s.

As a Gen Z-er, I can’t speak from experience to how the dress shoe was bastardised during this period. But I can observe the cringe, like skinny jeans, that they evoke now. As one Millennial colleague recounted, the shoes – which, as the name would suggest, have two buckled straps instead of laces and descend from Middle Age monks’ shoes, according to legend – were a cornerstone of a very specific look in men’s fashion.

stanley tucci and meryl streep — Nigel and Miranda are back! Image: Getty

Worn with no socks and tapered trousers, monk straps were a choice shoe for erstwhile 20 and 30-somethings with a flair for peacocking – a sprezzatura-maxxing – as they’d attend the Florentine menswear trade show, Pitti Uomo. They dedicated themselves to dressing in the menswear tradition of Italian tailoring; they wanted to dress like a white-haired Italian signore. “They thought they looked good,” this colleague said.

And like the ankle socks and slim trousers worn with them, double monks fell out of favour as Gen Z spending power grew, coupled with the mainstreaming of streetwear. Now a pariah in the menswear community, monk straps persist elsewhere with the most disdainful men in your life, like a real estate agent.

I’m not saying sweet Nigel, played by Stanley Tucci, is one of these men.

Sure, the shoes demonstrate that Nigel is simply a fashion editor of a certain time. As the sequel’s production is underway, stick the paparazzi images of him now next to the ones from 2006, and his style hasn’t changed by a hair (sorry). As much as he knows about the Lacroix that ran last June, he knows what he likes. And out of all the cast’s wardrobe (allegedly organised by the same out-of-touch minds behind the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That), his suits and monks at least seem the most tapped into how a stylish man dresses IRL.

What you wouldn’t catch him doing, however, is wearing monk straps with slim trousers. As my colleague continued, Pitti-goers and their proportions would be off with calf-clinging trousers tapering into a sliver of skin, then humongous leather shoes, comical as scuba flippers.

How to wear monk strap shoes in 2025

Yes, I know you still have them. Right thing, too: they probably cost an arm and a leg. (They still do.)

If you’re taking them out of their dust bag and box, follow in Nigel’s footsteps and consider the drape and cut of your trousers. None of that slim fit that previously had you in a chokehold. But trousers that move with elegant folds as you hit the sidewalk.

Style-wise, embrace tradition on this one. Monk straps still retain their sprezzatura lineage. But go with a louche silhouette to downplay that you’re doing a thing. It’s about ease, after all.

Maybe I speak about monk straps without the trauma of having lived through their height, but, to my fellow Gen Z-ers, I don’t see why monk straps can’t crest the wave of corporate-core. Say, for the sultry office-siren, the shoe’s strap and buckle are kind of BDSM-coded, no?