It's beyond product placement. The fashion world is evidently about names, about labels. So much so that the term "product placement" hardly even means anything. The novel drops far more names than the movie, actually; there are whole lists of them. After a while they cancel each other out. Of course one went for Streep, but I went with my friends, both writers, and the wife is a magazine editor who knew a lot about this world, and it was fun talking to her about it. The gossip element outweights the product element. I don't think fashion is mere consumerism. It is chic, elegance, it is novelty; it is money. It's very expensive, but if you have to think about that, you're out of the game. The people on Runway magazine don't have to buy anything. It's all provided to them. It's promotionism, not consumerism.