Meryl wears Patricia: Patricia Field, the visionary lesbian behind Sex and the City's glam couture, brings her fashionable eye to the eagerly awaited (and well-dressed) screen adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada.

"I always offer what I like. Meryl Streep saw that I could coordinate, so she'd say things like, 'Which bag do you prefer?'" recalls Patricia Field, costume designer for 20th Century Fox's The Devil Wears Prada.

Based on the best-selling book by Lauren Weisberger, Devil stars Meryl Streep as one of New York City's most powerful fashion editors and Anne Hathaway as her assistant. "I'd never worked with any of these actors before," says Field. "The opportunity to work with Meryl was one of my main attractions to this film. When I was dressing her, I wasn't trying to imitate anybody, whether it was Vogue's Anna Wintour [after whom Streep's character is said to be modeled] or anybody else because there's no visual or physical parallel between Streep and Wintour. I just wanted to present a powerful woman running a magazine. I wanted it to be an original character."

To achieve the right looks for the characters, Field met with each actor individually. "My job is strictly a support job. It's creative, but the main thing is that I'm there to support the actor on camera. Actors know what works for them. They tell me they don't like certain colors, so you have to take that into consideration," says Field. "Anne's character ended up wearing the most number of outfits. We started with 40 and ended up with 70 total changes for her. The variety of it all is what keeps me inspired. Repetition is hard for me."

Not that Field, 60, has to worry about repetition any time soon. Perhaps best known for her Emmy-nominated work as costume designer on HBO's Sex and the City, Field opened her first eponymous New York City boutique in 1966 and a second in the city's Soho neighborhood 30 years later. Having recently opened her third New York City shop, Field is also continuing her TV and film assignments, designing for ABC's Hope & Faith and Ugly Betty--the latter starring America Ferrera and featuring Gina Gershon--and for Warner Independent Pictures' The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which began shooting at the end of May.

And about being an out lesbian in the fashion industry? "I don't feel a rub about my sexuality," Field says. "I don't consider myself a woman or a man professionally. Hall the creative industry is gay, so if anything, I would almost say it's a plus. I mean, I'm not a politician. I don't work for the government. At the end of the day, I'm a hairdresser."

Ensha also writes for the New York Daily News and Time Out New York.