SINGAPORE – The ongoing buzz over American actresses Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway reuniting on red carpets for The Devil Wears Prada 2’s global promotional tour might have most forgetting the film’s bizarre misstep just a few weeks earlier.

In March, it was announced that the sequel to the iconic 2006 comedy-drama about the luxury publishing world would have a merchandise line with a baffling collaborator: Target.

Available on the American retailer’s website is a ghastly selection of tees, sweatshirts and hoodies with random quotes from the original film slapped on.

The result: Florals for spring, cerulean blue and boring someone else with your questions – quips so iconic they have made their way into our shared vernacular – reduced to gaudy words on mass-produced tops.

The only thing more offensive than the pedestrian fonts are the cheap polyester-cotton blends they sit on. Prices start from US$14.99 (S$19).

Cue the Miranda Priestly memes of the frosty editor-in-chief (thought to have been inspired by fashion bible Vogue’s Anna Wintour and played by Streep) shutting down the entire collection with a single, withering look.

“What would Miranda Priestly do? Burn that shirt,” said one comment.

It remains unclear if it is a cash grab by Target or an official 20th Century Studios-backed line for The Devil Wears Prada 2, which opens in Singapore cinemas on April 30. But the release sparked outrage over how the collaboration was the complete antithesis of The Devil Wears Prada universe – and fashion itself.

Many were also quick to point out the irony of using Priestly’s iconic “cerulean blue” quote – from her monologue about how design decisions like using the colour blue trickles down from fashion runways to mass-market shop floors – on a Target sweater.

If the franchise’s fictional Runway Magazine represents the voice of fashion authority, then a partnership like this surely is its death knell...