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Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway get top billing, but their clothes are getting just as much publicity for The Devil Wears Prada, the movie about life in fashion’s NASCAR-speed lane that opened Friday.

For some of us, the multitude of designer and vintage clothes that were begged, borrowed, bought and designed for Devil are the real stars.

Some of that star power comes from the person in charge of creating the characters’ looks: designer Patricia Field, whose work on Sex and the City raised the fashion savvy of a nation.

The rest comes from the clothes being the characters in Devil, which skewers and stylizes fashion through the story of unfashion-conscious Andy Sachs Hathaway, just graduated from college and working for the dictatorial editor (Streep’s Miranda Priestly) of Runway, a Vogue-like magazine. The clothes play out life stories, attitude changes, moods of the moment and positions in the job hierarchy without the actors having to do a thing.

Devil drives home the point that what we choose to wear, and when we choose to wear it, makes an impression on everyone we come in contact with.

Think of it this way: Every day, we star in our own little movie, and our clothes play as big a part as we do.

Let’s break down a few scenes from Andy Sachs’ life.

DEFIANT FRUMP: Andy starts out wearing wool sweaters over white blouses, teamed with garments as dull as this argyle-patterned A-line skirt, dark tights, a shapeless raincoat and her college bookbag. Her only concession to her new environment, provided by a Runway design director (Stanley Tucci), is stiletto heels.

She looks sorely out of place but seems not to care. She’s disregarding a key fashion and career rule: Dress for the position in life you want, not the one you have.

GOT STYLE: Once Andy gets a clue, she starts raiding the Runway closets for clothes, with the design director’s help. Her first post-raid work outfit is a Chanel jacket and thigh-high boots, Kristina Ti miniskirt and lots of chains. It’s New York fashion world style. Her boss and other co-workers, who had included mocking her as part of their daily routine, immediately notice. Her work life slowly starts to improve.

THE FASHION VICTIM: Plenty of women have days when they copy a magazine or runway look head to toe. Or, worse yet, mix a few looks together, making a complete mess.

Andy’s mistake was over-the-top trendy, and old trendy at that: newsboy cap, shrunken sweater over oversized white shirt and logo-fueled Chanel necklaces. Here’s the takeaway lesson we learn from this outfit: Pick one or two trendy items, and let them be the stars of your show.

THE STEPFORD ASSISTANT: Long black John Galliano gown, hair up, standing dutifully, respectably and yet almost noticeably behind the boss with the other assistant at a big event - this is Andy’s model employee moment. One big reason: The dress. It’s classic, stylish, stands out, yet blends in and doesn’t upstage the boss.

WHEN FORM AND FUNCTION MERGE: This is Andy’s final outfit in the movie. She has shifted to a different place in her life. She also has flushed out her inner fashion victim, and understands dressing well and stylishly.