User Reviews

During a cutaway, we smile with recognition, as the cameraman(who we come to know as Bob) points the lens toward Anna Wintour's assistant, who is answering the phone. It's one of her Emilys, we think, and think again: What's her real name? Instead of using the more formal "Anna" while addressing the caller, she refers to the Vogue maven as "Ann". For most people, the not-so-beautiful people, first familiarized with the heightened world of "haute coutre" through "The Devil Wears Prada", this throwaway moment will make them wonder: Did she make a mistake, referring to this imposing taste-maker in such a casual manner? Were this the exaggerated comic world of the Meryl Streep vehicle, in which Wintour's stand-in acted pompously unreasonable every chance she had with her assistant Andy(Anne Hathaway), the "fat" girl(a size six, but smart), this assistant would get a raised eyebrow, or worse, from her boss, who seems far too austere for a girlish name like Ann. This young, nondescript woman, who we never learn the name of, reminds us as to why "The September Issue" interested us in the first place. We want Wintour to behave badly("My name is Anna, you twit! You're fired!"), some sort of wickedness to validate the film, and novel.

Anna Wintour is nothing like Miranda Preistly in "The September Issue", but we suspect the rolling cameras has something to do with her relatively congenial way with her colleagues and collaboraters. Instead of a boss from hell, the documentary captures a hard-working woman who's an exceedingly good editor, and comfortable in her own skin. Never one to back down from making tough decisions, Wintour alienates her partner-in-crime Grace Coddington(a former "Vogue" model turned art director), when she cuts the Welsh woman's favorite photograph from a fashion spread that is to be included in the magazine's season-starting issue. (September, we learn, is the fashion world's January.) Anna-haters, wanting to start something, might argue that Wintour knows the picture is a knockout, knows that Grace loves it, but yanks the baroque photo from publication for the sheer pleasure of seeing her longtime associate suffer. We consider the potential ramifications of being privileged enough, as Ms. Coddington is, to speak bluntly with a woman who people normally walk on eggshells around, let along, speak deferentially towards. Perhaps it's retribution, disguised as a shrewd, creative decision, this editorial killing, a reminder to Coddington, that she alone, Anna Wintour, is "de facto" boss of the "Vogue" empire. Since the well-spoken British woman(who is sixty-eight) comes across as a person without the usual pretentiousness associated with fashion industry types, we take her side, grandma's side. "Vogue", however, reflects Wintour's point-of-view, and the venerable fashion magazine continues to be the industry's bible under her stewardship, her "genius". Like a filmmaker who shoots great footage but can't make it work in the editing room, Wintour, perhaps, is an aesthetic genius; she has an innate understanding that the beloved photo doesn't work in the context of the overall spread. Then again, Wintour surrounds herself with so many sycophants, who believe the likes and dislikes of this single woman is like a blessing or condemnation from the pope, it's easy to dismiss this daughter of a newspaper man as the lucky recipient of an industry's self-perpetuating myth.

To a certain extent, "The September Issue" performs an exorcism of sorts on Ms. Wintour, but the devil that Laura Weisenberg(a former Wintour assistant) cheekily diagnosed in her celebrated novel, re-enters the editor, in spite of the video repellent, the camera, which functions as both a cross and holy water. Wintour, the angel, reveals herself as a whitewashed "devil", in the scene where she makes a snide remark about the cameraman, a fat man, who appears in a photo that shows him jumping alongside a vertically inclined model. Her suggestion that Bob should visit a gym, offends Grace, a woman caught between her skinny past and zaftig present, cancels the touch-up to the cameraman's stomach. It's a glimpse into what Ms. Wintour is really like; a woman with nothing but contempt for outsiders. (In a television interview, she once compared the girth of some Minnesotan locals to "small houses".) And for the little people. Instead of shooting them(from time to time, we see cutaway shots of the low-end employees), we wish "The September Issue" gave them a voice. With some luck, perhaps the filmmaker might have stumbled across a disgruntled one, and dish about what really goes on behind closed doors.

This is not a movie about the making of an issue of a magazine. It's not even about Anna Wintour. It's a movie about the drama between Wintour and Coddington, her stylist and friend of 20 or 30 or 40 years.

The first thing that I noticed was that Wintour retained her great beauty at age 58. She's living proof that at 58, women can be girly. At the same time, when we see pictures of her at age 19 and 21 we notice that she hasn't changed her hair style one iota, which is a bit disappointing for someone who's so much into fashion. OTOH, Grace Coddington, who's 8 years older, didn't age as well but she at least evolved from her early twenties, when she was stunning, to all of her 66 years. Yes, they could both do with a bit of botox, but perhaps one of the points that the movie is trying to make is that even the Pope of Beauty and her BFF don't really need botox in order to be looked up to. And feared. They can boast leading and steering a 300 billion dollar industry, so who really needs superficial beauty then?

In the first half of the film the Grace vs Anna story line is pushed, and it is pushed beyond the limit. Coddington is totally acting the Wronged Genius, the complete right-hemisphere-brain-type, the Artistic One who is curtailed by the Evil Mistress. Meanwhile, Wintour remains curt and concise, as her outward persona prescribes. Indeed, Grace Coddington has the most lines in the script.

The second half of the movie is about the big photo shoot with celebrity actress Sienna Miller (Factory Girl), something which was announced throughout the first half. This story line has a somewhat astonishing development and it casts the Anna as the Queen-of-Mean idea a bit in doubt: She commissions some Italian photographer to do THE shoot of the issue. But it turns out that an essential part of the photoshoot, in the Roman Colosseum, simply isn't delivered by this pasta-clicker, someone who is undoubtedly a good photographer, but not very well known or powerful. So why isn't Wintour blowing a gasket when she finds out that he didn't do the shoot, just because "it didn't feel right"? Amazing. Perhaps I'm not artistic enough.

There are two surprising revelations in two of the three direct interviews that Wintour does, which makes one wonder if Wintour really is proud of what she does for a living. In the first interview, in the beginning of the docu, she gets all defensive about the whole idea that fashionistas are airheads because they focus on the exterior. A clear case of 'Methinks the lady doth protest too much'. In the second one, she tells about her siblings who are all doing charitable work, and whom she feels aren't taking HER profession or work very seriously. I don't know whether this is genuine, or whether this is passive aggressiveness toward her sister and brothers (Wintour is undoubtedly far more successful in what she does than any of her siblings) or whether this is an attempt at softening of her aloof and harsh image. Perhaps it's just an example of how complex any person's life can get, since it appears from the third interview that she clearly would like her daughter to be a fashion editor, which she probably wouldn't do if she wasn't proud of her own accomplishments, but Daughter-Dearest is smart enough not to compete with Mummy.

The movie ends with the Grace vs Anna storyline. It seems that Grace has "won" since it seems that most of her photos are allowed into the magazine by Anna. It's unclear if this has something to do with the fact that the Rome photo shoot was a disaster.

We are left in doubt whether the whole Grace-Anna dynamic was real. Coddington must know a thing or two about clawing ones way to and staying on top, since she's been at the top of her stylist-field for 15 or 20 of the 40 years that she is a stylist. So I really don't know if a: Coddington is such a victim as she seems, and b: Wintours praise of Coddington at the end is real.

The Melancholic Alcoholic

How can one woman hold so much power in a multi-billion dollar industry? The September Issue shows all the mind-blowing meticulous and uncompromising work that went behind the biggest issue of American Vogue, the September 2007 840-page phone book-thick fall fashion bible. If you thought Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada was, well, a devil, then the real-life pope of international fashion whose word on all things sartorial is doctrine and canon will leave you speechless as she makes the most famous and esteemed designers nervous like little girls who doubt that they know even a single thing about clothes, puts into trash $ 50,000 worth of fashion editorial work, and dictates to major retailers what the rest of us are going to wear.

However, the more profound aspects of this documentary are the less notorious driving or hindering forces of multi-million-copy-selling Vogue. Anna Wintour, aka "nuclear Wintour," has chinks in her armor. After all, every deity is a human first, and Anna is a mother to a daughter who thinks that the fashion industry is "amusing," a sentiment shared by Anna's three other siblings. To the commander-in-chief of couture and prêt-a-porter, this seems to send an unwelcoming weakness. Juxtaposed with Anna is creative director Grace Coddington, the apparent warmness to Anna's iciness. Pushing each other has been the norm for their 20 years of working close together. The dynamic between the two is exciting, frustrating, and a necessary endeavor to produce the pages of fashion's most revered reference.

Fashion people will eat up this film. However, normal people/fashion outsiders will not regret seeing this insightful piece about how it is to be supremely powerful, what it takes to be at the pinnacle, and the costs of this might and glory.

While I'm not a fashion fanatic, I did watch Devil Wears Prada and I was interested to find out more about the enigmatic Anna Wintour. This movie only skims the surface of life at Vogue, but given the complexity of people, places and objects involved in creating just one issue, the film makers did a pretty good job. I didn't always understand what people were saying. There were too many mumbling asides. But there were some genuine insights, such as how down to earth Anna's sidekick, stylist Grace Coddington is, yet very much an artist. You see how Vogue is not just an observer in fashion, it's a catalyst, a driver of what's coming up. There are some absorbing scenes -- the skinny model eating a cake, the cameraman roped in to a photo shoot, and the agonising debate about which cover photo to use. Wintour proved a tough nut to crack. She's naturally very stiff upper lip. Not intentionally at all, it's just her nature. She's obviously an excellent editor and well-respected. However apart from some of her comments about her family, I felt she remained a closed book.

Anna Wintour, the subject of R. J. Cutler incisive take on the woman who is a powerful voice in the way women dress, seems to be rather shy, in comparison to the unflattering portrait of her fictionalized self that came out in "The Devil Wears Prada". There are no temper tantrums, or any other indication from the way she comes across in the film. One also realizes Ms. Wintour is well aware there is a camera following her at all times, so she was, perhaps, giving a controlled performance about her persona.

Of course, Ms. Wintour is only interested in bringing high fashion to those that can well afford it. She is not at all concerned in what an average woman, say, from the America's heartland, is going to be wearing next season. After all they could not afford spending a couple of thousand dollars in just a plain cotton schmatte from Chanel, or Galiano! Vogue's target is a rich woman with a lot of disposable income, not the mere citizen that goes to Target, or K-Mart for the fashions they wear. Our only question to Ms. Wintour and her staff would be, where are the women that wear some of those fabulous couture outfits. Obviously, they move in a rarefied world where only other rich ladies seem to inhabit.

Vogue is the magazine that fashionable people turn to for matters of styles and trends. Much of what one sees is not Ms. Wintour's creation, but what her amazing staff had done for her to make it to the printed page. That is the case of one of the most intelligent and down to earth persons in the documentary: Grace Coddington, who is the woman with an impeccable vision as to how to present fashion in a sophisticated and artistic way. It is ultimately Anna Wintour's decision what makes it into the important September issue.

We are invited to follow Ms. Wintour in her journeys from inspecting the upcoming trends from the likes of Oscar De La Renta, or Jean-Paul Gautier, to the fashion shows she attends, always seated in the front row, her eyes masked by her trademark dark glasses. One never gets a hint of what is going on in her head as she follows the models strutting the fabulous clothes that has either appeared, or will appear in the magazine.

There is rare moments in which Ms. Wintour comes to being just an ordinary person as she talks about her family. She tells us how her siblings think she is in a funny business since they all have gone to careers of much distinction, and importance, dealing with world and society problems. It becomes clear Anna Wintour loves her children as we watch her interact with a daughter who does not want to follow her mother into the fashion world.

Director R. J. Cutler captured the essence of a complex woman that has gone to the top of her profession.

I've been collecting the hefty September issue of Vogue since I was 16 years old. It's great having this reference to look back at as fashion is cyclical. For me because I love Vogue it was a treat to catch some behind the scenes workings of the September issue. The main motivation behind Wintour's participating in this documentary is probably primarily commercial, as she want's Vogue's circulation to increase. Don't view this with an expectation to gain insight into her character. I found the documentary too short but it's because I loved the subject, for casual viewers unfamiliar with the Septemeber issues it's a good length. So why do I love Vogue's September issue? The trends brought up in September will echo throughout the fashion year and for years after. This magazine marries culture albeit a more high-browed, selective, snobbish, commercial culture with genuine talent and artistry. Plus there are actual articles to read in small font throughout the magazine. It's not just a fluffy magazine full of photo's. Through the documentary the viewer can see that the people running Vogue are ageing. These people also refreshingly wear very little make-up and let their wrinkles show. A lot of the documentary features Grace, who has wild untamed hair, at the beginning I wished she had used product or a straightening iron but Grace is the crone archetype, while young she was beautiful and now at old age is again comfortable in her own skin. The September issues of Vogue under Wintour's leadership are memento's of the current golden age of fashion and design. It's interesting that Wintour is of English origin as her sensibility is so French and conservative. In fact London is one of the cities where fashion begins from the individual and fashion there is chaotic and unique and frankly follows no rules. The world we are familiar with where fashion trends echo throughout every country is ending. The timing of this documentary before the US economic meltdown was lucky, there is no doom and gloom in this documentary. A must see for those interested in fashion.