The September Issue

The September Issue

90 Minutes

The September Issue captures the creation of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine, which at the time, was the largest in its history. No other single publication impacts the $300 billion fashion industry as much as this one. The film’s director, R.J. Cutler (one of the producers of The War Room) had little knowledge of the fashion industry initially. Maybe that’s why Anna Wintour, Vogue editor and the high queen (or as one interviewee put it, the Pope) of the fashion industry, granted him unprecedented access. Or maybe it was to soften her ice queen persona made popular by Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada.

The film opens, curiously enough, with a tight close-up of the helmet-headed Wintour offering a defense for her industry. She tries to twist the snobbery around by saying, “People are frightened of fashion. Because it scares them or makes them nervous, they put it down. There is something about fashion that can make people very nervous.” All the while, Wintour smiles nervously.

Moments alone with Wintour are few and far between. The film instead focuses more on the mad dash to the finish line as the issue comes to a close. Thankfully, Cutler eschews the clichéd flash-cut editing prevalent in most films about fashion. Still, the film has a reality television show quality which is probably due to Cutler’s television background. It’s essentially a fun buddy movie about the odd couple working relationship between Wintour and Vogue creative director, Grace Coddington. A former model, Coddington started at Vogue the same time as Wintour, and the two have worked passive-aggressively with each other for decades. She creates while Wintour deletes. Coddington, the level-headed romantic, is the only person who doesn’t tiptoe around Wintour. She becomes the film’s hero by fighting to keep her creations intact, while Wintour strains to be personable, but remains an aloof enigma.

It’s a shame because it’s the glimpses into Wintour’s personal life that are the most fascinating. Wintour’s surprisingly down-to-earth daughter Bee would rather pursue a career in law, much to her mother’s chagrin. Bee finds the industry “really weird” and can’t understand why some people take it so seriously. Wintour’s father was a newspaper editor and her three siblings have more socially conscious professions. When asked about how they felt about her profession, Wintour in her most unguarded moment says, “I think they’re very amused by what I do.”

Unfortunately, that’s about as deep as it gets. It suffers from the same problem that James Toback’s Tyson did. Because the documentarian has been blessed with full access there is an obligation to protect rather than to probe. The kid gloves are on and no time is given to detractors.

by James Shelledy