THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
If you’ve seen Meryl Streep as the based on Anna Wintour character in The Devil Wears Prada you might be curious about the real person. If you have more than a passing interest in the fashion industry and/or have ever picked up a Vogue magazine you’ll definitely want to see this documentary on the making of the record-breaking 2007 September Issue, clocking in at over 800 pages, 4 pounds and read by over 13 million.
Even if you never heard of Anna Wintour and don’t really care about fashion this documentary captivates in the same way that a show like Project Runway does. The artistry and labor behind the production of something truly beautiful is always compelling. Additionally, fashion attracts characters who are creative, unusual, even eccentric. Wintour, who in pictures seems to be a sort of Andy Warhol figure, always the same severe page boy hair, large dark glasses, very slight and somewhat stiff in her carriage, on film does indeed bear some resemblence to the Factory legend. Like the later Warhol, Wintour is more famous for being the wrangler of artists than an artist herself, and she too seeks fame yet hides behind her glasses; shy, unwilling to open up, to let herself be truly known.
It’s an interesting counterpoint to the other main character in the piece, Grace Coddington, the creative director and the one responsible for Vogue’s most beautiful layouts for the past 20 years or more. Coddington and Wintour are both British and both worked their way to New York from British Vogue, starting at the same time. Predictably they operate sort of like an old married couple with Wintour as the rational, practical husband and Coddington as the wife who sneak shops, getting her way in the end...most of the time.
The film shows us Anna moving from New York to London to Paris to Milan and back again. We see clips of runaway shows with insanely thin models in gorgeous clothes, we see a few designers kissing up and one, Thakoon, reaping the benefits of having Wintour’s bright light shine down upon him. We also get just a tiny peek at Wintour’s private life including her 17-year old daughter who plans on going to law school and, at this point, doesn’t seem to want anything to do with the fashion industry. The least flattering depiction in the whole film was of Andre Leon Talley who writes a monthly column for Vogue called “Life with Andre”. If I were him I’d be really pissed, unless he likes coming off looking like a caricature of a big ole queen. At the same time the scene with him playing tennis in a Louis Vuitton shawl was hilarious.
Perhaps the most intimate moment of the film, with respect to Wintour, has her discussing what she does and it’s relevance. She defends fashion against accusations of vapidity by saying something to the effect of just because you like a Hermes Bag (I plead guilty) doesn’t make you stupid. On the other hand, whereas I would claim some of these commodities rise to the level of works of art, Wintour is much more pragmatic. In this same scene she talks about her siblings and what they do. One is a famous journalist, another directs a foundation that benefits the homeless. She smiles ever so slightly when she says that they are amused by what she does.
Wintour is indeed an important figure in the fashion world, maybe the most because she compiles, assembles and packages it all out for our consumption. In the end I can’t say I learned a whole lot more about her besides the fact that she has much more British reserve than Meryl Streep. On the other hand, I went right out and bought my Charlize Theron on the cover September issue.
Produced and directed by R.J. Cutler; produced by Eliza Hindmarch and Sadia Shepard; Director of Photography, Bob Richman; edited by Azin Samari; music by Craig Richey. Released by Roadside Attractions. Running time: 88 minutes.
With: Anna Wintour; Sara Coddington; Thakoon Panichgul; and Andre Leon Talley.
