Written by: Kindah Mardam Bey

As Yves Saint Laurent once said, "fashion fades, style is eternal.” Perhaps the only person to make Laurent quake in his stylish and unaffordable boots would be Anna Wintour. Wintour: the only person more important than all the great fashion designers of this generation put together is the editor-in-chief of the American magazine Vogue. If Wintour doesn’t like something the fashion industry grinds to a halt, if she loves it, then that is a one way ticket to billions. Many perceive Wintour as a rigid elitist, not helped by the alleged prototype of her in The Devil Wears Prada, but many more perceive her in the fashion industry as the guiding light shining a way to this years’ newest fashionable path. Wintour may decide what is fashionable, but the woman is all style.

Filmmaker R.J. Cutler seems to have been enraptured by Wintour. “My interest was in Anna Wintour and in the world of Vogue and in telling her story. I was compelled about the subject and I was curious about her.” Audiences will see that the documentary The September Issue is part observation, part admiration.

Cutler continues, “Anna Wintour is a singular figure in the fashion and publishing industry globally. People like Anna come along so rarely, these figures who dominate an industry so much so that it is hard to believe anyone would succeed in that industry without this person's blessing. I have always said you can make a film without Steven Spielberg’s blessing, you can create software without Bill Gates blessing, but you cannot really succeed [in fashion] without Anna Wintour’s blessing. She is successful, powerful woman, unflinchingly, uncompromisingly successful at what she does for two decades now. You can like her or not like her, you can think the fashion industry is ridiculous or a 300 billion dollar industry, whatever you think, Anna Wintour is a force to be reckoned with.”

The film is about the making of Vogue’s most prestigious issue in the year, the launch of the fall/winter season in the fashion industry. The September Issue documents the 2007 publication that was an astounding 840 pages, weighing in at almost 5 pounds, and was the largest issue ever released.

The September Issue follows not just Wintour on her endless meetings where she must make hundreds of decisions daily, but also follows her team of creators that are equally as important to the making of the September issue. Grace Coddington, a model-turned-creative director of the magazine, who started at the same time as Wintour at the US Vogue, is a hot mess of brilliance. She is a true fighter and it is delightful to see a woman such as Grace work daily to get her own vision into the publication. You can see by The September Issue that Wintour ensures a good issue will be turned out every month by the people she trusts and has worked with for many years.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Anna Wintour and The September Issue is the influence on the fashion industry. The documentary highlights this and Cutler explains, “I was struck by the extent of Anna’s influence throughout the industry. It is surprising to see Jean Paul Gautier and Oscar De La Renta shaking in their boots seeking her approval. It is startling that the chairman of Neiman Marcus asks for her to facilitate him getting product on the shelves in a timely manner. There is the traditional role of an editor-in-chief and then there is Anna Wintour and the gap between those two things was what was the most surprising to me.”

Not too many films take on the Fashion industry in such a big way as Cutler does in The September Issue, but another very famous film about the Fashion industry was Robert Altman’s 1994 black comedy Pret-A-Porter shot during Paris Fashion Week. Cutler says “The September issue is not a film like Pret-A-Porter. Although I am a huge fan of Altman’s films, he didn’t respect the fashion world, and that is the fundamental difference between Pret-A-Porter and The September Issue. I couldn’t make a film about people I don’t admire and respect.”

Cutler has an intriguing perception as to what films he was influenced by for The September Issue. “I was influenced by films like The Philadelphia Story and Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors. They were my two touchstones when making this film. Mostly, Cinema Verite played a large part for me in The September Issue.” The Philadelphia Story in particular (starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart) has the same timeless style, elegance and sophistication that Anna Wintour will be known for. Parallels can also be drawn with Wintour’s predecessing female icon and game-changer of the fashion industry - Coco Chanel.

The September Issue is released on DVD February 23, 2010.

Images Courtesy of E1 Entertainment

Written by :

Kindah

 

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