September issue seems to be an ”I’ll show you!” response to the 2006 hit The Devil Wears Prada. Though it was most definitely not a biography on the editor Anna Wintour. There are many other talented people behind the scenes. If she is the brain center of the American Vogue working body – then the Vogue staff are the other major organs and arteries that bring it to life.
September Issue chronicles the frenzied production of American Vogue’s biggest issue of the year and all of the creative, overworked art directors, fashion editors, photographers, and assistants involved in the chaos. To many of the people we meet in the film, fashion is the industry they are employed in but not married to. For Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue – it is her life.
Wintour’s icy, emotionless business approach has left many bodies in her wake. But for those who can see through the hard exterior, there lies a woman with a vision who has helped to lift Vogue out of the past and thrust it forward into a leading position in the magazine world. Despite our cries, “But nobody wears haute couture!!” Vogue continues to be one of the top selling fashion magazines in America. She waltzes into a layout room and with a mere wave of her arm, approves or cuts what has taken teams of people hundreds of hours to produce. She really is the Oprah of the fashion world – like Oprah can take an unknown author and create an overnight bestseller with her magic want, Wintour’s influence on a new fashion designers success is incredible.
A glimpse into the machine at work made it clear to us where their success lies. The real star of the film is Creative Director Grace Coddington. If I can return to my body metaphor – Anna is the brain, and Grace is most certainly the heart of it all. Here is a woman who has been in the business for 30 plus years. She started as a model for British Vogue when she was a teenager, as a young adult started a 20 year career as fashion editor there and then moved to New York where she has been Creative Director ever since. She is a visionary when it comes to laying out a fashion spread and may just be the genius behind the success of a haute couture magazine in a time where people are watcing pennies and wearing more mainstream affordable clothing. She creates beautiful stories with clothes, fantasy-like and whimsical that upon close examination are as eloquently designed as the art you would hang on your wall.
This film was real and it revealed a behind the scenes look at a working partnership between Editor Wintour and Creative Director Coddington by showcasing their vastly different styles and their ability to pursue excellence from different angles, creating an 800+ page fashion bible that sells upwards of 10,000,000 copies a year.
An entertaining and enjoyable movie – right here in the beautiful Shops of Legacy at the Angelika Film Center.
We rated this film 3 out of 5.
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