R. J. Cutler's
The September Issue was screened as part of Toronto's
LG Fashionweek festivities last night. The documentary centers around the creative processes behind the most important issue of the year for fashion authority
Vogue. We also see firsthand, editor
Anna Wintour's meticulous involvement overseeing it all. The audience gets a behind-the-scenes peek at the many creative differences that often surface over the final approval process including photo conceptualization, selection and placement.
Wintour is said notoriously to be uncompromising and extremely particular according to fashion industry insiders. She is rumoured to be so difficult in fact, that a top-selling novel by
Lauren Weisberger and successful film adaptation,
The Devil Wears Prada have been made on the matter. In
The September Issue, we get glimpses of
Wintour's personal life where we learn about her upbringing in a very Victorian home where she interacted little with her parents. In contrast, we also see her interact with her daughter
Bee Shaffer lovingly.
Shaffer surprisingly has no aspirations to be in the fashion industry instead wanting to break into the legal profession. Later in the film, we see
Wintour on the verge of tears when she talks about her relentless need to be respected by her sibilings. Although she has been called the single most important figure in the fashion industry, it is clear that she still feels she has much to prove to her own family.
Heartbreaking.
We also get to know
Grace Coddington, a former model whose career ended after a tragic car accident which resulted in her requiring corrective plastic surgery.
Coddington went on to become the Creative Director at American
Vogue. There is no question that she is the heart and soul behind the magazine after watching this documentary. The audience watches her internalize each creative rejection from
Wintour. Her vision is dead-focussed and we cannot help but feel for her seeing her pour her heart into the conceptualization process, only to have ideas
ix-nayed in the end. We learn through
Coddington that introducing celebrities as feature subjects in
Vogue was actually
Wintour's idea and being a bit of a puritan herself,
Coddington still seems very much against this idea. The audience quickly sees why this is the case when the team at
Vogue exerts quite the joint effort in making September 2007 issue covergirl
Sienna Miller look glamorous. Regardless though,
Wintour and
Coddington are a winning team - the former balancing the business aspect of the magazine, the latter balancing the creative.
