In committing to celluloid the compilation of the 2007 edition of Vogue to which the title refers, RJ Cutler’s The September Issue chronicles the perennial clash between art and commerce, beauty and the buck. It opens with the infamous editor-in-chief of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, saying, “There is something about fashion that makes people very nervous,” by which the audience is meant to understand that there’s something about Ms. Wintour that makes people very nervous — and by something, I mean everything. Yet this is not a sentiment that she wishes to dispel, as it, along with the signature pageboy bob, shrewd business sense, and undeniably high style IQ, is what she has built her career upon. And what a career it is.
The film reveals the almost religious quality attached to the wonder that is Wintour, with her style disciples describing her as everything from the sartorial pope to the high priestess of fashion. Indeed, with her flashing eyes and shining talent, she is both sacred and profane. You get the sense that when the cameras are rolling, she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing (or maybe more like lambs wool couture). In this sense, The September Issue has some of the trappings of a horror joint. Watching Wintour turn high-level fashion execs to mush and scare the bejesus out of starry-eyed wannabe tastemakers becomes a spectator sport, alternately fascinating and horrifying.
Reign of terror aside, it’s hard for the fashion world to argue with the capitalist bottom line that when Anna gets behind something, it sells. But there’s something more to it. Citing the 90210ers’ “I Hate Brenda” club as evidence, I would say the citizens of the pop cultural sector love them a compelling villainess. Would we really want the ice queen to melt before our eyes? Another question that surfaces where Wintour is concerned is whether there would be so much controversy concerning her iron-fisted rule if she were named, say, Aaron Wintour, instead. Put another way, how much can the hullabaloo surrounding her management methods be chalked up to uneasiness at the sight of a diminutive, bird-like lady getting men to snap to it?
Article comments
1 - Brandon
One of the major players who gave the movie substance and heart was Grace Coddington, the creative director. A forty-year veteran of the magazine industry, shes Anna Wintours contemporary, and one of the few people shown doing anything but agreeing wholeheartedly with Anna. She has Anna's ear, up to a point. But she also has her own aesthetic for the magazine. ---Read the full review at PinkyShears.com---