The September Issue

‘The September Issue’ (Japanese title, ‘Fashion ga oshiete kureru koto’) chronicles the production of Vogue magazine’s September 2007 issue, and the reign fashion ‘high priestess’ and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Director RJ Cutler’s attempt to film a slice of life in the hallowed halls of fashion comes off as less of a voyeuristic exposé of the fashion industry’s most beloved and notorious magazine and its monarch and more like an engaged testament to the survival skills required of lives lived in publishing.

Though it appears as if Cutler sets out to unmask Wintour by portraying her in her day-to-day element, he in fact shows us far more than that. Indeed, the director and his crew (cameraman and cameo Bob Richman and editor Azin Samari) use a gimlet eye for reaction, and deft editing to maximise the essence of situations and bring to the surface the emotions of all operating within the potentially one-dimensional microcosm of the Vogue tribe.

The opening scene in itself is a landmark in many ways, as Wintour is shown in unusual close-up without her trademark dark glasses, speaking about why she feels people may laugh at fashion and its influence. At the same time relieving and uncomfortable, this proximity to one of fashion’s most lofty figures is very much what the film rides on and audiences expect.

There are scenes where viewers may find themselves caught somewhat off guard by Wintour’s unexpected wisecracks, and seemingly workaday activities like standing in her kitchen or riding in a golf cart. Yet all these potentially humanising moments are far outweighed by her at times terrifying influence in her domain. Short and to the point with her colleagues, some may see her as heartless however she is also doing what she is paid to do and what has made her an impeccable editrix, namely making decisions.

Some of these decisions and reactions clearly upset or send her subordinates running for the hills, while others push through them by adopting a supplicant-like Zen state (such as executive fashion director Candy Pratts Price) or sublimating (a tactic employed by the iconic editor-at-large André Leon Talley). However, the true example of a figure who has found some semblance of balance and the wherewithal to survive Wintour’s potentially self-esteem crushing manner is that of creative director and former model Grace Coddington.

Throughout the documentary Coddington and Wintour interact with the thinly veiled (and sometimes bare) honesty of two people who have found a certain brand of equilibrium in their relationship. When Wintour nixes some rubber outfits from a texture themed shoot, Coddington ripostes that ‘rubber is a texture’. What emerges from this curiously functioning dynamic is a portrait of two very different women with one common passion for clothing, style and beauty in life.

Where Coddington is overtly and cleverly humorous, Wintour is often unwittingly funny, highlighting her sometimes out of touch approach to reality outside of the fashion world. This is the crux of ‘September Issue’; a woman like Wintour would most likely never exist were it not for the environment she inhabits. In this vein Cutler only confirms what many of us may already believe about Wintour: that she is fashion.

‘The September Issue’ is now playing at the Shinjuku Wald9 and other selected theatres throughout Japan.