Like Vogue, the magazine it follows, the documentary The September Issue draws you in and dazzles. No matter how much you know or care about fashion, you’re obsessed with what’s in front of you, wishing somehow you were part of what’s happening (or being worn).
I wanted to see the movie for two reasons: I’ve always been curious about the making of fashion magazines, and R.J. Cutler, a producer for the documentary The War Room, directed it. (I highly recommend The War Room, by the way, if you’re at all a fan of political movies or James Carville and George Stephanopoulos like me.)
The September Issue immediately pulls us behind the scenes of photo shoots that result in gorgeous, lush images. We see Vogue’s infamous editor, Anna Wintour, offering advice to designers whose names we know, even if their expensive creations don’t hang in our closets. Staffers bicker about the clothes models will wear and, once the photos are shot, which will grace the pages of the magazine.
Along the way, we meet Wintour and a few other people who make it all happen. She was a lot sweeter and less Miranda Priestley than I expected, but thankfully, the movie doesn’t hinge on Wintour being the boss from hell in The Devil Wears Prada. We also have the drama of whether Sienna Miller will cut her “lackluster” hair (she won’t) and whether photographer Mario Testino shot a photo suitable for the cover (he will).
Best of all, as a lot of reviews mentioned, we have Grace Coddington, Vogue’s creative director. She helped balance out the cattiness, even when she was being catty herself, because she wasn’t worried about anyone’s weight or hair, just the artistic beauty of the photos that would appear in the magazine.
In the end, The September Issue left me with the same feeling I have when I finish reading a fashion magazine like Vogue. I’m always glad I opened it and took the time and money to do so, but I’m pretty sure I won’t open that issue again. Not that it didn’t impress; it did. But it also accomplished what it set out to do — build an out-of-reach, fantasy world where high-end fashion rules at any cost — so perfectly you all but forget about it when the credits roll. That’s when you remember you’re wearing jeans from Old Navy.
Photo from The September Issue Web site.
October 30, 2009 at 11:20 pm |
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November 3, 2009 at 5:34 pm |
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