Between the Fabric and Pages of Fashion: A “Years Later” Review for The September Issue

Anna Wintour in "The September Issue"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com 

While I’m not knowledgeable of the fashion industry, director David Frankel’s 2006 comedy “The Devil Wears Prada” is a movie that I have to watch every time it’s on TV, even if it’s just for a few scenes, all because of the terrific performances from Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci, as well as the view into the hectic nature of working for a fashion magazine.  Being a journalism major in college, seeing Hathaway’s character try to obtain a job in that field by starting out at a fashion magazine always drew me into her character’s journey.  It’s a movie that’s impossible to resist, as it not only focuses on the fashion industry, but also touches upon publishing and journalism.

Three years later, director R.J. Cutler gave audiences an up-close venture into the fashion industry with his fascinating 2009 documentary, “The September Issue,” in which he explores, in 2007, the intricacies that go into constructing the biggest issue of the year for Vogue magazine, all under the watchful eye of its editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour. 

There’s a moment in the movie where Vogue publisher Tom Florio refers to Wintour as someone who’s “not inaccessible” to those whom to she doesn’t need to be accessible.  While that inaccessibility is present in this movie, it doesn’t hurt the documentary because it’s not strictly about her, but the magazine as a whole, and we do receive some details here and there about her life and family that offer us some picture as to how she became involved with fashion.  She remains a mystery to us because she’s also a mystery to several others who work in close proximity to her. 

Probably the moment where we’re given a just-scratching-the-surface, but still enticing insight to her thoughts is when she briefly mentions what her siblings to for work, and she describes that they see her profession as “amusing.”  Although Wintour shows a passion for her work, you’ll notice that she exhibits the smallest hint of her feeling self-conscious as to what others think of her.  It’s a quiet, yet telling couple of minutes that open up her inner feelings to the audience, if just for a little bit.

While we’re given some commentary from a few notable figures within the fashion industry, the individual from whom we receive the most behind-the-scenes information is former model turned Vogue creative director Grace Coddington.  Besides having her provide us with some intriguing details about her time as a model and her transition into working for esteemed fashion magazine, she talks a lot about what it’s like to work for Wintour.  After all of the time that she has spent collaborating with Wintour, we see that she has a lot of respect for the editor-in-chief.  However, we also see the downside that she experiences from working with Wintour.  As the September issue is in its final stages of preparation, Coddington displays a frustration over Wintour disagreeing with several of her ideas, but maintains a calmness because of how she acknowledges Wintour as being the top decision-maker and explaining how she still wouldn’t be working for Vogue if she didn’t love what she did.

In terms of how the magazine is put together, the film doesn’t go quite beyond what we would expect from this sort of topic, but it nevertheless offers an enjoyable glimpse into the world of fashion.  From the many people that it takes to put this magazine together, multiple photo shoots that have to take place, and the extensiveness to which the crew has to organize everything to have a proper flow when putting the issue together, we’re given a clue as to how many moving parts there are to make sure that the magazine suits Wintour’s liking and goes to the publisher on time.  We travel with the magazine staff through the halls and offices of Vogue, as well as the photo shoots in Paris and Rome, with the international travels helping to show the influences that such settings have on fashion.

Cutler is able to capture the tension of what it’s like to work for Vogue and have Wintour as your boss, making you think of one of those signs that says, “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps.”  It’s clear that it takes time to acclimate to the Vogue environment when working there, and everyone that’s interviewed seems to have become familiar with how to navigate their workspace and make sure that Wintour is pleased with their contributions to the magazine.  The interactions that we see between the staff members allows us to understand how they combine their talents in their specific area of fashion in order to do the best job that they can with the mammoth undertaking of getting this specific volume of Vogue out to readers.

Despite the movie not being quite as thick with the details as Vogue’s 840-page September 2007 issue (the movie only runs about 90 minutes), there’s still just enough that’s revealed within the frames of this fun foray into fashion.

Grade: A-