The business of fashion, like the business of art or the music industry, is a shuck and jive. But this isn’t news and our reactions to these institutions are always the same. Where anything creative is involved, we’re jealous because we can’t do that and aren’t privy to the glamorous life that goes with it, or we dismiss it as unimportant. It’s a human desire to express and create, but it also seems to to be part of our nature to turn something into a product and make others hanker for it. Somewhere in between or underneath, the hard work and whatever meaning it had are lost.

The September Issue chronicles the run-up to the 2007 Fall fashion issue for Vogue magazine, and to paraphrase, “I don’t know fashion, but I know what I like” is never truer than in this film. Whatever shade will be the new black this season is decided by Anna Wintour, editor in chief at Vogue magazine for over two decades. That so much of this multibillion dollar industry is decided by a woman whose credentials seem to be a modeling career in her youth and first job in a London boutique attained by her father, an editor of the Evening Standard, then bulldozing her way up the ladder and dismissing underlings right and left only perpetuates the idea of mediocrity with a chip on its shoulder, and an upper class jumpstart rising even higher. Breathless coworkers and industry insiders testify to Wintour seeing trends in fashion first and even creating them but other than saying “I don’t like that” and saying it a lot, she does nothing that can be viewed as creative. That’s left to long-suffering senior fashion editor Grace Coddington, the surprising heroine of the film, herself getting her start modeling in swinging 60’s London but then remaining hands-on and retaining a sense of whimsy in her work. Though galled at Wintour’s decisions, Grace presses on delivering last minute brilliance for the issue and the impression you’re left with is that she does it time and again.

The trailers for this film imply that you’ll see how close to the bone Meryl Streep’s performance was in The Devil Wears Prada and the titillating, catty asides that turn Project Runway’s gears. Wintour herself says most people are afraid of fashion, so how does fashion’s feather boa castle remain standing? Just this side of fawning, the film glitzes along a timeline of stressed-out assistants to the pressing of the 840 page gospel of chic. Again, like fashion itself, the film never shows the real anything of the industry let alone the real Anna Wintour, but interesting chinks in her armor abound. The flinty look of insecurity as she talks about what the other members of her family do and how they feel about her career and the unabashed look of affection she gives her daughter Bee show Wintour as a person unguarded.

Entertaining, yes, but the filmic equivalent of unraveling the seams of the empress’s new clothes, not quite. Don’t feel the need to color coordinate as you sit down to watch. - [DVD]

Documentary

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 2/23/10


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