I finally got to see the September Issue, the documentary about Vogue Magazine. In tech terms, it was the equivalent of waiting for the Star Wars prequels. I saw it twice, it was that good.
The September issue of Vogue is always the biggest and baddest of the entire season outweighing even December (which strikes me as odd as that is a make or break month for retail). It is the Bible of fashion. It is massive. The September 2007 issue of Vogue (the edition featured in the documentary) had 727 pages of advertising in it. It is one of the few magazines where commercialism is as appreciated as the ads since they’re as good as the editorials.
The star of the documentary is Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief and renowned inspiration behind The Devil Wears Prada. The scene stealer though belongs to Grace Coddington, creative director of Vogue, who pushes Anna into submission and lives to tell about it. Grace does beautiful and inspiring editorials that are heart breakingly romantic (like my favorite Vogue editorial of all time). Anna puts together a publication that has the most pages of any monthly magazine in history. A ying and yang of personalities that results in Vogue.
Anna is the dictator of the fashion world. The documentary shows how she brought back fur in the early 90s, how she convinced Miuccia Prada to change her materials to the joy of retailers, how she guilted Stefano Pilati (current designer of Yves Saint Laurent) about not using color, how she convinced Oscar de la Renta into paring down his line, how she helped make Thakoon a star. Known sometimes as Nuclear Wintour, she has an icy demeanor. One of my favorite lines in The Devil Wears Prada is when Miranda Priestly asks about a call thru, “Why is no one reeeaaadddy?” The hilarious park is when Anna Wintour asks “Is anyone coming to this run thru besides me?” Lauren Weisberger was pretty dead on in detailing Anna Wintour.
I loved Grace. She doesn’t conform. Her name isn’t Candy Pratts Price, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Marina Rust Connor or Andre Leon Talley (do we see a pattern here?). One of the chief complaints with The Devil Wears Prada is that fashion editors don’t actually dress like that and that certainly rang true for Grace. (Even Tonne Goodman always wears white jeans from the Gap, which I LOVE.) Plus, she was hilarious. She brought up budget in front of the cameraman for the haute couture shoot (a killer shoot with Raquel Zimmerman) because she knew it would force Anna’s hand. She has an artistic vision that was incredible to watch come together. I loved how she talked about always keeping your eyes open to find inspiration everywhere.
Go see it if you can. It was my favorite movie of 2009.
Caroline Trentini and the camera man from the documentary (Photo courtesy of Style)
PS – The title of the blog is the name of the song played in the documentary – Destroying Everything You Touch by Ladytron
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Elaine, I love that you included the infamous picture of the cameraman and model in this post. Remember, of course, Anna's response to seeing it on the board, “is that you? looks like someone needs to go to the gym.” Wow, Anna truly is an amazing character and you're right, Grace is the down-to-earth, sincere professional who slays dragons and three-word named colleagues on a daily basis. If nothing else though, this film gives you a true appreciation for the hard work that goes into making THE fashion magazine.
Elaine, I love that you included the infamous picture of the cameraman and model in this post. Remember, of course, Anna's response to seeing it on the board, “is that you? looks like someone needs to go to the gym.” Wow, Anna truly is an amazing character and you're right, Grace is the down-to-earth, sincere professional who slays dragons and three-word named colleagues on a daily basis. If nothing else though, this film gives you a true appreciation for the hard work that goes into making THE fashion magazine.
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