Why would Vogue Editior-in-Chief Anna Wintour FINALLY break down and consent to do a documentary film about her magazine? Which is what she did with A&E IndieFilms for R. J. Cutler’s “The September Issue,” a doc that documents the making of the Vogue 2007 September issue, the mag’s biggest fashion issue of ALL time – weighing five pounds! (Oh, when times were good! Vogue’s adds are currently down 28 percent from last year.) And it just debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.
Wintour immediately chic-ened up the Sundance look when she arrived to publicize the film and its festival deubt, and “publicize” is something she RARELY does – but then, she hasn’t need to – up till now. Fashion magazines, as we know, are suffering – they are losing advertisers to the internet and to the economic crisis. The New York Times recently penned a piece called, “Is Vogue Still Relevant?” And Elle Magazine had a tremendous boon from its tv shows “Project Runway” and the recent “Stylista.” Marie Claire has a tv reality show coming out called “Running in Heels.” And Teen Vogue benefited hugely from being on “The Hills.” So can Vogue be far behind?
The doc, which will probably prove that Wintour is NOT the Meryl Streep character in “The Devil Wears Prada” (or at least, they cut those parts out!!), will be released in 2009, and follows the Vogue team, including famed Creative Director Grace Coddington, through the airbrushing process, chosing cover subjects – and disagreeing over most everything, which gives the doc its necessary conflict. Andre Leon Talley gives it its comedy – and perhaps Sundance will give Vogue the shot in the ads it so badly needs right now. – Merle Ginsberg
Thank you so much for writing a post about R.J. Cutler’s “The September Issue”. As a person who is incredibly fascinated and curious about the life of the fabulous Anna Wintour, I can not wait to see this documentary in September. I really enjoyed the two arguments you presented about Wintour’s motivation for participating in Cutler’s project. First, you have proposed that the slump in magazine sales at Vogue has left Anna with no choice but to utilize this mode of advertising, which she not so long ago had major hostility toward. I completely agree that for Wintour and Vogue, “The September Issue” is more of an investment in marketing, and is not merely an artistic display of one powerful woman. As “Vogue’s ads are currently down 28 percent from last year,” anything to prompt interest in the magazine is worth it.
Your second argument, that this film will finally show viewers that Anna Wintour is not like Meryl Streep’s “Miranda Priestly” of The Devil Wears Prada, is very likely, however I do not agree that it was a factor in Wintour’s decision to do “The September Issue.” I have no doubt that as a mother, Wintour must have a softer side, but in all honesty, it does not seem that Wintour has much care invested toward the maintenance of an image as a nice person. She does her job well—better than anyone else, and she knows it, and that alone in my view, is what she prides her image upon.