Zia Reviews - The September Issue

One of the biggest questions that is raised about the fashion industry is that of colluding. Why does it seem, that all the design houses, each with their own creative heads with different backgrounds, individual styles and ideas - that Spring/Summer, Autumn/Winter the main trends of each season are striking similar from the leading fashion houses. Whilst I still believe there is a certain amount of collusion in the fashion industry, I now know after watching The September Issue that most of what we wear is handpicked by Anna Wintour herself. Of course we all know that she is the most influential person in the fashion industry, but I was rather taken aback to see coveted eveningwear legend Oscar De La Renta displaying his collection to her, ready to throw out fifty percent of it on her command. She induces such fear by simply averting her eyes from a collection, she causes a designer to try and convince her a deep forest green was of a bright hue because of her offhand comment that there wasn't much colour in his line. She is such a carefully prepared image with an unbreakable facade that you don't feel as you have any more insight as to who she really is, and I'm sure she edited the film with just as much manic detail as she does her beloved Vogue.
In my mind the most fascinating element of the documentary is the power struggle between The Editor in Chief and her Creative Director. Having worked together for over twenty years they are on rare occasions in the same room, and when they are they seem to both stare straight ahead and utter few words to each other. Grace Coddington at first appears as hard nosed as Anna, but the stern exterior seems to arise from her constant battle to keep her beloved images in the pages of Vogue. Even I felt furious when half of a breathtaking 20's style photoshoot ended up on the cutting room floor. Grace is the antithesis of Anna, Grace in her uniform black dress sensible flats and wild mane of frizzy red hair, to Anna's sharp cut bob, unchanged since the 60's worn with elegant patterned dresses of carefully muted colour. Grace is the only one who can stand up to her, albeit mostly behind her back, but always with a cheeky dry cackle.
Despite the film being an obvious PR stunt to improve Ms Wintour's public persona, and despite her horrendous and frankly disgusting stance on the fur industry, it's still fascinating to think that somewhere in there, deep down she is still really a normal human being with a sense of humour. After all, although she denied any associations to the character, she did turn up head to toe in Prada at the premier of the infamously debated film.