The September Issue, fashion’s most exciting documentary since Valentino: The Last Emperor, won’t be released until the fall, but the newly-released trailer has been creating no shortage of buzz. The R.J. Cutler film will be released (unsurprisingly) in September, timed with the Spring/Summer 2010 Fashion Week shows. Given that no further screenings have been scheduled after the initial ones at Sundance and at the MoMA, New York magazine reported that “a cadre of editors and designers are in possession of the coveted gem, resulting in fashion screening parties. The movie nights are rumored to have popped up in New York, Paris, and a hotel in Moscow.”
The September Issue follows Vogue’s legendary editor in chief Anna Wintour, who, for the last twenty years, has been called “the most powerful and polarizing figure in fashion.” Hidden behind her trademark bob and sunglasses, this documentary marks a stunning departure for the otherwise reserved Wintour.
With unprecedented access, filmmaker R.J. Cutler takes the viewer inside the closed doors of Vogue’s office to reveal part of what it took to put together the magazine’s September 2007 issue, which was and remains the biggest issue ever. It weighed over four pounds, sold thirteen million copies, and impacted the $300-billion global fashion industry more than any other single publication.
The film goes, as stated in a press release, “behind the scenes at Fashion Week, to Europe, on shoots and reshoots, and into closed-door staff meetings, bearing witness to an arduous, entertaining, and sometimes emotionally demanding process.”
The press release goes on to note that “at the eye of this annual fashion hurricane is the two-decade relationship between Wintour and Grace Coddington, incomparable Creative Director and fashion genius. They are perfectly matched for the age-old conflict between creator and curator. Through them, we see close-up the delicate creative chemistry it takes to remain at the top of the ever-changing fashion field.”
Images courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.
