Like the months of a pregnancy preceding a birth, this documentary chronicles the months leading up to the delivery of the infamous september issue of Vogue. For Anna Wintour Editor-in-Chief, the magazine is her church and she’s its Pope. Wintour is the fashion world, and we learned that in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” when Meryl Streep successfully poked fun at her in the leading role. But in this, we see a side of Wintour – her candid talks of her childhood, her daughter who wants to be a lawyer, and the painful angst of creating this telephone book of magazines. But most of all we see her taking her job very seriously. A clear message of this film is that Wintour is busy, and busy doesn’t translate to warm. From Paris to Milan to London she is the Queen of Haute Couture and when she walks into any room, she’s never threatened by anyone. Yet ironically she feels the need to surround herself by void/mannequin looking people, not in the model sense, but in the plain sense, ideal candidates for a makeover series themselves. Their hair is overly processed, their faces have never had a botox injection, and they dress in bland colors with little semblance or style. Are they smarter than the magazine they work for? Do they see right through it? But no matter how you may see it, these people are the brains and the creative force behind Wintour. Led by Grace Coddington, a former British model whose car wreck ended her career, it also ended her desire to look good. Now she hides behind the walls of Vogue fighting for her rights when it comes to a photo she wants in the lineup. We like Grace. She’s normal. But by the end of the movie, right when you’re feeling sympathy for all of them, and at about the time you’ve succumbed to the idea that fashion is art and art is serious business, you’ll be jolted by a comment from earlier in the film by Wintour’s own daughter, Bea Shaffer. When asked if she’d ever work for the magazine… she comments that fashion isn’t something to take seriously or “Acting as if fashion is life.” She’d “rather be a lawyer.” To that, her own mother pokes fun at her daughter’s conservative attire. Four tiaras
