The endless fascination with Anna Wintour has only intensified recently, largely as a result of the recession (as all eyes have been on Conde Nast, watching and waiting to see how they would cut costs in the face of swiftly falling magazine profits), but also because of this fall's documentary, released on select large screens on August 28th, The September Issue.
I dragged my boyfriend to see this movie on one rainy Saturday night last month, after my mom and I failed to find a theatre featuring the movie close to our home in central Massachusetts, and after plans with my friend and coworker Sarah fell through. Ever the good sport, flexible eater and easygoing accomplice, Alex followed me into a Loews on the upper West side, where I wrestled our way into the two last decent seats in the auditorium.
I'm not sure what I was expecting - perhaps something grander, revealing a slice of the extreme elite, luxe life Anna Wintour is privy to as a result of her position. But what I found was something different.
The movie opens with several testimonials from people who work with Ms. Wintour, like flame-haired Creative Director Grace Coddington (whose role in the movie is just as, if not bigger than, Anna's herself) and Vogue publisher Tom Florio (a down-to-earth, kind and gracious man I was lucky enough to hear speak while at Columbia Publishing Course), who expound on the mighty and supreme status Anna holds not just at Vogue, or in the realm of magazines and fashion, but in the world. I believe I'm recalling accurately that one person literally said she was the most powerful woman in the world, without a hint of irony.
In fact, the movie convinced me not only that a job at Vogue isn't necessarily the dream career of a lifetime, but neither is Anna Wintour's job - or maybe just her life.
Bee Schaeffer, Anna's daughter and the spark that started Teen Vogue, is featured a few times in the film, and every time it is at home, with or without Anna. For me, the most interesting part of the documentary by far was the insight it lent into Ms. Wintour's family dynamics. Bee, for example, is planning on going to law school, saying of her mother's profession: "I really don't want to work in fashion. It's just not for me. I respect her, obviously, but it's just a really weird industry. It's just not for me. She wants me to be an editor. I would never put it down, but I just don't want to take it too seriously. People in there act like fashion is life. It's really amusing, but if that's your career- there are other things out there, seriously."
At one point, Anna asks her daughter's opinion on a potential cover shot, and appears surprisingly invested in her daughter's reaction. I guess it just goes to show you that no matter how cold-blooded and cutthroat someone might appear to be, family still has the ability to get under their skin. In a poignant moment during one of Ms. Wintour's few direct interviews, we see a crack in her polished exterior of flawless ensembles and no-nonsense interactions. Speaking about her two brothers and one sister, all of whom have made careers out of political, justice and rights-related issues, she says quietly, "I think they're very amused by what I do. They're... they're amused, so."
Anyone at all interested in this woman has likely heard the story she tells anyone about how she ended up where she is: In filling out an application that asked her career ambition, her father, a British newspaper editor, said, "Well you want to be Editor of Vogue, of course." Says Anna, laughing, "That was it. It was decided."
While I've always had the sneaking suspicion that Anna Wintour's supposed inhumanity has been over-hyped, The September Issue both confirmed my instinct and dashed my high-flying hopes that this woman leads the most glamorous life there is (as The Devil Wears Prada would have audiences believe). She might have standing personal invitations from every designer to fashion shows and fetes, she might have a shiny car service with blackout windows and all the Starbucks in the world at her disposal; she might even have a lovely daughter and lots of friends to enjoy the frills that come along with her position. But even in an industry with some of the most talented, brilliant people there are, Anna Wintour has been at the top with people bending over backwards to satisfy her every whim for twenty years and counting. Wouldn't that get boring after awhile?
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