"The September Issue" (2009)

Now I'm watching a documentary "The September Issue" about everyday life at on of the most famous fashion magazines - 'VOGUE'. Director R.J. Cutler becomes an insider, who discovers all secrets of the magazine's success. A couple years before this documentary was made, there was another similar movie about hard life in fashion industry, called "The Devil Wears Prada" and I really enjoyed how Meryl Streep portrayed ice queen of fashion journalism. Both movies are showing how passionate and obsessed (in a good way) people can be with their work and how high the price to be successful can be.

The plot is simple. Anna Wintour, the British-born editor-in-chief of American Vogue, is working 24 hours per day to make the biggest issue of the year very impressive. She has a great team of professionals, who are prepared to live in stress for weeks till the work is finally done. They aren't actors, but they are used to such attention. One of the narrators is Grace Coddington, a former model and the creative director of American Vogue magazine, who isn't another ice queen, has a kind heart and is a very romantic person.

The documentary is made very smart, because scene by scene the director tells us more and more secrets. It also is very dynamic, everybody is in a rush - models, photographers, stylists, assistants and designers. They are trying to be ahead of the fashion and the results turned out brilliant.

And my favorite quotes -

Anna Wintour: I think what i often see it that people are frighteened about fashion. Because it scares them or make them feel insecure they just put it down. On the whole people that may say, the meanny things about our world I think that's usually because they feel, in some ways, excluded or, you know, not a part of 'the cool group' so as a result they just mock it.
Anna Wintour: Just because you like to put on a beautiful Carolina Herrera dress or a pair of J Brand blue jeans instead of something basic from K-Mart it doesn't mean that you're a dumb person.
Anna Wintour: There is something about fashion that can make people really nervous.

Official Trailer -