Reading "The September Issue"

Hot on the stiletto heels of the little spring sleeper "Valentino: The Last Emperor" comes another fascinating fashion documentary that promises to illuminate an insider's angle on a fierce, fearsome industry icon. This fall, the notoriously icy figure behind Vogue magazine and its legacy of trendsetting power steps into focus for documentarian R.J. Cutter's "The September Issue," which, fittingly, actually opens August 28 (Roadside Attractions; NY/LA) before a slow expansion nationwide in the months to follow.

"The Last Emperor" gave its audience a rare glimpse at the craft, business dealings and personal capital behind the legendary designer Valentino Garavani, once simply the name of the film's eponymous subject, now a globally recognized brand governed by private investors and corporate control whose stakes in ownership have all but gobbled up the last vestiges of the designer's formerly modest haute couture enterprise. The film chronicles the lavish preparations for Valentino's final gala, a restrospective on his life's work organized by lifelong partner Giancarlo Giammetti, who has been by the designer's side in both life and business from the very beginning.

Directed and produced by Vanity Fair alum Matt Tyrnauer, the documentary benefits most from its frank depiction of the two men whose lifelong partnership has remained largely behind the scenes of all things Valentino. The designer himself is a rather tempestuous presence, swinging his mood whenever it strikes his fancy and generally unable to say "Thank you" regardless of the occasion, given to fits of dissatisfaction that seem arbitrary to the point of absurdity. With Giancarlo, whose cool rationale and selfless, seamless contributions are the irrefutable secret of Valentino's success, the Last Emperor of Haute Couture finds a counterpart to weight down his lofty ambitions, bringing Valentino back down to Earth whenever his total immersion in a bubble of self-importance and that monumental ego threaten to carry the mere mortal up, up and away.

Juicy details are sure to emerge from the behind-the-scenes access on parade in "The September Issue," the annual issue of Vogue that establishes the standard for fall fashions on a yearly interval and in whose pages are featured the looks, and more importantly the products, that represent billions in future revenue from fashion enterprises worldwide. As in "Valentino: The Last Emperor," this fall's fashion doc reveals the wind beneath the wings of the ostensible creative genius behind the institution, illuminating the role of artistic director Grace Coddington, a former model, now essentially the only person willing to face Wintour's withering glares of disbelief and offer up constructive criticism and a different perspective at Vogue.

The trends set by Wintour's September issue trickle down from the designer's handsewn originals in his or her boutiques, into the upscale boutiques featuring high-end replications inspired by the real deal, and on down to the department stores in metropolitan shopping centers, where the same basic design that retailed for $800 in the pages of last year's September issue can be purchased for a tenth of that. The downward journey continues for the styles selected by Wintour some September gone by, replicated with diminishing regard to cost and quality by the mass-market factories that manufacture the clothes sold at big-box stores like Wal-Mart and Target, after which an article of clothing is dropped off with a few bags of others at a local thrift store for less distinguishing shoppers to discover and make their own.

Even from beneath the depths of a $1 bin at the Goodwill, it isn't difficult to draw a direct line back through a few generations of American style to its inception in the offices of Vogue, where Anna Wintour has long ruled over the fashion kingdom from behind sunglasses, high above the sidewalks of Manhattan and the peasantries below. Determining the presiding fashion trends for a largely unwitting public has its downsides, of course, like having the infamously thorny reputation on which Meryl Streep's iconic magazine maven Miranda Priestley (the titular evil in "The Devil Wears Prada") was brazenly based.

In the New York Post last month, under the headline "The Ice Queen Melteth," Maureen Callahan underscores her piece about the impending release of "The September Issue" with frank clarity: "It is no exaggeration to say that Wintour is the only one in charge of the $300 billion-a-year global fashion industry: she dictates to designers, to fashion houses, to CEOs, to the retail industry, and to us -- without apology, engagement or explanation."

It will be interesting to see how much of Wintour's coolly controlling influence is apparent in "The September Issue," which shares the name of the fashion industry's annual "bible" but is ultimately not Wintour's to control. Or, is it? One wonders just what lengths R.J. Cutter must have gone to gain such unprecedented access to the preeminent control freak of global fashion and the private selection processes from behind the dressing-room curtains at Vogue. The tabloids will keep speculating, either way; just the same, Wintour will surely fire dozens of future assistants for an array of arbitrary dissatisfactions, and she'll keep picking out the clothes we'll wear tomorrow.

A final note, appropriately rife with scandalous implication: Jezebel reports that one of the two production companies behind "The September Issue," A&E IndieFilms, is owned by the publishing rival of Vogue parent company Condé Nast. Hearst Entertainment and Syndication, which along with the production company in question, owns the Vogue-clone Harper's Bazaar, lower-brow fashion mag Marie Clare, and a full roster of counterparts that stand in direct competition with Condé Nast publications. Much ado about nothing? Perhaps. But the question of editorial control (an ironic one, given the Wintour way) and whether Hearst might be staging a subtle campaign to sabotage Wintour's decidedly unadmitted attempts at pulling rank with popular opinion...we'll have to hold our breath until "The September Issue" opens its pages.