One of the most influential, and respected resources in fashion? Vogue.
The most influential, respected, and feared face in fashion? Anna Wintour, Vogue's editor.
The person behind the images on the glossy, breathtaking pages? Grace Coddington, Vogue's creative director.
The September Issue? The biggest, most important, and talked about Vogue issues....
The September issue in 2009 was huge. As usual. I am talking over 800, 900 pages? That's BIG. The documentary directed by R.J. Cutler called The September Issue, followed Wintour and her staff through the process of making the infamous issue. It highlighted the process and got very close with interviews featuring Wintour, Coddington, and many others including Andre Leon Talley. Wintour and Coddington have an understanding. The film outlines this very well, while they do not agree all the time and there is tension, together they produce an absolutely incredible magazine. One that influences the entire industry. What Anna says, goes. A fact emphasized in the film, sometimes at the expense of other people's creative liberty.
Anna Wintour, was born November 4th 1949, she has been Editor in Chief at Vogue since 1988. She is, undoubtedly, the last word in fashion. A fixture in the front row of all major fashion shows, always in her signature sunglasses and probably some fur. She must be incredibly intimidating. Everything about her exudes power and superiority. She is known to show little emotion and be fairly icy even to those with whom she is close. She has 2 kids with her ex-husband David Shaffer. The most personality she exhibits in the film was when she was talking with her daughter. Her style is very clean cut, straight dresses coming to the knee in attention grabbing patters, cardigans and killer heels. She is classy and put together, the iconic cropped bob has become synonymous with Anna Wintour. She is one of the greatest editors of all time in my opinion. She has an incredible eye for detail, and is decisive enough to pull everything together.
Grace Coddington, on the other hand, is not like Wintour, minus the stubbornness and the incredible talent(which is why they tend to clash, too much creative talent mixed with opinions) She is the most amazing stylists of all time, she can envision, execute and produce an emotion. In her words, she was left behind somewhere, she is still a romantic. How she views herself is irrelevant because what she is, is brilliant. She was born in 1941 on a small island called Angelsey, Whales. Her simplistic lifestyle was in no way shape or form Vogue. The only real access she had to the fashion world was her 3 month out of date Vogue issues she anxiously awaited. At the age of 17, she won the younger category of Vogue's model competition, and began modeling. She was in a car accident when she was 26 and lost her eyelid, later got plastic surgery to fix it, but that was the end of her modeling career. At 28, she became junior editor at British Vogue, later joining Wintour at US Vogue in 1988. She is still Vogue's creative director to this day.
She has styled some of the most gorgeous shoots I have ever seen. Some are highlighted in the documentary, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Her style is much more muted, almost dumpy compared to Wintour. she wears mostly black, and no stilettos are anywhere in sight. Her crazy red hair is worn wild most of the time, only pulled back in a sleek ponytail once in the entire documentary.
She is much more personable, and funnier than Wintour, so much so that it has been said she steals the show from Wintour in the documentary.
Overall, probably the best way I could have possibly spent my night. Definitely in my top 5 movies and one I will actually watch again. I want to be Grace Coddington. That is all.
xoxo
clare
Tom Ford. The illustrious man of the moment. His current Vogue France project, a spread in the December 2010 issue, features little girls all dolled up in heavy makeup and luxe ensembles. It seems so innocent on paper, little girls playing dress up, harmless right? Wrong. In the spread, the little ones are solemn, and serious, portrayed as almost sultry. They are in extravagant clothes, and on a variety of sets, one of which includes a young girl sprawled out on a tiger rug. The lavish lifestyle and setting for these tiny girls is causing quite the stir in the media. The pictures are almost cute, but then a real look and you walk away feeling...dirty, for lack of a better word. The images taint childhood, and sexualize girls younger than ever before. 
I am by no means saying that Tom Ford is not a genius, he truly truly is. He may have overstepped on this one though. Tom Ford, started out at Parsons in interior architecture. He focused on fashion his last year, but graduated with a degree in interior architecture. He was a fixture at Studio 54, where he found himself, and inspiration for his future collections. He got a job at Gucci in 1990, as the Women's Ready To Wear designer, he quickly took up the menswear and shoe design as well. In 1992 he took over as design director, and then in 1994 became Creative Director. He left the house in 2004, after also overseeing Yves Saint Laurent, where he was Creative Director when Gucci acquired the House. In 2005 he launched the Tom Ford brand. From then till now he has disappeared from Women's Wear a bit. In the January issue of Harper's Bazaar, the article on him shows that he is well loved and accomplished. People have missed him and his collection which he designed with specific women in mind was a huge success, women like Rita Wilson (Who's breast Ford apparently fondled at the fitting), Lisa Eisner, Julianne Moore, and Beyonce walked the runway in his designs. 
