Anna Wintour has always fascinated me and it’s not because she’s from England. We’re talking waaaaay before The Devil Wears Prada. And it’s weird because I’m not even an eager reader of Vogue — their fashion features are so far beyond what I’d ever wear in everyday life.
Perhaps it’s because I’m a freelance writer, although I only occasionally write for the women’s mags and never for the fashion rags. Wintour is legend in the magazine industry. The one time I visited the Conde Nast building to meet with an editor (not Vogue!), I vacillated between terror thinking about having to take an elevator ride up with Wintour and hope that I’d ride down with her. Neither happened. But I did spot a huge bouquet of flowers marked for Anna in the lobby.
I’ve been thinking about Wintour a lot lately. There’s been a bit of snark in the NY papers about her cutting back and making do, what with the economy and Vogue’s ad pages being down, and she’s been spotted wearing the same dresses, one of which I covet from Oscar de la Renta’s Resort 2009 line. Since I can’t afford $3,000 for a silk frock, I’m planning to sew a copy at considerably less cost (thank you Mom for those sewing lessons!) I’ve also been watching some documentaries on Karl Lagerfeld; in “Signe Chanel,” Wintour makes a brief appearance with Andre Leon Talley (Vogue’s editor-at-large) and you can sense the power she wields in the fashion world, even with Kaiser Karl.
So I was happy to discover, then, there’s a new documentary coming out this fall called “The September Issue” where we’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at Wintour putting the famed fall issue of her magazine to bed. Of course I’m going to love watching this as a journalist, but as an Anna groupie? Heaven! Maybe I’ll be able to watch it in my knock-off Oscar de la Renta, that is if I ever get off my duff to start sewing it.
