The September Issue

The September Issue (2009) is R. J. Cutler's documentary you can watch online on iFILM, shot inside American Vogue as the staff assembled its fall 2007 edition — the heaviest in the magazine's history, running close to 840 pages.

At the center sits editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, whose clipped "no" can sink an entire collection. She's cool, exact, hard to read. The film's real discovery, though, is creative director Grace Coddington, a former model with a shock of red hair and her own fierce idea of beauty. Their quiet tug-of-war over every spread gives the movie its pulse. Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta and Sienna Miller drift through the frame.

Cutler frames fashion not as glossy fantasy but as grinding labor — deadlines, budgets and clashing temperaments. It's a treat for anyone curious about how a major magazine actually gets made, and for fans of documentaries built around strong people at the helm. Stream The September Issue (2009) online on iFILM.