"The September Issue"

Anna & Leon at the Philip Lam show

Most likely to succeed:  Anna Wintour

Class Brain : Grace Coddington

Class Clown: Andre Leon Talley

For those of you who grew up devouring your mother's Vogue Magazine, this is a must see.  Perhaps you have spent countless hours, as I have, going page by page through The Bible with your sister, friends, daughters, imagining that some day you would be able to actually be able to afford that fantastic Valentino suit, or Lacroix dress.  Forget it - it isn't going to happen in this lifetime.  All the thrift store rummaging and making over your grandmother's suits just isn't going to cut it in this rarified world.  My friend, who is an architect, saw the docu-drama with me.  She said that putting the Sept. issue together was not unlike building a house, where there are disagreements, clients and prima donnas to placate.

There was a time when stars were stars, based on their beauty and acting ability.  Take this legend of the silver screen, Julie Christie.  A very classy act.  68 years old!!!!  Tell us Julie, what is your secret you look mahvelous!

  "The September Issue" makes it very clear what we have all fogotten, that there was a time when celebrities did not sell couture.  The pages of Vogue sold couture, and on models whose names you probably didn't know except for Veruschka, and a few others.  Now there was a model.  She was really the world's first super model. and super she was, with legs about 7 feet long and an exotic pout that didn't exist on this side of the Atlantic.  That's when glamour was unattainable for us plebians.  Not only weren't we able to afford it, we couldn't even relate to the people who were wearing it.  Twiggy???  Knock-offs didn't exist. There was no H&M, no Forever 21 or anything like it.  If you wanted it, you bought it, or you made it.   I went through a period in 9th and 10th grade when I made a pair of pants every weekend so I could have something new to wear to the dance at the church.  That's when I wasn't wearing a Marimekko dress with white fishnets and clogs.  That was just after I got over the go-go boots and tank dresses.  About the same time as the paper dress.  I wore one to a dance one night and after two or three hours of doing the frug and the swim it just fell apart from perspiration.  I had to call for a ride home, or get detention for indecency. 

Now who do we have to look up to as our fashion icons.  Madonna, looking like she just left a garage sale on the West Side?  Little Kim, complete with holster and Cranshaw melons in her bra?  There's got to be a happy medium somewhere.  "The September Issue" won't give you all of the answers, but at least it will give you a hint at how our small minds are manipulated into thinking that pink goes with red.