OUGD601: The September Issue

The September issue is a documentary based on the 2007 September Issue of American Vogue. Produced and directed by R. J. Cutler the documentary provides a behind the scenes look on what goes into creating a high volume, large scale fashion magazine, as well as the rigorous editing process when it comes to editorial spreads. We can see from the documentary that Grace Coddington, Fashion Editor and right hand woman to Anna Wintour takes a huge role in the construction of the magazine, overseeing all decision making when it comes to which designers, where the location will be and how the editorials conceptually will eventually look.

September is the fashion worlds January, with all major fashion weeks happening within this month. The September Issue has 5 months in the planning, making sure it features an accurate representation of the fall collections and social commentary of London, Paris, New York and Milan. Vogue features fashion stories/editorials, articles, interviews, ready to wear, couture collections and adverts (paid for by brands at silly money).

In Vogue, they go see all the collections and then edit it all down to what trends they want to feature- this will generally be a commonality between all runway shows, with a very Vogue agenda. These trends will eventually filter down onto social media, high street stores and eventually on the streets where influencers and taste makers introduce these trends to a whole new audience allowing them to grow out of the magazine. Vogue influences pop culture tremendously, in a way most of society is probably unaware of. Fur wasn't fashionable until Anna featured it heavily in early 1991, where it has since seen a spike in popularity and production.

Designers create special pieces for the September issue of Vogue, hoping that a cover star will feature in it. Alternatively, designers will use this opportunity to give Vogue exactly what they want (e.g.: fitting one of their editorial concepts) to be definitely featured within the magazine and reach such a large audience.

Vogue is always pushing culture and itself, which is why it is constantly growing and reining as ultimate taste-maker. The September issue of 2007 was then the biggest issue in history (500+ pages), but since then it has bettered itself yet again, now working upwards of 800 pages in some issues (at least 300 of which is fashion photography). Anna Wintour is currently the driving force behind this growth as she believes fashion is art which should be connected with everybody somehow- as well as a fantastic business woman.


How does Vogue put together a fashion editorial?

Figure out 'the look', then the story if heavily influenced by a particular trend/designer OR they figure out what story hasn't been played out anywhere else and invent the narrative first.

They ask, "what is the most important message to put in the issue?", highlighting that, despite clothes being the subject focus, communication is the overarching theme throughout Vogue and their fashion editorials. The clothes are meaningless if there is no narrative or conceptual merit to accompany it.

Its all a fashion story with Vogue and when shooting, they try and focus it around the girl to make the images more believable (and possibly less fantasy?). They ask "what is she doing? what is she thinking? where is she going?" and all of these answers communicate this fashion story- or the intended reading the producers want the public to pick up on.

They also stick to styling themes which run through editorial sections of the magazine, e.g.: textures, block colour, romanticism etc.

Go to see all major designers before and constantly throughout the process of shooting. Constantly shooting ad-hoc with fashion photographers and in house creatives.


Practically

They lay everything printed out and physically order the magazine page by page manually. There are huge benefits in this as everything can be seen at once and easily experimented with.

Grace Coddington (Fashion Editor) went to Paris just to find "something to shoot", so her time was spent meeting designers and finding the right pieces to tell the story.

Specific fashion photographers are hired to shoot certain spreads, due to their historic reputation with the fashion world and with Vogue, but also to best communicate the chosen aesthetic of each editorial section suggesting progression throughout the magazine.

MASSES of content which isn't even used (upwards of $50,000 worth of work edited down).

When it comes to the cover, at least 1 month before try the cover star in all possible clothing options prior to the shoot. Generally, the cover star is a celebrity or an upcoming 'super model' branding out into celebrity/influencer waters. From this planning, the desired look is created. How will her hair be? Do we require wigs? Makeup? What references can we draw from? Who is shooting her? What will that bring to the image? etc etc.


Vogues obsession with Celebrities

Anna Wintour was one of the first to introduce celebrities to the pages of vogue. She put celebrities on the cover as the culture of celebrities was becoming "overwhelming"- they are everywhere now, especially in the press. We automatically read an image differently if we recognise the person in it due to our previous experience of that person, e.g.: Kate Moss- Supermodel, commercial beauty. Marilyn Manson- rock star musician, angel of darkness. Both of these connotations impact the overall communication of the issue and editorial.

Vogue moved away from artistic stories to celebrities as ultimately that is what sells better, and a magazine is essentially a business for profit at the end of the day.

If model is replaced by celebrity, is model just a coat hanger? Yes.

Hire celebrities for covers all the time and place them in the designer of the times.. e.g.: Sienna Miller (big actress in 2007 stared on the September issue cover) wearing a fall 2007/8 dress, introducing the public to the new trend.


Fashion links to emancipation, the class system, overhauling race issues, feminism, revolt, anarchy.

Vogue takes you out of context and transports you to this far away world where your every day isn't a problem, never the less this could raise problems as it is undoubtably still sending connotations and messages to individuals via their printed pages. If an oppositional reading is taken of the images/texts then negative connotations may not place the viewer into a fantasy, but a hell of feeling like they're not good enough/not skinny enough/not rich enough to afford the garments we apparently 'must have'. (good and bad sides to vogue)

On Set

Depending on the photographer, continuous shooting isn't always required to save on time - Mario Testing stops and questions every image on a Mac.. do we want her like this? like that?

Writing Team

Asks what are women (mainly their chosen demographic of women) interested in? What are their concerns? They try to play on this and write articles to accompany the stories but bringing in more aspects of realism as these are the useful parts for the readers. Are women worried about wrinkly eyes? Lets do an article on wrinkly eyes then.

"Fashion is not about looking back, its all about looking forward" - Anna Wintour

Graphic Design Team

The graphics team is responsible for all typography, page layout and copywriting. They will create/edit pages throughout the whole process of shooting and contribute 'hot list' pages, articles and additional work to the lay out board.

Anna generally has adjustments at every hurdle, e.g.; "this type looks pretentious" or "why is this so large it looks like they're for blind people", so the designers need to tap into Vogues tone of voice and consider the tone of the fashion stories in order to create appropriate graphic design. Also, there is only one grid used throughout all Vogues to keep consistency.

 Once the magazine has been laid out and finalised, this is when the graphic designers compose it all into one big magazine.

Brands

YSL/ Gucci/ Burberry/ Ralph Laurent/ Tommy Hilfiger etc all feature graphic logos and prints as part of their brand image. When logo prints are used within an editorial context generally it is more about connotations to status and the signified than actual love for the garment- (the same goes in every day life). The question then turns into what society perceives that logo to mean, generally wealth and social status. In editorials these are only ever used for an reason and to complement the conceptual look/theme of the section, or often not used at all.