By TAY YEK KEAK

THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE (PG)
Documentary/92 minutes

IN THE world of high-end fashion, the icy, impassive high priestess of the front row is always Anna Wintour.

As editor-in-chief of the haute couture bible Vogue, she's considered the most influential person in the global fashion industry.

The September Issue, a documentary by R. J. Cutler, takes the viewer right into her New York office to peel off layers which are as elusive as a Chanel cheap sale.

And you find that British- born Wintour comes across not as a ranting diva but a calm, inscrutable sphinx who gets her way in everything without giving anything away.

As deadline nears, her retinue of underlings, designers, photographers, models and assorted clothes people scramble to put together Vogue's trendsetting issue of September 2007 - a phonebook-thick tome of gilded glamour.

The road to that decorated dream is paved with exact and exacting decisions - all Wintour's.

If you haven't heard of this feared creature, she's the mythical tyrant the Meryl Streep character was based on in the chick flick, The Devil Wears Prada.

In real life, as head of the ultimate chick-flip mag, she strikes deceptively soft but ruthless punches.

Her impassive coldness as she mutters 'thanks' or 'we'll see' is a full stop to discussion and an indication of latent disapproval.

'I don't see any real evening on that rack,' she says, dismissing, in one fell swoop, a nervous Yves Saint Laurent designer's range of evening dresses.

One admirer puts it this way: 'Anna doesn't need to be warm or friendly. She's busy.'

Oh, you want to hate this frigid boss, but you can't.

As the comically absurd touches - a hungry, corseted model steals a bite; a serious debate ensues over cover girl Sienna Miller's teeth - give way to the slog of work, Wintour's uncompromising precision actually seems reasonable.

Where others are bedazzled by a beautiful photo, she surveys the bigger picture of composing and selling that pretty picture. Here, the film offers a humorous foil to the dictator.

Vogue creative director Grace Coddington - once a stunning model, now the rebel to Wintour's control freak - is the only person who dares to show her Wintour of Discontent.

She grumbles, playacts and questions the lady boss' judgment behind her back, right through the process.

That's when you realise that that process, more than the personality we're hoping to uncover, is really the driving force of Vogue.

Shielded by her pageboy hair and trademark dark glasses, Wintour is virtually unknowable and has no wish to get chummy.

So, you may want to know why people are scared of her but, in the end, all you see is a very serious work ethic in a seriously controlled magazine.

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