Who run the world? Me obvi.

R.J. Cutler, the director of ‘The September Issue’, shared what he learned from Anna Wintour as he filmed 300 hours of film over the course of eight months as Anna and her team pulled together the 2007 September issue of Vogue. The footage, which gave us a behind-the-scenes view of Vogue’s production behind the magazine became the feature documentary, in stores as of yesterday, ‘The September Issue’.

Lesson 1: Keep Meetings Short

I work in the film business, where schmoozing is an art form, lunch hour lasts from 12:30 until 3, and every meeting takes an hour whether there’s an hour’s worth of business or not. Not so at Vogue, where meetings are long if they go more than seven minutes and everyone knows to show up on time, prepared and ready to dive in. In Anna’s world, meetings often start a few minutes before they’re scheduled. If you arrive five minutes late, chances are you’ll have missed it entirely. Imagine the hours of time that are saved every day by not wasting so much of it in meetings. It’s not by accident that during the final scene of The September Issue, Anna Wintour is in her office alone, waiting for a meeting to begin, and we hear her voice call out, “Is anyone coming to this run-through except for me?”

Lesson 2: Trust Your Instincts

One of my favorite moments in the film is a short scene early on, in which Anna is reviewing some boards with Fashion Market/Accessories Director Virginia Smith. Anna rifles thorough the boards, saying “yes” and “no” as she goes. It’s quintessential Anna Wintour: knowing what she wants, making clear decisions and moving on. I once asked her about her creative process and she answered with some frustration. “I can’t explain it,” she said, “I just do it.” To me it was all very telling — here is someone who knows that her gut instincts have gotten her to where she is, so she listens to them, trusts them and isn’t afraid to put them on the line.

Lesson 3: Surround Yourself with Great Talent

The September Issue is really a film about Anna Wintour’s relationship with long time VogueCreative Director Grace Coddington. The two of them have been working together for two decades and the extraordinary symbiosis between them has left an indelible mark on the fashion industry. But if Anna’s collaboration with Grace is remarkable (and it is), equally impressive is the astounding level of talent represented by all of the other senior members of her team at Vogue. Seriously, filmingThe September Issue was like walking into the clubhouse of the 1927 Yankees — every one of these people (Andre Leon Talley, Tonne Goodman, Sally Singer, Virginia Smith, Phyllis Posnick, Hamish Bowles, Elissa Santisi, Alexandra Kotur and on and on) is a future Hall of Famer. The lesson is clear — Anna Wintour knows that you’re only as good as the people who work for you, that bad leaders are threatened by strong team members, and that success comes from surrounding yourself with the most talented people you can find.

Lesson 4: Don’t Look Back

If I had to choose a statement that summarizes Anna’s management style, it might come from her own comment at the end of The September Issue, when she says, “Fashion’s not about looking back. It’s always about looking forward.” Or it might come from Karl Lagerfeld whose favorite expression, Anna once told me, is “On to the next.”

Those are some great lessons taught by a true go-getter. To read more about R.J. Cutler’s experience, check out his blog entry on The Huff’ Post. We hope to see him do some more guest writing on the site.


TANIA T.
Founding Editor of Très Dope. I'm a recovering shopaholic that's always on the verge of relapsing so that's the only good thing about my credit cards being maxed out. Addicted to coffee, nail polish, Mexican candy, Yves Saint Laurent, gangsta rap and Las Vegas.
Twitter: @tahkneeah