R.J. Cutler spent eight months (January to August of 2007) filming Anna Wintour and the team at Vogue as they created the legendary September Issue of the magazine. The September edition is known throughout the industry as “The Bible” and the 2007 edition ended up at 840 pages being the single largest issue of a magazine that has ever been published!
Shortly after he began filming, he made the following observation to a friend who asked what it was like to watch Anna work, "Well, you can make a film in Hollywood without Steven Spielberg's blessing, and you can publish software in Silicon Valley without Bill Gates' blessing, but it's pretty clear to me that you can't succeed in the fashion industry without Anna Wintour's blessing." She seems to single handedly command the $300-billion global fashion industry. Her daily schedules include meetings with editors, stylists, designers, writers, models, art directors, photographers, retailers, filmmakers, actresses, socialites, moguls and even politicians. As Vogue's then-publisher Tom Florio says in the film while discussing her legendary inaccessibility, "She's busy."
What struck R.J. Cutler the most though was that regardless of how busy she was (very!!), she always kept her team moving forward and that every month, like clockwork, another issue of Vogue hit the newsstands. What is her secret? How does she do it? I think the answer to that lies in the documentary- in the meantime though, here are 4 important lessons J.R. Cutler learned from Anna Wintour while filming The September Issue.
1. KEEP MEETINGS SHORT
In an industry where 3-4hour long meetings are the usual, Vogue goes against the grain by keeping meetings short and sweet, a meeting that goes on for longer than 7 minutes at Vogue, is considered long. Everyone comes on time (in fact usually a couple of minutes early), prepared and ready to go for it! If you arrive 5 minutes late, chances are you've missed the meeting.
2. TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS
In one short scene early on, 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.
3. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH GREAT TALENT
Anna Wintour understands that your only as good as the people that 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.
4. DONT LOOK BACK
A statement that summarizes Anna's management style, comes 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 is "On to the next." In other words -always move forward. Don't dwell on the past. Life is short and there's lots to get done.
Follow this link to the original article :)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-cutler/what-i-learned-from-anna_b_472236.html
Written by Tania Burman
