Does rotten start from the outside too?

Anna Wintour fascinates me. But maybe not so much in a good way.

I'm not and never have been 'into' fashion. People that verbally vomit on about 'designers' and won't wear anything that doesn't have a recognizable label repulse me. It's just clothes. Some garments are beautiful, some are comfortable, some awful but it's still just that - garments. Something to put upon our prudish, naked selves, contrived - thanks to Eve - upon banishment from the garden.

I read "The Devil Wears Prada" and from the first pages knew who the writer was talking about. Ms. Wintour's demeanor and treatment of others was legendary before the book, but to read specifics was chilling. And fascinating.

Meryl Streep, as much as I admire her acting skills, just didn't capture the rigid, stony facade of Anna Wintour. Maybe that was by design - if you'll pardon the pun.

I just watched "The September Issue" and loved it. Critics of the movie mentioned that Ms. Wintour allowed the filming because she 'knew she had an image problem'. I don't know if that's true, but I appreciate her acquiescence. It was very interesting, even if you never buy Vogue.

It's all so fraught with circumstance, the making of the magazine. So involved with itself - surely a monster of it's, and her, own making. She looked as if she hated every minute. The scenes with her daughter where charming. It was the only time she looked relaxed and happy.

I also loved the movie because I 'discovered' Grace Coddington. I'd heard the name, but didn't know the genius. She's so charming and lovely and talented. Her photographs, her ideas for photo 'scenes' were incredible. Art. Not fashion. The fact that clothes were in the pictures seemed to me to be secondary to the finely wrought set-up, design.

Maybe the reason Anna wears such tension and detest on her face and in her posture, is because she is the decision maker. She is the one that has to do the editing, the "X"ing out of the beautiful photos because even though they're beautiful, they just don't ... go. The one who takes the role as decision maker and knows that someday she's going to make a wrong decision, and it's going to show, and people will howl and second guess and blame.

I can't decide why I find her so fascinating. She is not like me. I don't want to be her. I don't want to be like her. In watching her and reading about her I'm always trying to figure out how she 'made' it. At one time, was she more likable? At one time did she endear herself to people? Is cold, cut-throat, unfriendly, demanding what's really needed to run a magazine? A company? Is that what corporate America really needs?

The movie was just a small slice of the making of the making of the magazine, and of Anna Wintour. I know I shouldn't generalize, dismiss. We are all multi-layered. Does the 'front' matter in the long run? The top layers that everyone sees?