Nearly 30 minutes into the 2009 documentary “The September Issue,” we are formally introduced to Grace Coddington, the stubbornly passionate creative director of Vogue. It’s easy to assume that Coddington, with her mane of straw-like ginger hair and very un-Vogue flats, comes from a long line of fashion eccentrics. She is no eccentric.

Coddington’s no-fuss demeanor is a contrast to Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s unflinching iron fist approach or editor at large Andre Leon Talley’s fabulous flowing diva cape-covered world. Coddington delivers a grounding voice and vision for America’s largest fashion magazine. She is also the breakout star — if such a thing exists in a documentary — of R.J. Cutler’s film. How could the woman who steadfastly plants those flats on the floor and refuses to budge during kerfuffles with Wintour not gain notoriety among fashion fans?