Vogue’S Anna Wintour of discontent calls the fashion shots today, as recorded in this autumn’s shallow but enjoyably bitchy documentary DVD, The September Issue.

Once it was Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel who decided what’s in and out, and as with Wintour’s profile, you will not see the full picture in Anne Fontaine’s biographical film. Nor will you have as much fun observing her more idiosyncratic ways.

Coco, before Chanel, was born into humble circumstances and Fontaine charts her rise, risqué life and scandals before the years of the little black dress and the little black mark for her Nazi links.

As you would expect, the film is cut from the finest cloth, its couture exquisite, its chic oh-so French, and its leading star cannily cast in the gamine form of Audrey Tautou.

Jewellery from the Chanel Conservatory and Catherine Leterrier’s costumes evoke the era, but the story needs oil and grit, and at first it has both, when Gabrielle and her sister are dumped by their father in a convent orphanage before earning a living as cabaret performers for drunken soldiers and as seamstresses.

Coco’s world changes after she becomes the plaything of benefactor Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), where she stands out from the crowd, distinctive in her unusual fashions and lonesome in her love affair with Englishman Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel (Alessandro Nivola).

Fontaine’s direction has plenty of style but her joint screenplay with Camille Fontaine and Christopher Hampton lacks heat, as does Tautou’s sullen, sunken portrayal of Coco. The whiff of scandal wafts across the nostrils, but never playfully, and instead the tone is icy and hard and distant, to match Coco’s unbreakable determination.

Like so much in the fashion industry, Coco Before Chanel makes you feel you can “look but don’t touch”.

DVD extras: Director commentary; Coco Before Chanel: The Meeting feature, including cast and crew interviews; Making Of feature.