Grace Coddington

Grace Coddington has given us a wonderful insider’s perspective of the fast changing world of fashion publishing along with a fascinating account of her salad days as a model through her rise to the position of creative director at Vogue, working side by side with Anna Wintour. The tale is a veritable “Who’s Who” of fashion photography in particular, and fashion publishing in general. It can sometimes be a bit like reading the liner notes and the detailed thank you’s on an album show more cover. Definitely a “Must Have” book for fashion groupies. Ms. Coddington’s life has not been completely carefree by any means and learning of her difficult but rewarding journey is an inspiration for perseverance. A reminder that even lives that may be perceived as “charmed” by some, are never without their challenges and heartaches. I loved the sweet hand drawn illustrations by Grace and the generous inclusion of photographs, both professional and candid. My only complaint was the tendency to jump around in the time line of events which could be confusing. show less

What a wonderfully surprising and fascinating book! I knew of Grace Coddington from The September Issue (of course) and was so interested in her as a person - I can't tell you how excited I was to receive this through the LTER program! Filled with sketches, photographs, and the kind of fun, swinging times that I only imagined happened, it seemed like she could have kept writing about her life (even though this is certainly long enough)! Her time growing up on a small island, her whirlwind show more modeling career, life in London, various marriages, dealing with life after her horrific car accident, moving all around the world... I was swept away by Grace's life and story. Recommended for fans of the fashion world, memoirs, and interesting life stories! show less

The best words for Coddington's book are "fun" and "charming," probably much like the woman herself. "Grace" is a sort of cross between a coffee table book and a memoir: it's bigger format that standard hardback fiction/non-fiction and has quite a lot of pictures (personal photographs, magazine spreads, and Coddington's charming illustrations) like a coffee table book, but is nevertheless mostly text (although the text is very widely spaced) and printed on matte paper like a standard memoir. show more This is no industry tell-all. Clearly, Coddington is still deeply entrenched in the fashion/magazine business, and is careful to avoid stepping on toes. But that's not to say it's toothless or annoyingly coy, like many other books written by people in a similar position. Rather, it's lack of dirty gossip seems to stem from the fact that Coddington is pitching this book more as a whimsical glimpse into just some of the fun and strange aspects of the magazine/fashion business, rather than a full stripping-bare of the industry. In that vein, she includes the types of details that I love, about the daily life of a working model in the early 60s (for instance, the contents of the huge bag that models were obliged to lug from shoot to shoot, complete with their own makeup and wigs), or quirky details about major fashion designers and photographers. It's also a beautifully designed book (no surprise), and it's bright orange cover was clearly designed with shelf or coffee table appearance in mind. A lovely and light read. show less

Loved this illustrated memoir. Believe it or not, I'm very interested in fashion--for the stories it tells, for the drama, for the scenes. Grace is a master of all that, of course. I'm fascinated by the connection between film and fashion, too, which she says she is much influenced by. She's a character, and her very authentic voice comes through vibrantly, and her rich and interesting life.