Codd ing t on was bor n on Apr i l

20, 1941 t o ho t e l i er par en t s on t he i s land o f

Ang lesey, Wales . Her in t er es t in

f ash ion began in her t eens ,

w hen she wou ld an x ious l y awa i t

t he ar r i va l o f a cur r en t

i s sue o f Vogue magaz ine , w h ich

was a t l eas t t hr ee mon t hs ou t da t ed due

t o t he f ac t t ha t she needed

t o or der i t on “Rush -Copy ”.

She l i v ed many

mi les away f r om any des igner shops , so Vogue was her on l y

connec t ion t o t he f ash ion wor ld . She

say s t ha t she l o ves “ t he w ho le sor t o f

ch ic t h ing (“ I t a l i ana t e cu l t ur e”) [abou t

Vogue] t ha t was so en t i r e l y ou t o f con t ex t

compar ed t o t he l i f es t y le t ha t [she]

l ed”. As a t een, she was pa le - sk inned and

conven t - educa t ed and ne ver wen t any w her e

on her ho l i day s , so she jus t l ooked a t

Vogue. Ar ound t he age o f 17, t her e

was a Vogue mode l compe t i t i on , and

someone submi t t ed her p ic t ur es . She

ended up w inn ing t he Young Mode l sec t ion .

She t hen began her mode l ing car eer f or

Grace Coddington’s celebration of fashion has danced along its cutting edge for over 30 years. Abandoning a highly lucrative career as a leading model on the 60s London scene, alongside such swinging contemporar-ies as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, Coddington signed on in 1968 as a junior fashion editor at British Vogue. She quickly established herself on the other side of the camera, coordinating photo shoots with David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon, and the eccentric Guy Bourdin. A close working relationship with royal photographer Norman Parkinson produced a series of startlingly vibrant location shoots that have come to be considered classics. At British Vogue, Coddington also introduced the sweeping narrative epic, a familiar feature of her work nowadays at Ameri-can Vogue, where she has been creative director for the past 14 years. GRACE: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogueis not only a collection of Coddington’s greatest work, it is a visual reminiscence of her life in fashion.

She first came to the mainstream public’s attention after the 2009 release of

The September Issue, R. J. Cutler’s documentary about the putting-together of

the 2007 September issue of U.S. Vogue.

Ms Coddington, who plays a prominent role in the film, was an unexpected break-

out star who is now hounded by fashion wannabes, photographers and street-

style bloggers.

In a world of tweeting and instagramming, the old-media megastar, whose job of

styling and creating fashion shoots is one wholly behind-the-scenes, still seems

unsure how to navigate her new celebrity,

She said to the Telegraph: ‘It’s not as though I’m a rock star where people are

very aggressive. I guess I’m too old to lead a really exciting life.’

But, slightly more emboldened, she later said to the New York Times: ‘They think

I’m everybody’s property. You’re like public domain. And I think that’s disgusting.

T h e P u b l i c E Y E

G

G