Grace Coddington

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I've been reading Grace : A Memoir by Grace Coddington, and although I am only halfway through the book, it is the first book I have read about the fashion world aside from magazines. Coddington's memoir exposed me to many influential individuals in the fashion world, as well as those more well known. The book has been a slow process to read because I have looked up every name she has dropped thus far.

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For one thing, Yves of Yves Saint Laurent used to look to Coddington at his shows and seek her approval. She started out as a model and found herself as the creative director of Vogue magazine. Coddington's life is definitely inspirational and tragic all at once. From her father passing away before she became a model to her miscarriage which was the only time she could conceive or the car accident where her eyelid was sliced off, there are many things that could have held her back in life, yet she chose to move on. At times she may come off as cynical as a person, but it is not something unexpected once you understand what she went through. Coddington's life was bittersweet from living in England and France among all of the latest fashions and meeting some highly influential people, such as Karl Lagerfeld or Manolo Blahnik who were both among her personal circle of friends.

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I never knew until I read Coddington's memoir that women who were models in the 60's had to apply their own make-up and style their own hair, all the while lugging from photo shoot to photo shoot all of their apparel and accessories. Coddington describes her bag as huge without wheels, hauling around items such as wigs, maybe a cheap bottle of wine, a food item or two, and even some sort of knitting or a tapestry for when she had to wait. I am not a model, but the thought of the preparedness necessary for that job back in those days is unfathomable. Today models have someone who dresses them up in just the way they are told to look. I get flashbacks of Project Runway.

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Just from what I have read so far, I have opened my eyes to many things I did not know about the fashion world. It would be easy to pick names mentioned throughout Coddington's memoir and write for weeks about the people she found to be iconic or notable. At the beginning of the book Coddington mentions the movie The September Issue, which I have only briefly watched, but I think it might lead into my next blog post, as I would like to see Coddington in action as her real fiery self. I look forward to reporting more on her novel, as well as her documentary with Anna Wintour. They are such inspiration women with such different personalities in fashion. Stay tuned...