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    Grace: A Memoir
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    Grace: A Memoir
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    Grace: A Memoir
    Audiobook8 hours

    Grace: A Memoir

    Written by Grace Coddington

    Narrated by Grace Coddington

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Beautiful. Willful. Charming. Blunt. Grace Coddington's extraordinary talent and fierce dedication to her work as creative director of Vogue have made her an international icon. Known through much of her career only to those behind the scenes, she might have remained fashion's best-kept secret were it not for The September Issue, the acclaimed 2009 documentary that turned publicity-averse Grace into a sudden, reluctant celebrity. Grace's palpable engagement with her work brought a rare insight into the passion that produces many of the magazine's most memorable shoots.

    With the witty, forthright voice that has endeared her to her colleagues and peers for more than forty years, Grace now creatively directs the listener through the storied narrative of her life so far. Evoking the time when models had to tote their own bags and props to shoots, Grace describes her early career as a model, working with such world-class photographers as David Bailey and Norman Parkinson, before she stepped behind the camera to become a fashion editor at British Vogue in the late 1960s. Here she began creating the fantasy "travelogues" that would become her trademark. In 1988 she joined American Vogue, where her breathtakingly romantic and imaginative fashion features, a sampling of which appear in this book, have become instant classics.

    Grace will introduce listeners to the colorful designers, hairstylists, makeup artists, photographers, models, and celebrities with whom Grace has created her signature images. Grace reveals her private world with equal candor—the car accident that almost derailed her modeling career, her two marriages, the untimely death of her sister, Rosemary, her friendship with Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Liz Tilberis, and her thirty-year romance with Didier Malige. Finally, Grace describes her abiding relationship with Anna Wintour, and the evolving mastery by which she has come to define the height of fashion.

    "If Wintour is the Pope . . . Coddington is Michelangelo, trying to paint a fresh version of the Sistine Chapel twelve times a year."—Time

    Editor's Note

    A glamorous read…

    Grace Coddington isn’t afraid to dish in this profoundly intimate account of her personal and professional life among the fashion jet set. Essential reading for any lover of fashion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateNov 20, 2012
    ISBN9780449808078
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Grace

    4/5

    87 ratings22 reviews

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    • 2/5
      "Grace" takes fashion and the industry to a level I couldn't even relate to. I thought it might be insightful, and sort of an eye-opening look at the real life of being a model. However, unless you are a model, designer or someone actually in the industry, I'm not sure anyone would find this book of any interest at all. There is so much name-dropping, some that I recognize(d), but mostly people I've never heard of, that take themselves way too serious. The author kept referencing the movie she and other self-important designers made--a little indie film--The September Issue, which I rented from Netflix. I thought that might prompt me to finish the next couple hundred pages of "Grace." Wow, Grace did not age well; sort of scary really. There are too many important things going on in the world today for me to really buy into this ridiculousness. Even her own daughter plans to stay as far away from it as possible. Seriously, these people have more issues than Vogue.
    • 5/5
      This is a very enjoyable and entertaining book for people interested in fashion. Grace Coddington is a former model who became the Creative Director for Vogue magazine. This book focuses mainly on her career and the people that she has worked with. She has a very straightforward writing style and the book is filled with beautiful photographs and charming drawings.
    • 4/5
      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 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!
    • 4/5
      Entertaining memoir of Grace Coddington. Don't know what I loved more. Her recollections of her youth as a young '60's model in London, sporting Vidal Sassoon cuts, flitting to France and out-twigging Twiggy. Her transformation after a disfiguring car accident from model to fashion editor. Her move to New York and American Vogue. Like many, I was intrigued by watching her in 'The September Issue' which led to this book. I wish there was more about the creative impetus/act/instinct. Coddington does not disappoint those looking for dish on the fashion world.
    • 4/5
      I find the fashion world to be both disturbing and fascinating and I love reading about the people involved in its creation and evolution. In this case it was interesting to get the perspective one someone who was both a model and one of the primary shapers and promoters of the industry. This was not the most exciting memoir I’ve ever read but I found myself enjoying and appreciating the rather dry and direct approach here, it felt more realistic and less like she cherry picked her past events. You really don’t get a sense of drama or excitement over just about anything in her life but you do get a strong sense of the history and how it changed and how that change accelerated starting with the 60’s.I really loved the inclusion of Grace Coddington’s illustrations, they added a much needed sense of whimsy to the book as well as additional insight into how her mind works and there really just needs to be more hand drawn illustrations in books. I also really appreciated the inclusion of lots of photos as one of my biggest gripes in books about the people involved in fashion or any visual medium is how sparse the photos are making it really hard to visualize so much of what they are describing. In this book I got a real good feel for the work she did and what she created.Overall a fun if not very exciting or in depth look at the life of a fashion world giant and the industry that she helped influence.
    • 3/5
      Grace Coddington was a fashion model in the 1960s, appearing in Vogue and other magazines. When she was 28, she moved to the behind the scenes side of fashion magazines and became a junior editor at British Vogue, later moving to photo editor. After a brief stint with Calvin Klein, she became creative director of American Vogue. Her whole life has been about fashion and photography. Along the way, she’s met and worked with many of the greats of fashion. Given my fascination with the subject, I thought I’d love this book. The book, sadly, is merely ‘okay’. It’s flat, told in a ‘and then I’ format that brings to mine youthful ‘what I did on my summer vacation’ writings. Grace admits that she’s only read two books in her life (although obviously she’s had to have read hundreds of magazines in her work life), so it’s no surprise that she doesn’t have a fluent writing style. If you’re interested in the fashion world, you’ll like this book despite the lack of flow. Just to know who was doing what when is kind of interesting. The most fascinating part of the book, to me, was that I finally know the why behind photo spreads in fashion magazines that barely show the clothing and are sometimes down right surrealistic. The spreads are art, not a catalog, and they have themes that have nothing to do with the clothing shown. Exciting to look at, they draw the reader into the *idea* of the clothing. The book has many photographs, and is illustrated with Grace’s cute little drawings.
    • 4/5
      This was fascinating. I love The September Issue and remember being captivated by Grace Coddington, so this was just the icing on the cake for me. What a long and storied career! I love that the book followed a linear time line, but each chapter was split up like little vignettes; it kept it fresh. I will admit, Coddington's (somewhat) callous description of her sister's death, and the separation of her nephews seemed a little... cold. How do you not take both children into your care? Just one? Killed me I loved her little sketches sprinkled throughout the book, and wished I had a hard copy instead of my e-Book, especially when she posted fantastic photos. All in all, an easy read, quite lovely. 3.5 stars
    • 3/5
      The standard disclaimer applies. I received this book as a promotional copy from GoodReads and what I can only assume was an overzealous use of the 'request this book' button.In all the technical ways that a book can be so this one was completely adequate. The author is a sufficiently skilled one and has many diverse stories to tell from her life and she shares them with openness and skill. Her career in the fashion industry for several decades is clearly one worth writing about as she seems to have met everyone who was ever anyone or even had a chance to be anyone. Unlike many memoirs her presentation is detailed without being egotistical and on a personal level she seems quite a nice person. She describes her own problems with anxiety around people and crowds in a way that I find very easy to relate to and sympathize with. Grace Coddington presents to her readers a good life well-lived.I was rather astonished though by the almost dismissive manner in which she related events from her own life. She seems to have managed to divorced half a dozen husbands with barely a mention of them. Major milestones in her life fly by only hinted at in some cases. Perhaps this was intended to emphasize her career rather than personal life but it did rather leave me wanting more of Grace the person rather than Grace the public figure.In the end though this was completely impossible to wade through. After 120 pages of name-dropping about people I'd never heard of (but obviously should have) I quickly skimmed through the rest and put it aside. It's well-executed but not for everyone.
    • 3/5
      When I began reading Grace A Memoir, I knew the most famous names from Vogue - Diana Vreeland, Anna Wintour and Andre Leon Talley - but wasn't familiar with Grace Coddington and wasn't certain exactly what a Creative Director's duties included. In her third book, Grace talks about her life begining from childhood, her modeling career, her jobs at British Vogue, Calvin Klein and American Vogue and the personalities and relationships from her fifity year career in fashion. The narrative is straightfoward, written in a declarative style, and feels almost conversational. Grace tells the reader about all the most stylish people, top photographers, designers, and au courant celebs, what they did and what she thought about it. She spends much of the book discussing the photographers with whom she worked and which ones were her favorites. The book includes a great selection of photos both of Grace herself and of some of her signature photo shoots, plus a charming collection of drawings of herself, her friends, lovers, coleagues and cats (for whom whom she has tremendous affection). For the true fashionista, fashion historian or reader interested in all htings Vogue, this is a must read. For the rest of us, that is for me, it was an interesting diversion into an area about which I had no previous information. The book was definitley worth a look, but would not be on the top of the list for the "mainstream" reader.
    • 5/5
      This is a memoir by Grace Coddington who is the fashion editor at (American) Vogue. She grew up in an isolated area with parents who ran a hotel. She started out modeling but was injured in a car accident and moved onto working behind the camera at British Vogue. Loves, marriages, cats, she then moved to the United States to work for Calvin Klein and then American Vogue.It was a really interesting look at the fashion industry and her life. When I first started reading, I realized "The September Issue" which is a documentary about Vogue magazine was on NetFlix so I watched that first and it really put a face to the story.Book has great pictures throughout the book.
    • 4/5
      I received a copy of the book as an Early Review and was not disappointed. It's a beautiful book! It really is a must for any full and part time fashionistas out there.
    • 5/5
      Grace is an in-depth, eye opening memoir of Grace Coddington, Creative Director at Vogue. The movie, The September Issue, launched Grace into the public consciousness and began the idea of writing a memoir. It seems the stubborn back and forth between Grace and Anna Wintour was intriguing to the watching population. They wanted to know more about this woman who dared argue her point to the Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour.Grace grew up in Wales, with dreams of one day experiencing magical scenes, like those she saw in her magazines. She wanted to work for Vogue, what she deemed to be the preeminent fashion magazine. That became the goal in her life, to be a part of the art of fashion. Not necessarily always to be in fashion and dressed to the nines herself, but to be able to create scenes that make people dream. To transport them from their day to day, to the image on the page, even if for just a few minutes. Her memoir is full of funny, sad, detailed memories of photo shoots, her early modeling days, home life, work life, colleagues and her cats.Grace is a wonderful memoir, giving a peek into and celebrating the full and abundant life of Grace Coddington. I received a copy of this book for the purpose of review.
    • 4/5
      Grace Coddington was a small-town English girl that went to London and was on the wave of the swinging sixties. Now she is known because of the documentary September Issue, about the magazine Vogue, of which she is the creative director. Grace started out as a model in London, and knows all the fashion insiders. She remembers clothes, photographers and lovers with wit and affection. She writes of her terrible car accident,her marriages,and her working relationship with Anna Wintour,much feared editor of Vogue and rumor has it, the model for the editor in the movie, The Devil Wears Prada. Grace is still an English girl and while she dishes about all the above there is a charming reserve to her writing. If you are interested in fashion history, this is a fascinating book.
    • 4/5
      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 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.
    • 5/5
      A fascinating woman, a fascinating life. Grace Coddington started as a young model and ended up as creative director of Vogue magazine. The photographs are great and I love the sketches she includes along the way. This was a great depiction of life behind the scenes in the fashion industry. I’ll never look at a magazine layout the same way again.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! I read it through in a night. It was absolutely fascinating to get a glimpse into the life - personal and professional - of such a creative genius and an artist in her own right. It was as though Grace was in the room telling her story. It was riveting to read her assessment of the many famous characters in her life and her interactions with them. What a rich, rewarding and fabulous life! I'll look forward to reading about the rest of it someday.
    • 4/5
      Grace Coddington was born on a small island, off the coast of Wales and ascended to the rank of Creative Director of one of the most influential fashion magazines ever. How did she do it? Through a combination of luck and skill. Why should you care? Maybe you shouldn’t, but if you give her a few hours of your time, Grace Coddington will surely entertain you with her years of stories from the fashion biz.Grace: a memoir by Grace Coddington allows us to join her on the path from the isolated inn of her youth through a modeling career in London and Paris. We get a bird’s eye view of the offices of British and American Vogue, as she turns from modeling to magazines. Tragedies and marriages (sometimes one in the same) breeze past as we sail to her 70th birthday party, in New York City, given by Anna Wintour.Fashionistas may recognize the names of the models and photographers who people Coddington’s world. I only knew the most famous of them, but that did not stop me from enjoying this breezy history of the fashion world by one of its major players.
    • 3/5
      A very in depth look at what it takes to get those perfect shots for the fashion magazines. I will certainly look more closely at the pictures now that I know how much thought and time went into them. Grace's book is nice. There are no snarky comments about people, and she seems to love her work more than some of her relationships. From a young age she became a model which then morphed into working behind the scenes first for British Vogue and then American Vogue with Anna Wintour. She also comments on the movie "The September Issue" which she wanted no part of, but ended up in it anyway.
    • 3/5
      This memoir provides a light-hearted look at Coddington's career as a model and editor at Vogue. Her descriptions of the life of a young model were interesting. But the book is primarily a list of prominent names in the fashion world and brief sketches of her relationship with them. There is a nice collection of her work at the British and American Vogue and many photographs. It is an attractive book, oversized and brightly colored and illustrated with her drawings. This book will appeal mostly to those interested in the fashion world.
    • 5/5
      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. 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.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful memoir of the fashion industry from the 60s until today
    • 4/5
      I love reading about fashion and was looking forward to reading this autobiography by the well-regarded Grace Coddington, who calls herself a 'stylist' rather than her official title of Creative Director at U.S. Vogue. I did enjoy the book but I felt a bit let down by the flow (or lack of it). The anecdotes came thick and fast but despite the repeated epithets given to various people, it was sometimes to hard to keep up with the chronology of events. Also, the stories abruptly butted against each other. The most jarring was the end of one story about a chaotic Annie Leibovitz photoshoot abruptly followed by a short paragraph about the day after 9/11. At this point, I wondered whether subheadings would have helped to separate the stories and assist the reader in understanding a new topic was being introduced.Coddington admits she is no writer and this was evident from the structure. I found myself wanting more details about some of her relationships with her colleagues and although I respect her not wanting to divulge personal details about previous husbands and boyfriends, sometimes I was left with a feeling of being a little shortchanged. I imagine this book will most likely be read by those interested in fashion and therefore I'll be intrigued to see what people think of it. For me, I didn't need repeated descriptions of who the designers or models were and I wanted more depth. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in 20th and 21st century fashion but I'm not sure fans of autobiographies would get much from this tome.