Almost anyone who saw The September Issue will agree that the real star of the 2009 documentary was not the chilly and forbidding editor, but the warm and charming creative director. In this fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the hallowed New York office of Condé Nast, about the production of the biggest-ever edition of Vogue, the amazing Grace Coddington came across as the true artistic force behind the core of the magazine's content – it's fashion photographs – while Anna Wintour appeared dismissive with not only subordinates but her respected colleague. Even those unconvinced that fashion photography can be elevated to an art form, or who believe women's magazines are only about flogging ridiculously expensive handbags, were intrigued by the work relationship readily between two ambitious people who rival and respect each other in equal measure.
The flame-haired, 69-year-old Coddington's upcoming autobiography will be good news to anyone with an interest in fashion, especially how it evolved through the Swinging Sixties up to the multimillion-dollar business of today. And while the book will surely reveal more on the relationship between American Vogue editor and creative director – referred to as the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards of high fashion – it will give also an insight into Coddington's quiet determination to overcome disfigurement and almost being blinded after a car accident in her early 20s.
Although seeming the quintessentially English woman, Grace Coddington was born in Anglesey, Wales, in 1941. Her mother was Welsh, while she has described her father, who died when she was 11, as "very English". As a painfully shy teenager, she took refuge in her beloved copies of Vogue which she religiously subscribed to by post. For someone who still insists she hates "trends" , she developed a passion for that certain timelessness and elegance that transcends seasonal fashion dictates, and also an appreciation of the work of the photographers of the day such as Norman Parkinson and Irving Penn.
By 1959, she had plucked up enough confidence, and saved up the requisite £10, to enrol in a modelling course at Eileen Ford's agency in London. She was 18, and with her pale complexion and red hair, Coddington fitted that quirkily alternative look particular to British fashion models even back then and went on to win the Vogue Young Model Competition. Something else that hasn' t changed apparently is fashion's obsession with the perilously thin. The demanding Eileen Ford apparently told her she was too fat. "I had an 18-inch waist. She told me to wear a 'cinch' or something. So I just sort of got on with it." Her career took off and she worked with the same renowned photographers she had been in awe off during her schooldays. Then came the car accident. Her recollections of it are telling, showing that even when covered in blood, she strove to remain calm and polite. "I remember bleeding all over this policeman, and apologising for the mess I was making," she has said.
Coddington was left with no left eyelid and underwent several operations for reconstruction. But fashion editors and photographers were undeterred. "Terry Donovan rang me up and booked me for a job almost straight after. He said, 'Don't worry Grace, we'll just put you in sunglasses'." She continued to work with legendary names of the era, including innovative hairdresser Vidal Sassoon. But by age 27, she'd had enough of the catwalk. British Vogue offered her a position as a stylist in 1969. From that she rose through the ranks to becoming creative director. She began her work relationship with Anna Wintour after joining American Vogue in the late 1980s.
She's been married twice, first to photographer Willie Christie, then to restaurateur Michael Chow, ("neither of which lasted more than six months"). Her long-term partner is hair stylist Didier Malige, with whom she has also published a book called Catwalk Cats, about her other passion – at any given time she has several pet moggies. Since her appearance in The September Issue, Coddington admits she is now so widely recognised that people consistently come up to her on the New York subway each morning. Although very private – she had initially refused to be filmed for The September Issue – she doesn't mind fame second time around.
And she accepts that the commercial reality of selling magazines often means her artfully constructed fashion photographs are resigned to the rubbish bin by her often ruthless editor. "Usually she's right," she has said magnanimously. Neither is Coddington one to reminisce about how it was done in the '60s. "I don't want to sit around saying, 'It used to be much better.' You just have to look at everything with fresh eyes." That old saying – Grace under pressure – was surely made for her.