The news spreaded like a wildfire several days ago : Grace Coddington steps down as a creative director of American Vogue. WHAT?! Things are going to be very different from now on for sure....
Because Grace does for Vogue what the fashion designer does for the brand : her creativity fuels up all aspects of the magazine. That's why she has become an unexpected rising star since the documentary film "The September Issue" was released in 2009. Her autobiography Grace was an instant hit - still craving for that one!! - and the low profile stylist got all the attention she deserved!
So did her 2002 work on "Grace : Thirty years of Fashion at Vogue" weighs 4,5 kg, contains 400 pages of photoshoots and sells for up to $2,450 (!) on eBay for a signed copy.
Here you can check out two of my favorite specimens of her work for Vogue:
So when the 74 - year - old decided it was time to leave her, since 1988, position at Vogue in order to persue other potentials - please just think about what most ladies do at her age - I couldn't help but feeling inspired and intrigued at the same time!!
Here are three things that make me want to live life the Grace way:
1. Do it your own way
Against her bosse's - Anna Wintour - tend for commerciality and celebrity culture, Grace sticks for aesthetics and considers fashion from her arty perspective. And how I respect that integrity in people!! The redheaded girl who was raised during Word War II by the proprietors of a ramshackle hotel in Anglesey (that's in Wales bytheway), used to love sailing and sewing her own clothes managed to become someone important. Escaped Anglesey - where in her own words "you could end up working in either a clock factory or a snack bar" - started modelling and never looked back. So staying true to yourself and beliefs is sometimes all it takes....
2. When life gives you lemons you go and plant a lemon tree.
So Grace was enjoying her life as a successful model in the 60's - nothing had prepared the young lady with the perfectly cropped hair from Vidal Sassoon who made out with Mick Jagger for th disaster that was about to come. Yes, life does that. She survived a car accident that sliced off her right eyelid, had a miscarriage and found out her fiancé was cheating on her. Modelling days were over for sure. Stuff like that destroy peoples lives in a second. But Ms Coddington decided that whining is boring and went on becoming the best creative director Vogue ever had! Things get tough for all of us sometimes. The power to become stronger and just keep on fighting lays in our hands...never give up your dreams. They are what actually defines you after all!
3. Shy people do rise!
Being the kind of girl her friends in college used to call poppy due to the blushing effect on my face EVERY time I speaked up, you can understand why I relate to Grace's shyness! Loudness seems to be promoted as a necessary tool in order to succeed. But I happen to believe that hard work and self confidence are the important factors and people like Ms Coddington are around here to prove it!
The following two posts are also dedicated to the redheaded lady - lovely things about ...cat lovers (!) and styling.
So what do you think of her?
Kisses!
y ❤️
Sources:
- Vogue
- Anothermag
- NYtimes
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