GRACE CODDINGTON ON THE RERELEASE OF GRACE: THIRTY YEARS OF FASHION AT VOGUE

JESSIE HEYMAN

The September Issue, the 2009 documentary about this magazine, introduced a wide audience to something the fashion world has known for decades: Wherever Grace Coddington goes, beautiful things follow. The film, which Coddington was initially opposed to appearing in, sparked the world’s pre-eminent fashion stylist to write her best-selling memoir, Grace: A Memoir. (“Here I am doing something I never imagined I’d be old or interesting enough to embark on: writing my memoirs,” she wrote in the introduction.) The documentary also turned Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue, Coddington’s 30-year retrospective of her work, a 10-pound coffee-table book released in 2002 that originally sold for $125, into a collector’s item, one that could be had for prices well into the four figures.

Now we’re entering yet another new and exciting state of Grace: Next week the creative director will be releasing a reprint of her tome—the same size, scope, and bright-orange cartooned cover—with a much more manageable price tag of $150. “That’s kind of better than $5,000,” Coddington joked the other day. “There have been so many preorders, supposedly, that they’re already reprinting more books.” And there will soon be more to come: Next year, Coddington will release a follow-up to Thirty Years, which will cover her favorite shoots up to present day. She is also working on adapting her memoir into a film (“a very slow process”), and developing a rose-scented perfume for Comme des Garçons. (Coddington, whose office iscovered in cat drawings, photographs, and even a cat-shaped lamp, has, unsurprisingly, fashioned her perfume bottle into the shape of a cat, too.) Coddington recently spoke with Vogue.com about her many upcoming projects, her reluctance to be interviewed, and her irreconcilable differences with Instagram.

You’ve said that The September Issue thrust you into the limelight in a way that wasn’t always comfortable for you. With all these projects, do you find yourself becoming more adjusted to—
Being interviewed? No! [laughs] Actually, it was fine for that first book. It was fine for the memoir. It was fine for the cat book that I did. When you do a lot of press or you speak in public a lot, you get into a rhythm, so you’re not so nervous and you hear the stupid questions coming and you answer them so they can’t be twisted.

What’s it like to curate your own work?
It’s very painful. Well, the curating is not painful; curating is interesting because it sort of brings back so many memories, but the editing is the painful bit. The second [book] is the same. It’s going to be 400-odd pages and it’s just a really difficult process.

Is there one photograph in your archive that you value the most?
I have a vintage silver print by Edward Weston—of a cat. I like that a lot. I have a few Bruce Weber pictures that I’m crazy about that I’ve worked on with him, which are in this book, from a whole homage to Edward Weston that I did with him. I have a Steven Meisel picture that I did for the couture way back with Linda Evangelista and Kristen McMenamy. I have several Irving Penns. But see—I’m no good at editing.

You’ve said that Natalia Vodianova is your favorite model—
Well, it’s a bit like my favorite picture, but yes, she’s a big favorite.

Is there a model or a face you’re particularly excited about right now?
There are two or three girls that I like, but I don’t know if they’re very Vogue girls. Vogue wants a girl with a certain stature. I like the slightly more quirky girls. There’s one I love that has not got into Vogue—oh, she has, she was in a group shot once—called Natalie Westling. I love her. Of course, she has red hair, which I always like. There’s an Asian-Australian girl I love called Fernanda Ly. She’s got pink hair. Love her. If you think about it, they’re a little bit odd or special.

In your memoir, you spend a lot of time writing about your preference for print over digital. Do you find that shooting for digital yields something different?
I think that digital photography is almost like a different art, in a way. It has a different feel about it. For me, there’s a little bit of soullessness. The mistake doesn’t happen because people correct it. If there’s a wrinkle in the dress, I say, “Leave it! Leave it!” It’s that little imperfection that I think makes it human and makes me enjoy the picture more.

Last year you made your debut on Instagram and were briefly kicked off after your first post. Now that you’ve been reinstated and you get to post drawings of cats, how are you feeling about it?
I hate Instagram, actually. I think it really interferes with people’s lives and things and it’s pathetic how everyone’s photographing everything they’re eating all the time. Everybody uses it instead of reading the newspapers these days. People want you to know that they’re holidaying in Greece. I mean, really. The first one I posted, my whole account got taken down because I was naked, which was ironic: It’s a goddamn cartoon!

http://www.vogue.com/13370484/grace-coddington-30-years-of-fashion-at-vogue/