Grace: Thirty Years Of Fashion At Vogue

by Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber, Michael Roberts

Grace Coddington's celebration of fashion has danced along its cutting edge for over 30 years. Abandoning a highly lucrative career as a leading model on the 60s London scene, alongside such swinging contemporaries as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, Coddington signed on in 1968 as a junior fashion editor at British Vogue. She quickly established herself on the other side of the camera, coordinating photo shoots with David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon, and the eccentric Guy Bourdin. A close working relationship with royal photographer Norman Parkinson produced a series of startlingly vibrant location shoots that have come to be considered classics. At British Vogue, Coddington also introduced the sweeping narrative epic, a familiar feature of her work nowadays at American Vogue, where she has been creative director for the past 14 years. Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue is not only a collection of Coddington's greatest work, it is a visual reminiscence of her life in fashion.

Genres: Fashion, Photography, Art, Nonfiction, Coffee Table Books, Biography, History

400 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2002

About the author

Lindbergh was born in Poland and grew up in Duisburg. He studied painting in art school, but began photography in 1971 and established himself as an advertising photographer. Moving to Paris in 1978, to concentrate on high-fashion, he photographed many top models including Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour, Isabella Rossellini, Nastassja Kinski and Tatjana Patitz as well as other projects with Karl Lagerfeld, Daryl Hannah, Giorgio Armani and more. His photographs have been published by Stern, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines. He also photographed Céline Dion for her perfume ad. A new upcoming project is an advert video shoot for Mariah Carey’s new fragrance, "M".
He is considered to be one of the world's preeminent fashion photographers, particularly in black and white, and is credited with helping create the supermodel phenomenon of the 1990s. He prefers his model to have minimal make-up and a simple hairstyle. Wim Wenders is an admirer of his work.

Reviews

[Jennifer Mills Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

After watching "The September Issue," I had to learn more about Grace as a fashion editor. This book taught me a great deal not only about her work, but top photographers and their styles of expression. I used to dismiss fashion as an art form... now I don't. This book opened my eyes. As a fiction writer, I could see the visual narratives Grace creates... some explicit, others more subtle. Also interesting is the synergy of place & atmosphere with the models, stylized so well they were playing characters rather than just posing.

This book gave me a fresh perspective of fashion. But I think it would also be interesting for those more experienced. Such inspiring images!

[Christy S · Rating 5 out of 5]

The documentary The September Issue brought Vogue’s backroom decisions to the world. If you saw it, Anna Wintour fulfilled every expectation you already had of her, but a woman named Grace Coddington single-handedly kept the humanity of Vogue intact. Or perhaps you’ve known the secret character and talent that is Grace for years, as it seems many have. After all, she got this enormous coffee table book of all of her modeling and style editing exploits published some years ago– and now it’s worth $1,000 used on Amazon.com (several weeks ago it was $5,000). Coddington has created some gorgeous, gorgeous photos for Vogue through the years, and was in many herself when she was young. This book includes her anecdotes and opinions on many of these–it’s a fun look at her amazing career, and at the evolution of Vogue in the last few decades… Good luck getting your hands on one!

[Aspopnly Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an amateur fashion photographer, while reading the book, I felt an authentic pleasure from the fashion-forward photos featured within. Besides, I appreciate her writing because her clear and concise language captures the interest and intent behind the fashion photography, allowing the reader's to avoid getting lost too soon in the superficial language of fashion. Somehow, the way the writer and editors structured this book provides a broad yet focused map of fashion photography. If you are looking for a book to dive into fashion, this is definitely of the ones you can't miss.

[sara frances · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grace continues to amaze me (amazing grace?). Lovely, lovely photographs!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neat pictures.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures are beautiful.

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great coffee table book - beautiful photos and work

[Manny Villa]

3070567

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. A piece of fashion history.