Grace

Grace Coddington, the passionate and flame-haired doyenne of fashion. It is said that she has the knack of being in the right place at the right time; that she can predict a trend; turn a piece of clothing into a best-seller which flies off the racks; spot the most talented new photographers, and break out models who epitomize the look of the moment. What is certainly true is that clothes inspire Grace to tell stories; and she has told hundreds of them over the 50 years she has spent in the fashion industry with pictures realised in careful collaborations. And now, here, she tells her own story. Beginning in wartime Anglesey, Grace: A Memoir follows her trajectory from London in the swinging Sixties, to Paris at the start of the ready-to-wear revolution, and on to America in the late 1980's when the era of power-dressing and the supermodel began, and the centre of gravity in the fashion world shifted from Europe to the US. More than simply a memoir, this is a cultural history of the last half century, populated by the beautiful people - the models, actors, designers and photographers who make up Grace's world. Along the way Grace shares her forthright views on everything from plastic surgery, cats, photography in the digital era and the nature of beauty.