Grace Coddington Steps Down as Creative Director of Vogue

After almost 30 years at Vogue, Grace Coddington-a longtime, cherished magazine family member known for her star turn in The September Issue and her hatred of Instagram-is stepping down from her position as creative director of the fashion bible. “It grew out of those conversations”, Coddington said.

The flame-haired fashionista, known for her otherworldly aesthetic in photoshoots (and for pioneering Vogue’s April 2014 Kim Kardashian-Kanye West cover), will keep an office at the magazine’s One World Trade Center headquarters in Lower Manhattan.

1967: Grace Coddington, a fashion model and fashion director for Vogue.

She gained mass popularity after appearing in 2009’s The September Issue.

Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour, is said to be very supportive of Grace’s new path. There are now no plans to replace Coddington in the role.

The response to the documentary prompted Coddington to write her memoir, Grace, which was published in 2012 and has been optioned by the makers of the the film Ex Machina.

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While her voice will remain essential to the direction of American Vogue, this is the first time since joining the magazine in 1988 that Coddington will be permitted to work on external projects, including an upcoming fragrance with Comme des Garçons.

Coddington in Paris, 1972. She then spent over two decades at British Vogue, which is where she first worked with Anna Wintour.

Coddington, one of the most powerful figures in the fashion publishing industry, has been appointed to a new role as creative director at large and will take on projects outside of the magazine. “They’re thinking up ideas for me, which is fun”. “There’s about five designers whose work I still find super-exciting but if they go, I’ll certainly go”. Don’t be too nice, even to me.

“I never thought I would still be doing this at this age”.

It looks as though Coddington has a lot of big things planned.