Loved this illustrated memoir. Believe it or not, I'm very interested in fashion--for the stories it tells, for the drama, for the scenes. Grace is a master of all that, of course. I'm fascinated by the connection between film and fashion, too, which she says she is much influenced by. She's a character, and her very authentic voice comes through vibrantly, and her rich and interesting life. ( )

Not compelling enough to finish. There were bits of drama and gossip interspersed with real and significant emotional events. The latter was barely touched upon, while the former had pages and pages dedicated to them. I'd probably do the same thing, honestly. I admire Grace, but I got the gist of the book - I think - from the first third. ( )

Grace Coddington was a fashion model in the 1960s, appearing in Vogue and other magazines. When she was 28, she moved to the behind the scenes side of fashion magazines and became a junior editor at British Vogue, later moving to photo editor. After a brief stint with Calvin Klein, she became creative director of American Vogue. Her whole life has been about fashion and photography. Along the way, she’s met and worked with many of the greats of fashion. Given my fascination with the subject, I thought I’d love this book.

The book, sadly, is merely ‘okay’. It’s flat, told in a ‘and then I’ format that brings to mine youthful ‘what I did on my summer vacation’ writings. Grace admits that she’s only read two books in her life (although obviously she’s had to have read hundreds of magazines in her work life), so it’s no surprise that she doesn’t have a fluent writing style. If you’re interested in the fashion world, you’ll like this book despite the lack of flow. Just to know who was doing what when is kind of interesting.

The most fascinating part of the book, to me, was that I finally know the why behind photo spreads in fashion magazines that barely show the clothing and are sometimes down right surrealistic. The spreads are art, not a catalog, and they have themes that have nothing to do with the clothing shown. Exciting to look at, they draw the reader into the *idea* of the clothing.

The book has many photographs, and is illustrated with Grace’s cute little drawings. ( )

I was really excited to read this book after seeing The September Issue. The book contains a lot of interesting material, but unfortunately Grace Coddington is not as strong a writer as she is a fashion editor. Her stories are a bit disjointed and meandering and not as fascinating as I had hoped. Still, all considered, I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in fashion and the inner workings of it over the past few decades. ( )