Grace Coddington's Grace: Now Arrives Oct. 22

Grace Coddington, the flame-haired former creative director of American Vogue, has a new book. Grace: Now, the third volume of her career-spanning fashion portfolios, is published by Phaidon on Oct. 22. On Oct. 8 she talked about it with Anna Wintour at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, in a conversation British Vogue reported the next day.

The conversation

British Vogue's Alice Newbold writes that the exchange between two friends and colleagues of nearly six decades is impossible to summarize neatly. It ran about an hour in the V&A lecture hall in front of an audience that included Manolo Blahnik, Hamish Bowles, Joe McKenna and Jamie Hawkesworth. The two traded memories of birthday parties, bob haircuts and The September Issue, the documentary in which both appear.

Wintour said she once tried to get the Vidal Sassoon haircut and that it never worked for her. On the film, she said there was no conflict between them and that it was all for the cameras. The article says the evening was a celebration of fashion at its most agenda-setting, with enlarged pictures by Steven Klein, Annie Leibovitz, David Bailey and Norman Parkinson, all styled by Coddington, on show for V&A members.

What Wintour said about Coddington

Wintour told the audience that the new book is a powerful reminder that Coddington is at the absolute height of her powers. She added that a shoot with Coddington is never just a shoot. It is a script, a film, a play, a daydream and perhaps a short novel, usually romantic but also very witty, she said, and it is less about following culture than creating it.

Wintour took Coddington to American Vogue on her first day as editor in chief in 1988, even after Coddington said she had been always making trouble during their overlap at the British magazine, per the article. Coddington is described as an 85-year-old editor.

Two shoots, two reactions

The British Vogue report picks out two portfolios from the book's era. One is the Grunge and Glory editorial of 1992, shot by Steven Meisel, which Wintour admitted she hated at the time and which led many Vogue readers to cancel their subscriptions, according to the article. The other is the 2003 portfolio shot by Annie Leibovitz in which designers appeared as characters from Alice in Wonderland, which cemented Coddington's friendship with a then rising Nicolas Ghesquière.

The pair of examples shows the range in Coddington's work, from a controversial, stripped-down fashion story to a theatrical portfolio about the people who make clothes.

The relationship at the core

In response to the final question from the audience, what is it like to work with Anna Wintour, Coddington said Wintour allowed her to produce extravagant pictures and stories that she could never have put together as an independent. She said Wintour somehow trusted her, and that what she loved was that they were still friends. British Vogue treats respect as the foundation of the partnership. We have only this one account of the evening, and the quotes come from the magazine's report, not a transcript.

About the book

Grace: Now is the third volume of Coddington's career-spanning fashion portfolios, per British Vogue, and Phaidon lists it for publication on Oct. 22 at 79.95 pounds. We did not find a U.S. price. Phaidon has also listed a book talk with Coddington on its events pages, but we did not confirm the date or location. The book arrives alongside another Vogue project, Vogue Portraits, which we cover separately.

Why it matters for American readers

Coddington's American Vogue years are the period most U.S. readers remember, and her pictorial stories with photographers like Meisel and Leibovitz shaped how fashion was staged on the page. For New York readers, the relationship between Coddington and Wintour is also the story of how an American magazine drew in British talent. The conversation also shows how much publishers now rely on events and books to keep a brand's archive in view, which is a business observation of ours rather than a claim from the sources.

What we could not confirm

We relied on British Vogue's report and its book details, and we did not attend the V&A event or read the book. Coddington's age of 85 comes from that report. We could not verify the details of the 1992 and 2003 shoots beyond the article's summary. The U.S. publication date and price are not confirmed. The cover photograph of Coddington dates from 2009 and was not taken at the V&A event.

FAQ

When is Grace: Now published?

Phaidon publishes it on Oct. 22, 2026, according to British Vogue.

Who is Grace Coddington?

A longtime fashion editor who worked at British Vogue and, from 1988, American Vogue, where Anna Wintour brought her on Wintour's first day as editor in chief.

What did Wintour say about her?

That a Coddington shoot is never just a shoot but a script, a film, a play and a daydream, and that she is at the height of her powers.

Sources

*Cover photo: jauretsi from USA, Wikimedia Commons, *[*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grace_Coddington.jpg*](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grace_Coddington.jpg)* (CC BY-SA 2.0).*