Valio vanilj och hallonyoghurt + banan + frusna blåbär i blendern. Rostat Saltå Kvarn Fruktbröd. Kolabulle. Ljuset är från Royal Botanic Kew Gardens, Natural Fragrance Mint.
Who taught you to be a fashion editor?
I don't know. It's all to do with the way you see things. Clare Rendleshem (Fashion editor, Vogue) was someone I watched very closely. I think she was an amazing editor. As was Sheila Wetton (Fashion editor, Vogue). She was a much older lady, but I loved her attitude to life. I always think I'm Sheila Wetton reincarnated. I love cats, I swear like a trooper and I used to be a model and so did she. I think she was extraordinary.
What were your first impression of meeting Bailey?
I don't remember the first time I met Baily, but I do remember meeting Terence Donovan very clearly. He had this little studio in Knightsbridge, in Yeoman's Row, opposite the Bunch of Grapes. I walked in with my book and he had his feet up on the desk like this (crosses arms). He said 'Hello' and we started chatting. Then he said 'I got married today' I said, 'You did? What are you doing at the studio then?' And he said 'Yeah, I got married today. But you know, whatever... ' I left there thinking, 'Oh my god, this is the world of modelling, how incredible!'
That's so funny.
I couldn't understand a word he said because of his cockney accent. He would just talk and talk. Then through him I met everybody else. Bailey was just starting out then. He may have been working at Studio 5 with Norman Eales. But Vogue soon scooped him and loved him. He was so cute looking. Everyone would always say, 'Oh, he's so cute!' Which he was.
What made you come to America?
A lot of things really, but timing had a lot to do with it. I came in 1987. It was a good time for me. My sister's kid who I raised after she died was all grown up. My mother had died a couple of years back so I didn't have to stay close to England, but mostly because I was having a thing with Didier (Maligne) and he lived in New York. It was a changing point when Anna arrived at British Vogue. She shook things up. It's so hard when you're sitting in a chair that you're so used to working in, and you look around and while everything looks the same, it's a completely different place.
So what did you do?
Calvin Klein had been asking me endlessly to work with him, so I thought you know what, if I don't go now, I will never go. I really loved America. I was always shooting here. I was the first one to come and cover all of the collections. None of the other European editors came at that point. It was really exciting. It was such a different point-of-view. Even now when I drive from the airport I get that feeling, I just go 'Whooooosh!' The energy you feel compared to England is unbelievable. England was draining me. Nobody wants to do anything there. I was becoming like that too. Anna had such a tough time when she went to British Vogue. We would all be like, 'Oh, we can't do this', or, 'We can't do that.' It was always negative, negative, negative. She must have been very frustrated. I took a step back and said to myself, 'You have an offer from Calvin Klein with tons of money to go and live in America' and Didier was there. So I took a very deep breath and accepted it. I remember driving up the Fulham Road away from my house to the airport thinking, 'This is it...'
How many people work with you on a shoot today?
Probably between 25 to 30 people. When I started out it just used to be me, the model, the photographer, his assistant and maybe my assistant too, that was the maximum.
What advice would you give an assistant who is about to leave you?
Go, but realise it's going to be fucking hard. It will be really really tough and it will take a while until you find your feet. Don't think you can get there in five minutes. It took me 50 years!
So what brought the book about?
Everyone said 'You have to do a memoir.' I thought 'Fuck that. I don't want everyone knowing everything about my life.' But then I was pressured into it and I thought, 'Well, maybe it would be an interesting challenge.' This was about two years ago. Then it turned into something huge and I got a book deal from Random House.
(They flick through the book) Tell me about this drawing?
Oh, this is me and Anna (Wintour). This is the famous racoon incident when PETA threw a frozen racoon on the table whilst we were having our Christmas lunch.
What did Anna say?
Something like, 'Well, that certainly broke the ice...!' I don't know, I can't remember exactly. This next chapter is all about Didier. This picture is before we were dating. This was on holiday with Bruce (Weber). When we get to the back of the book there is a whole section of photography from British and American Vogue.
Grace Coddington intervju och foton 12 sidor, Terry Jones I-D winter 2012
"Grace's memoir is an astoundingly good read, by virtue of the fact that se has led the most incredible, adventurous – cinematic, even – life, which is recalled to a level of detail I am afraid I couldn't possibly come close to mustering. Reading her tale, I realised (and have long suspected) that her youth informs every picture she styles: capturing the romantic nostalgic countryside; seeking the beauty in the everyday; creating narratives with magically transporting qualities that lift you out of the ordinary; working with the girls who symbolise the spirit of the age, as she herself did in the Swinging Sixties, when Vidal Sassoon chopped off her hair and some photographer dubbed her the Cod, just as Jean Shrimpton had been the Shrimp."
Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief, American Vogue
Do you have any rules to live by? Not really. I don't really plan ahead, it seems to make things a little easier.
Light, colour and content – can you list them in order of importance? No. They all have to be present, though not any one in particular. They all have to work together on a photograph or any thing.
William Egglestone intervju Matt Jones I-D winter 2012
Klänning Alexander McQueen handskar Azzedine Alaïa hatt Ward Stegerhoek foto Greg Kadel modell Kendra Spears, Next.
lördag, mars 2, 2013 at 12:28em 
