Inside Grace Coddington’s Apartment

Recently the WSJ took us inside the home of fashion icon and Vogue‘s creative director – Grace Coddington. And while they focused more on Miss Coddington’s collection of nudes and her penchant for being a hoarder, our focus was on solely on everyone’s “dream best friend”. This once-in-a-lifetime insight into Grace Coddington’s world coincides with an online auction she’s curating this month with Auction House Paddle8.

Better known for her Midas touch when it comes to clothes and creating fashion editorials both magical and enchanting beyond our wildest dreams, Grace is indeed a self-proclaimed hoarder. Her Chelsea apartment and weekend home in the Hamptons, of which she shares with her boyfriend – hairstylist Didier Malige, is filled with collections of photographs (mainly nudes), English ceramics, cardboard boxes (orange Hermès and black-and-white Balenciaga being her favourites) folk art and (admittedly this cemented our love for her) anything to do with cats.

Coddington’s modelling career began with a nude photograph back in 1959, so it’s really no surprise that Grace was approached by Paddle8 to curate an auction centred around nude photography. As told to Tim Blanks of the Wall Street Journal during their interview… Coddington assumed that when Alexander Gilkes, co-founder of the online auction house Paddle8, first approached her it wasn’t because of her knack with nudes. “I thought it would be fashion pictures, so I said yes, and then it turned out to be portraits,” says Coddington. “If there’s one thing I’m known for, it’s ‘Don’t crop a picture.’ I want the feet in it. So portraits weren’t working for me. And they didn’t want fashion pictures—I guess they don’t sell for as much—so then they said nudes.”

“We felt it was the best way to celebrate the artist and the quality of photography,” says Gilkes. “Strip away the clothes and focus on the nude.” Hence the title of the auction slightly arch in light of Coddington’s role as the creative director of Vogue: “No Clothes.”Even though she was keen to curate something within the area for which she is best known, she made peace with its polar opposite by reconceptualizing the nude as a kind of canvas for her work. “We start out on a fashion shoot with a girl who has no clothes on, and we build from that: the hair, the makeup, the clothes. But she starts with nothing.”

Grace more than exceeded our “dream-best-friend”expectations – wonderfully down to earth, cat-mad, eclectic and passionate  . . . everything we imagined and more. Oh, and if you missed the video of her cooking steak and potatoes with Elettra Wiedemann last year, it is as much a “must-see” as the photographic entry into Grace’s apartment…

Photo credit: The Wall Street Journal

Ange x
Gurl Interrupted
A Girl Interrupted By Fashion, Beauty & Anything Pretty That Catches My Eye