'And now ladies and gentlemen... Heeere's Grace!'
Did you know that the Phaidon author and Vogue creative director at large is planning her own talk show series?
Grace Coddington's career began in front of the camera in 1959, when she entered a modelling competition held by Vogue. She went on to model for the fashion magazine, before taking up creative and photographic roles at Vogue, where she made a name for herself staging shoots with such photographers as Peter Lindbergh, Bruce Weber, and Ellen von Unwerth.
She did however, return to life in front of the lens briefly in the 2009 documentary The September Issue, but now she plans to take a more formal place on our screens, by hosting a new talk show.
The Business of Fashion reports that Coddington will star in a new six-part interview series, entitled Grace to Face, which will debut on Made to Measure (M2M), the streaming fashion network, this September.
Coddington told BoF that the series was partly inspired by David Letterman's new in-depth profile series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which she thinks is "mind-boggling good."
Grace is a little apprehensive about the career move. "It’s nerve-racking because I’ve never been on TV in this capacity. I’ve been interviewed, but not the one who is in control," she says, adding: "but I’ve chosen people who are easy to talk to on purpose.”
Those subjects include Ansel Elgort – the actor, Baby Driver star and son of fashion photographer Arthur Elgort – and Louis Vuitton creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière both of whom she has worked closely with in the past.
She's also made her working life a little easier by interviewing all her subjects in a familiar setting. The show will be shot at Mr Chow, the New York restaurant run by her ex-husband Michael Chow, who will also make an appearance as a guest in the series.
To gain a bit more insight into her likely interviewees – including Ansel, who appears as a child model in one of her shoots – take a look at our Grace Coddington books here.