End of an Era: Grace Coddington leaves Vogue

Grace Coddington Steps Down as Creative Director of Vogue

The end of an era! After nearly 30 years in the role, Grace Coddington has stepped down from her position as creative director of Vogue, Business of Fashion confirmed on Wednesday, January 20.

But that doesn't mean Anna Wintour has lost her right-hand woman. The red-haired fashion maven, 74, will become the fashion bible's "creative editor at large,” keeping an office and an assistant. In her new role, Coddington, who was the subject of the 2009 documentary The September Issue, is contracted to work on four fashion shoots a year (as opposed to producing pages for each monthly magazine), a spokesperson for Vogue revealed to Business of Fashion. She will also be able to pursue projects outside of Condé Nast that she was previously not allowed to undertake.

A few of those projects are already in the works, including a perfume with Comme des Garçons, a book on her work at Vogue (following her 2002 work, Grace: Thirty Years of Fashion at Vogue) and a film based on her 2012 autobiography, The New York Times reports.

"I'm not running away from Vogue, because it opened so many doors. But it will be nice to collaborate, and nice to go out [and] give talks to people," she told Business of Fashion on January 20. "It's just another approach. I'm certainly not going into retirement. I don't want to sit around."

Coddington’s decision has been in the works for a while. "I've been saying, 'I'm going to leave tomorrow' for the last 10 years," she told the Financial Times in 2014.