Industry Icon: Grace Coddington

At the age of 71, Grace Coddington has made a real mark on the fashion industry.  The British woman, who is currently the creative director for American Vogue, began life as a convent-educated child, who yearned to be around fashion, with only the pages of Vogue to keep her urge satisfied.

At the age of 17, someone submitted her pictures to a Vogue model contest and she ended up winning in the young model category.  She was a top model during the ‘60s, alongside Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.  At the age of 28, she joined British Vogue as a junior editor, soon becoming a photo editor.  She ended up staying there for nineteen years.  Next, she moved to New York City to work for Calvin Klein and in 1988 she joined Anna Wintour at American Vogue, working there ever since as the creative director.

 (Photos from cheztitina.blogspot.ca)

In 2009, after The September Issue was released, Time Magazine wrote, “If Wintour is the Pope..., Coddington is Michelangelo, trying to paint a fresh version of the Sistine Chapel twelve times a year” (time.com).  The movie depicted a hard-working and truly inspiring Coddington, and how hard she works for Vogue to put together immaculate fashion spreads.  This brought her into the spotlight and gave her great credibility.

 (Sources for photos above (top-left clockwise) nhu-imagen.blogspot.ca, nhu-imagen.blogspot.ca, beautyisdiverse.com, nhu-imagen.blogspot.ca, amazon.com)

On November 20^th, her memoir came out entitled “Grace: A Memoir” and is for sure set to become a bestseller.  The book gives an introspective of Grace’s life during her times as a model, working with the top photographers and designers in the world, to her time at British and American Vogues.  Amazon declares Grace by saying, “Beautiful. Willful. Charming. Blunt. Grace Coddington’s extraordinary talent and fierce dedication to her work as creative director of Vogue have made her an international icon” (amazon.com).

Industry Icon: Nickelson "Nick" Wooster

“It’s so funny, at 28, I really felt like I knew everything.  At 52, I can tell you I don’t know anything."

– Nick Wooster

Nick Wooster is one of the hottest guys in fashion right now.  With his full-sleeve tattoos, trademark handlebar moustache, and a permanent cigarette attached to his hand, he is one of the most stylish dressers out there.  He has been deemed the “Woost God” and “the alpha male of American street style” (businessoffashion.com).

From top-left clockwise: deviantart.com, chicageauxdevin.tumblr.com, coolestmudafucka-outthere.tumblr.com, pureeuphoria.tumblr.com

He describes his style as, “a headmaster and a longshoreman moving in together” (parkandbond.com).  This juxtaposition certainly fairs well for him!  He is also covered in tattoos, which makes him even more awesome.  He likes it because no one can see them under his tailored blazers.  He has a leg piece of a koi fish, which he says will never get finished because it hurt too much.

From top-left, clockwise: dudehere.tumblr.com, thedapperanddandy.tumblr.com, hypebeast.com, porhomme.com

Wooster grew up in Wichita, Kansas and had his first job at a local family-owned retailer.  He then went on to study journalism and advertising at the University of Kansas.  After College, he moved to New York City and began working for the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi.  He did not end up enjoying that job.

So from there he moved onto the fashion world, where he has worked for 25 years.  This has included for brands such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, as well as fashion labels like John Bartlett, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Thom Browne.  He was also a creative consultant for GiltMAN, Park and Bond, and the Project Tradeshow, as well as having his own consulting business, Wooster Consultancy.  He is now the Vice President of brand, trend, and design at JCPenney.

 

Nick has also done some of his own design work, collaborating with brands such as The White Briefs (underwear), WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie (bags), and Orlebar Brown (swimsuits).

Nick Wooster is surely a jack-of-all-trades in the fashion world and definitely someone to follow.  His Tumblr is http://nickwooster.com/

Industry Icon: Emmanuelle Alt

“Forget trendy designer labels.  Jeans, a sweater

or a t-shirt worn under a jacket that seems welded

to you.  When it’s just right, when you don’t

see the effort, it’s irresistible”

– Emmanuelle Alt (mystylefest.wordpress.com)

Succeeding Carine Roitfeld as the editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris in February 2011, Emmanuelle Alt has surely come far in the fashion world.  Beginning at the tender age of 17, she was working at French Elle, and then at 20 Ans, a French monthly magazine for young women, becoming the editor-in-chief there in 1993.  She held that position for five years, and from there moved onto the magazine, Mixte, where she styled editorials.  Roitfeld had picked up Alt straight from that magazine to work as fashion director of Vogue Paris in 2000.  Alt also had many side projects, mostly in a freelance setting.  These included consulting for top fashion houses such as Balmain, Isabel Marant, and Giuseppe Zanotti.  She brought her rocker attitude and appeal to the brands and turned up the hot notch on them, elevating the designers to the top of fashion’s radar.

From top-left, clockwise: blog.trilogystores.co.uk, flare.com, mabqueen.com, monoxious.com. Middle: vogue.com

Emmanuelle Alt is a true Parisienne.  Her style is rock ‘n’ roll, with a youthful, makeup free appearance.  She is often seen in skinny jeans, a loose t-shirt tucked into her jeans, a blazer, and the hottest heels around.  With every brand at her fingertips, she still decides to wear Topshop jeans a lot, saying they are “the best in the world” (vogue.com).

From top-left, clockwise: mamusedemode.blogspot.ca, fashionzese.com, laleluxury.blogspot.ca, fashionzese.com, fashionmenow.blogspot.ca, fashionzese.com

Even during the global financial crisis of 2010, Roitfeld and Alt were able to increase Vogue Paris’ circulation from 100,000 to 140,000 (nytimes.com).  This increase was undoubtedly encouraged by the magazine's content of bold and controversial fashion editorials.  Many of fashion’s elite are confident that Alt will continue to do wonders for Vogue Paris as its editor-in-chief.  She has concluded that she does not want to turn the magazine upside-down, and that she is happy with it the way it is.  Alt is seen to be more commercial than Roitfeld, being more connected to the street, and therefore may appeal to a wider audience.  We will just have to wait and see what Emmanuelle Alt has in store for us!

Industry Icon: Kate Lanphear

“Lanphearites” are the cult following of Kate Lanphear.  These people see Kate as a fashion God, and she certainly seems to fit that description.  She is constantly a front row fixture at the hottest fashion shows across the globe.  Her signature platinum blonde locks, her punky, chic, and androgynous style has made her a regular on online blog sites such as The Sartorialist and Jak & Jil, even having Tumblr and blog sites devoted to her.

From top left, clockwise: off-glass.com, redcarpet-fashionawards.com, anananasamiami.com, redcarpet-fashionawards.com, off-glass.com, 
redcarpet-fashionawards.com

Kate grew up in a conservative Irish Catholic family in rural Virginia.  She was inspired by her aunt and Godmother, who were always so meticulously putting together their outfits.  She just could not tear her eyes away from this attention to fashion and she soon followed suit.  Kate decided to go to college for journalism, but quickly discovered it was harder than she thought getting into the fashion industry.  She turned to London as her new place to find her fashion calling.  She lived in a hostel with seven guys, and soon followed one of them to Sydney.  In Australia, Kate bartended, picking up any fashion jobs that came along.  Finally, she landed a job at Australian Vogue, and then went onto Australian Harper’s Bazaar.  She gained an immense amount of knowledge there.  From her experiences with the Australian fashion magazines, she says:

“The staff were so small that if you put your hand up you were allowed to do anything…I had no experience, but before I knew it, I was styling the cover with amazing people.  You’re allowed to execute your own ideas, because it’s so small.  It’s really like Fashion Editor 101.  I became really well versed in budgets and how to do production because you’re doing everything yourself”(businessoffashion.com).

From top-left, clockwise: ananasamiami.com, talkshoes.com, ananasamiami.com, monoxious.com, flare.com, ananasamiami.com. 

Middle photo: ananasamiami.com

When she returned to the States, she had a bounty of knowledge and experience under her belt.  However, she found it tough that the HR teams in the U.S. wanted more “defined” job descriptions, which she did not really fit into due to her previous extremely broad jobs.  She secured a job at Harper’s Bazaar, moving onto a position as senior fashion editor at Elle.  She is currently the style director for Elle magazine, a position that she has held since 2008.  She is also a huge supporter of her designer friends, including the jewellery designer Eddie Borgo, whom she was part of his fall/winter 2010 ad campaign.

Fashion Industry Icon of the Week: Diana Vreeland

Photo sourced from badgirlblog.blogspot.com

Anna Wintour who?  We have all heard the stories of the current editor-in-chief of American Vogue and how influential she is, but before her, came the original style genius, Diana Vreeland.  She was born into an affluent family in Paris and then moved to the U.S.  There she was seen as an extremely stylish socialite and was asked by Harper’s Bazaar to produce a column for them.  It was entitled “Why Don’t You?”  The column infused fashion advice with her quirky sense of humour, with advice such as, “(Why Don’t You) wash your blonde child’s hair in dead champagne, as they do in France (D.V. 144).”  She quickly rose up the ranks to become the fashion editor of Bazaar.

She left Bazaar in 1962 to become editor-in-chief of American Vogue until 1971.  At Vogue, she modernized the magazine to get with the times of the sexual revolution.  She has been quoted as saying, “The bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb (http://www.canadianinteriordesign.com/kwi/diana_vreeland.htm).”

Photo sourced from mrkstyle.com

Diana was an extremely free spirited individual with a brilliant and fun view on fashion.  She was also the fashion advisor to Jacqueline Kennedy who became such a massive style icon.  As well, Diana discovered Edie Sedgwick whom later became a muse for Andy Warhol.  She was also known for celebrating uniqueness in people’s appearances, flaws of the body were wonderful to her.  In 1965, she was inaugurated into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

Photo sourced from businessoffashion.com