10 Things We Learned From Grace Coddington’s Memoir

Fashionista's Cheryl Wischhover covers ALL the sneaky details we've been anticipating since we get closer to thee upcoming release date of Grace Coddington's memoir!

"We’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Grace Coddington’s memoir ever since we caught her toting it around fashion week and learned that there’s a whole chapter dedicated to cats. Well, it’s finally here. Sort of. The offical release date is November 20, but Vogue has a sneak peek in its November issue, which is online now here. It’s only five pages long, but it totally whet our appetite for the rest of her story. In the meantime, here are 10 amazing things we learned about Grace and her life, from that time she found a condom on her pillow to her thoughts on being called ‘cod’ as a young model. • She used to carry her own bottle of wine in case a shoot went late into the evening. • She didn’t know what a condom was the first time she saw one–which was when her “first affair” took her away for the weekend and left one on her pillow. • Her first photo shoot with Norman Parkinson was of her running naked through the woods. She worried that her mother would see them. • Speaking of her mother, she used to cut out pictures of models that looked sort of like Grace, thinking they were her. When Grace corrected Mum, she’d just say, “Oh, well, it’s a nice photo and I like it anyway,” and “pop it back into [her] file.” • Her editorial rate when she first started out was £2 a day for magazines and newspapers, and her advertising rate was £5. • On her nickname (this requires Grace’s own words): I think it was the photographer John Cowan who nicknamed me “the Cod.” You know, Jean Shrimpton was known as “the Shrimp,” so therefore. . . . I thought it was quite charming at the time because usually only a model as iconic as Shrimpton was given a nickname, although I must say that “shrimp” sounds a lot better than “cod.” • Grace contends that she was doing Twiggy eyelashes (“twiglets”) long before Twiggy was. • When she first started modeling she wasn’t good at walking the runway, taking a coat off, and smiling all at the same time–no coordination. • She was always number nine on top 10 lists rather than close to the top because she was more “avant-garde and fashionable rather than pretty.” • Grace found out her fiance had been having an affair when he got a call about her untimely death in a car accident–while Grace was in bed with him. See, that’s only five pages! We can’t wait to read the rest."

- Fashionista.com