Grace Coddington, Vogue Creative Director, steps down

Grace Coddington, the creative director at Vogue, announced she’s “stepping away” from the role at the esteemed fashion magazine, Business of Fashion reports.

Coddington, who is often seen at the side of longtime Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, has held her position as the magazine’s creative director for the past thirty years. She made it clear however in an interview with Business of Fashion that she wasn’t retiring.

“I’m not running away from Vogue, because it has opened so many doors. But it will be nice to collaborate, and nice to go out [and] give talks to people. It’s just another approach. I’m certainly not going into retirement. I don’t want to sit around.”

Coddington will reportedly still have an office and assistant at Vogue, and is contractually obliged to produce four editorial spreads per year.Coddingoton’s move is part of a grander scheme that will allow her to work on outside, non-Vogue projects for the first time since she joined the magazine in 1988.

One of these ventures reportedly includes a fragrance with Comme des Garçons.

Many outside the fashion world may recognize Coddington from the 2009 documentary, The September issue, which followed provided a behind-the-scenes look at the ups and downs of producing the magazines largest and most well known issue.

“Coddington — who was initially reluctant to participate [in the documentary] — emerged from the film as a bona fide star, whose charm and creative vision became widely appreciated beyond the confines of the fashion industry,” Business of fashion explained. “The public response inspired Coddington to write her memoir, Grace, published in 2012, which was optioned by A24 films.”

It looks as though Coddington has a lot of big things planned.

Matt Lee is a Web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely@mattlee2669.