Grace Coddington steps down as creative director of American Vogue

After almost three decades creative director, Grace Coddington, the right-hand-woman to American Vogue editor Anna Wintour is stepping down, according to a Business of Fashion report. However, this isn't goodbye forever as she will take up the post of creative director at-large while she pursues other side projects of interest to her. There are also no immediate plans to fill the role of creative director, and her office at One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan will remain hers as she is contracted to produce at least four editorial spreads for the publication every year.

'I'm not running away from Vogue, because it has opened so many doors,' Coddington told the Business of Fashion, which broke the news Wednesday. '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, 74, and a one time former model, worked at the British version of the magazine in the 1970s and 1980s before a move to New York when Wintour hired her as fashion director in 1988. Distinguished by her flaming red mane of hair, Coddington stood out with Wintour as a famous face at Vogue, after the release of the 2009 documentary film 'The September Issue,' which follows Wintour and her team as they put together Vogue's record-breaking 840-page September 2007 edition.

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