Grace

 Three years ago the world beyond a few gay fashion enclaves in New York, London, Paris, and Milan found out about Grace Coddington when she outshone her boss Anna Wintour in the documentary The September Issue. In an industry obsessed with youth and the new next thing, she has been Vogue's creative director for decades and this year turned 71. Even more rare: She is the only woman in the world who can say she lives in Chelsea with a straight male hairdresser who has been her boyfriend for thirty years. It has not all been a fairytale. Her dad died when she was 11; her modeling career [left] ended with a car crash; her two marriages were short mistakes; and her sister died leaving Grace an 8 year-old boy to raise. She recently gave an interview saying it wouldn't hurt young designers to have “a few things going wrong in their life... I mean, I hate to say it, but it teaches you a hell of a lot, you know.” The proof is in her book Grace: A Memoir [Kindle], on sale Tuesday. It's filled with her own drawings, like this one showing Anna getting pinned by Sarkozy, and greatest hits photos from the visionary shoots she dreams up, like this Norman Parkinson stunner from the 70s.