Diana Vreeland was born in 1903 in Paris, a city that she believed taught her about beauty, style and everything there is to know in the world (
"The first thing to do, my love, is to arrange to be born in Paris. After that, everything follows quite naturally.") She had a fabulously interesting and just plain fabulous early life which included dancing in Anna Pavlova's Gavotte at Carnegie Hall, being featured in Vogue in an article about socialites and their cars, dancing in the New York nightclubs of the roaring 20s, and getting married at the age of 21 to "the most attractive man" she had ever seen.
She moved with her husband Thomas Reed Vreeland, a banker, and her two sons to Europe where she met Cecil Beaton, Syrie Maugham, and lived in the house previously lived in by Willkie Collins. While there she also started and ran her own lingerie business in Berkley Square. Her clients included Wallis Simpson and, Vreeland often proudly stated that she had provided the lingerie that had brought down the English monarchy.
She began working at Harpers Bazaar in 1936 working on the "why don't you..." columns, where she would, in the cold worrisome world of the depression, suggest fabulously bright, happy, ludicrous, extravagant and joyful things to do; such as
"wash your blonde child's hair in dead champagne, as they do in France", "turn your daughter into an infanta for a fancy dress party", "sweep into the drawing room on your first big night", "go to the theatre in a black tweed evening suit with a jacket embroidered in brilliant paillettes", "if you are a tawny blond, wear bright yellow pyjamas with carved coral bracelets", "order Schiaparelli's cellophane belt with you name and telephone number on it", "give someone an enormous white handerchief linen table cloth, and in different handwriting and in different colors (black, acid green, pink, scarlet and pale blue) have embroidered all the bon mots you can possibly think of" or
"try a lovely combination of tourmalines and pale rubies".
She went on to become the editor of Harpar's Bazaar where she is credited with having discovered Lauren Bacall, and later in 1963, Vogue. In 1967 she created the fashion slogan "This is the year you do it yourself" In 1971 she became a consultant to the costume department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She organised incredible exhibitions that where heralded in by parties that were attended by photographers, artists, celebrities, actors and models. A life-size doll, created by Greer Lankton, is currently on display.
She never identified herself as a feminist per se, however she nevertheless deserves, very much, to be featured here. This is because she was phenomenal. She was the kind of woman whose shear energy and independence enlivens the rest of us, encourages us to be free and be whoever and do whatever we chose. Often in my own circles creativity and working in the arts is at best not valued, at worst something to be ashamed of. Diana reminds us to never listen to them. To never listen to anyone that would stop us living our life. I just have to hear her say something or read something she has said to remember that i'm OK and that everything is going to be OK. And who wouldn't want to listen to her incredible voice and the beautiful, eloquent way in which she expressed herself? True poetry.
"Style- all who have it share one thing: originality"
"Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal."
"I think your imagination is your reality"
"You don't have to be pretty. You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend, spouse, or partner. Not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to you mother, you don't owe it to your children, you don't owe it to civilisation in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked female"
"A new dress does not get you anywhere. It is the life you are living in the dress."
"I believe in dreams. I think we only live through our dreams and imagination. That's the only reality we really have"
"Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world"
"You gotta have style, it helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It's a way of life. Without it you're nobody. And I'm not talking about a lot of clothes"
Films to watch are:
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2012)
Who are you, Polly Maggoo? (1966)
Lady in the Dark (1941)
Infamous (2006)
Funny Face (1957)
We'll take Manhattan (2012)
Read:
D.V by Diana Vreeland
I do not own any images, words, pictures or anything. Nor do I have the rights to them.
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