Diana Vreeland: A 20th Century Original

Diana Vreeland, fashion editor extraordinaire and icon who encouraged us to reinvent ourselves, dream beyond our realities and want more.  As fashion and society were moving beyond the old world upper crust during the 1930s, she appealed to both the elite and the average American women.  Once she stepped on the scene, neither the world of fashion nor it's publications would ever be the same.

Born in Paris, 1903, Diana's parents were Emily Key Hoffman and British born Frederick Dalziel.  Her socialite mother was a descendant of George Washington's brother, cousin of Francis Scott Key and distant cousin of Pauline de Rothschild.  They moved to New York at the start of WWI and became known in the best social circles.  Both her mother and sister were beauties; unfortunately, Diana was not.  According to Vreeland, her mother told her she was "impossible because she was extremely ugly and jealous of her sister".  Never one to dwell, she simply commented, "Parents, you know, can be terrible."  In truth, she preferred subdued elegance to what she considered to be the outlandish style of her mother.

 

In 1924, she married Reed Vreeland, not wealthy but a socially accepted banker.  They moved to Albany and raised two sons until 1929 when they moved to London.  She operated a lingerie shop near Berkeley Square and bought most of her clothes in Paris where she befriended the top couturiers.  The Vreelands were socially active and their friends included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Singer sewing heiress, Daisy Fellowes.

In 1937, they moved back to NY where she was offered the position of Fashion Editor at Harper's Bazaar magazine.  Editor Carmel Snow had a keen eye and was impressed by Vreeland's style.  Financially, they needed the money; Reed didn't earn enough to maintain their lifestyles or her Parisian and his Bond Street wardrobes.  This was also despite the fact that she almost never paid for her couture clothes.  To designers, Vreeland had that "jolie/laide" or beautiful/ugly image; not pretty but chic, visible and very marketable. 

                             

Over the next 25 years at Harper's, Vreeland would forever change the position of fashion editor.  Editors only observed and reported trends whereas she created and popularized styles, people and ideas.  Her observations were witty, humorous and often just way out there.  Famous quips included, “Never fear being vulgar, just boring.” or “People who eat white bread have no dreams.”  Her sensational Why Don't You? column asked readers, "Why don't you tie black tulle bows on your wrists?...Have a yellow satin bed entirely quilted in butterflies?".  Vreeland was surprised the one that received the most feedback was "Why don't you wash your blond child's hair in dead champagne, as they do in France?"  Embracing youth, in 1946 she hailed "the bikini [is] the most important thing since the atom bomb".

Vreeland was passed over for promotion at Harper's Bazaar when Snow retired in 1957.  She resigned in 1962 and signed on with Vogue as Editor-In-Chief.  It was a great decade for Vreeland who enjoyed the unique style and individuality of the 1960s.  However, not only were her exotic on-location shoots costly, management felt she was out of touch with the new generation and ultimately fired her in 1971.

Before Vreeland, editors never controlled photography and sets or decided clothing and models.  She was bored with old world society; she was looking for the here and now, for people with personality and talent that would motivate her readers.  She packed a punch with shocking ads like the two-page layout of a nude girl lying face down in the sand with a large black straw hat covering her backside.  The caption: “Spend the summer under a big black sailor.”  In touch with the life of the average American woman; when an assistant at Vogue suggested a layout on long skirts, Vreeland said, "Oh, no...modern women aren't going to go for that. They have to drive kids to school." 

Vreeland preferred to wear simple and classic lines with showy accessories like costume jewelry, hats and especially shoes.  Later in life, her trademark look became rouged cheeks and ear lobes, red lips and nails and  black lacquered hair in a snood.  Always fashionably thin, she wore low-heel sandals and loved the color black.  Her Park Avenue apartment was completely done in vivid reds, from the carpets to the walls and decor.  She wanted "a garden in hell" and claimed, "Red is the great clarifier - bright and revealing. I can't imagine becoming bored with red. It would be like becoming bored with the person you love."

 

Upon leaving Vogue in 1971, she became consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY and by 1984, she had successfully organized 12 exhibitions.  Vreeland was hired primarily for her ability to coax her society friends into donating fashions to the museum and soon was managing the entire project her way.  While the Museum wanted historical accuracy, Vreeland wanted a more contemporary look relevant to the public and mixed old and new together, as in pairing a dress with shoes that hadn't been designed during the same era.

Despite her success, Vreeland had never earned a large salary and always lived beyond her means.  In 1987 she needed to sell some of her costume jewelry and asked companion Kenneth Jay Lane what it was worth.  He estimated $30,000 to $40,000 to which she responded, "That much? My God!"  The sale drew a large crowd at Sotheby's and brought in $167,000.  When Lane called to tell her the good news, true to character, she snapped, "Is that all?" 

           
Her 1984 autobiography, D.V., is a fascinating read that humorously details the approach to fashion editing that influenced and delighted millions of readers.  She recognized talent and discovered celebs like Lauren Bacall in the 1940s and socialite model Edie Sedgwick in the 1960s.  She advised close friend Jackie Kennedy on style and introduced the First Lady to American designers like Oleg Cassini and Halston.  She invented much of the lingo still used in the fashion world today like the word "pizazz" and added to our vocabulary too.  When asked, “Mrs. Vreeland, is that fact or fiction?”, she replied, “It’s faction”. 

 

Edie Sedgewick

Lauren Bacall

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

 

A true original, Diana Vreeland is one of the most dynamic women I've had the pleasure of researching.  To end on a poignant note, when she died in 1989, the last entry in the register at her apartment read "Mrs. Onassis called."  Jackie followed just 5 years later marking the end of an era which, like Vreeland, will never be duplicated.




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