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As haute couture came to a close a couple weeks ago, nothing became more interesting to us than the storied lady who loomed large over the fashion community for so long. This month’s dead person we wish we would have known: Diana Vreeland.
Born Diana Daziel she decided at age 14 she was, like her mythological Roman namesake, “goddess, and therefore ought to be wonderful, pure, and marvelous.” Being a Dalziel, which literally translates from the Scottish for “I dare,” she dared to make herself exactly as she wanted to be. Until this revolutionary moment in her life she had been a mere shadow of the D.V. many know. The child of an assets rich, cash poor family, Diana was often overshadowed by her big-game hunting mother and stern father.
Once out in society she married Reed Vreeland. They had two children and moved to upstate New York for a short time, Reed working in the city and Diana raising the two boys while keeping house — with a staff, mind you. This period of her life is in some ways the richest. It was when she edified herself by reading veraciously. She had never done well in school and found herself short the necessary intelligence of the woman she wanted to be.
This self-education served her well, informing the lion-share of her views and notions of the world, ideas that underlie the imagination that in time generated otherworldly fashion editorials for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue.
Diana’s entree into journalism came about when Carmel Snow, then editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, hired Diana after seeing her dance flamenco in ballroom of the St. Regis. Snow noted to Diana, who wasn’t all together convinced of the proposal, that seeing such was more than enough to justify her decision as she sought the quality Diana had exhibited — uniqueness!
So began Diana’s editorial career and thanks to whom her friends were and the places she had traveled to opportunities existed expressly for her. Diana came into her own once part of the magazine world. Not only did she now have an outlet for her voice, which quickly drew an audience, but a stage upon which she could perform the role she’d long been perfecting — herself.
And what a role it was. Just as there is for any stage role, the make-up was key; taking hours every morning she would emerge from the bathroom lips vibrant red, cheeks rouged just so, nails freshly lacquered in red — “the great clairafier”, and hair coifed such that it never moved throughout the day. To behold Diana was a visceral experience. And the clothes; not only was she unyielding in her zeal for coming up with inventive ideas and eye-catching combinations — red zippers, polished shoe soles — she was maniacal in the maintenance of her clothing such that her wardrobe eternally looked unused.
Then there was the personality. Erupting into loud proclamations of personal opinions — no provocation necessary — she accented her speech with gestures that conjured the graceful and strong dancing of the Ballet Russes.
The fashion world loved her, of course, and with time she became a valued and powerful member of it, moving from Harper’s Bazaar, once Snow left, to Vogue as its editor in chief.
Styling magazines spreads allowed Diana an alternate reality: layouts. In this realm looks lived forever and perfection could be achieved in the unification of status, taste, clothing and environment. It was such an attractive parallel universe that with time it proved all too tempting to Diana. It fed into her deepest urges to invent, pretend and show clothes exactly as they should be, no matter how far crews had to go, or return, to re-shoot them. With time Condé Nast found it too expensive and out-of-touch, simply too original. Diana’s firing from Vogue was a surprise to all,most of all herself.
She thus embarked upon the last and perhaps most enduring period of her life, as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Her adoration of clothing genres made her job an utter pleasure. No genesis was necessary for her to identify that, for example, Cristobal Balenciaga’s designs were sufficiently notable to warrant an exhibit of their own. Shows she curated included “Inventive Paris Clothing,” “Romantic and Glamourous Hollywood Design,” “The Glory of Russian Costume” and “Vanity Fair.”
An original if there has ever been one, Diana Vreeland is a beacon not only in the World of Fashion, but an example everyone, as she dared be who she was. She is exemplary of what one can achieve when they don’t place a limit on their abilities, recognizing instead that no such thing exist. Talk about true style.
Pictures: Dwight, Eleanor. Diana Vreeland. 1st. New York : Harper Collins Publishers Inc., 2002