Diana Vreeland

Diana Vreeland by Horst P. Horst.

Diana Vreeland (July 29, 1903, Paris, France – August 22, 1989, New York City) was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman and British father Frederick Young Dalziel. Hoffman was a descendant of George Washington's brother as well as a cousin of Francis Scott Key. She also was a distant cousin of Pauline de Rothschild. Vreeland had one sister, Alexandra.

Biography

Vreeland's family emigrated to the United States at the outbreak of World War I, and moved to 15 East 77th Street in New York, where they became prominent figures in society. On March 1, 1924, Diana Dalziel married Thomas Reed Vreeland (1899–1966), a banker, at St. Thomas' Church in New York, with whom she would have two sons: Thomas Reed Vreeland Jr., who became an architect as well as a professor of architecture at UCLA, and Frederick Dalziel Vreeland (later U.S. ambassador to Morocco).^[1] A week before her wedding, it was reported in The New York Times that her mother, Emily, had been named co-respondent in the divorce proceedings of Sir Charles Ross and his second wife, Patricia. The ensuing society scandal estranged Vreeland and her mother, who died in September 1928 in Nantucket, Massachusetts.^{[citation needed]}

After their honeymoon, the Vreelands moved to Albany, New York and raised their two sons, staying there until 1929. They then moved to 17 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, London, previously the home of Wilkie Collins and Edmund Gosse. During her time in London, she danced with the Tiller Girls and meet Cecil Beaton, who became a lifelong friend. Like Syrie Maugham and Elsie de Wolfe, other society women that ran their own boutiques, Diana operated a lingerie business near Berkeley Square whose clients included Wallis Simpson and Mona Williams. She often visited Paris, where she would buy her clothes, mostly from Chanel, whom she had met in 1926. She was one of fifteen American women presented to King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace on May 18, 1933.^{[citation needed]} In 1937, her husband's job brought them back to New York, where they lived for the remainder of their lives.

Career

Harper's Bazaar 1937-1962

Her publishing career began in 1937 as columnist for Harper's Bazaar. In 1937, the Vreelands moved from London to New York City. They found New York City to be extremely expensive. Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper's Bazaar, was impressed with Vreeland's clothing style and asked her to work at the magazine.^[2] From 1937 until her resignation, Diana Vreeland ran a column for Harper's Bazaar called "Why Don't You?". One example is a suggestion she made in the column, "Why don't you.... Turn your child into an Infanta for a fancy-dress party?"^[3] According to Vreeland, "The one that seemed to cause the most attention was [...] "[Why Don't You] [w]ash your blond child's hair in dead champagne, as they do in France." Vreeland says that S.J. Perelman wrote a parody of it for the New Yorker magazine that outraged her then editor Carmel Snow.^[4]

Diana Vreeland "discovered" actress Lauren Bacall in the nineteen forties. A Harper's Bazaar cover from the early forties shows Lauren Bacall posing near a Red Cross office. Based on editor Vreeland's decision, "[t]here is an extraordinary photograph in which Bacall is leaning against the outside door of a Red Cross blood donor room. She wears a chic suit, gloves, a cloche hat with long waves of hair falling from it".^[5] Vreeland was noted for taking fashion seriously. She commented in 1946 that "[T]he bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb".^[6] Vreeland disliked the common approach to dressing that she saw in the United States in the forties. She detested "strappy high heel shoes" and the "crêpe de chine dresses" that women wore even in the heat of the summer in the country.^[7]

Until her resignation at Harper's Bazaar, she worked closely with Louise Dahl-Wolfe,^[8] Richard Avedon, Nancy White^[9] and Alexey Brodovitch. Diana Vreeland became Fashion Editor for the magazine. Richard Avedon said when he first met Diana Vreeland and worked for Harper's Bazaar, "Vreeland returned to her desk, looked up at me for the first time and said, 'Aberdeen, Aberdeen, doesn't it make you want to cry?' Well, it did. I went back to Carmel Snow and said, 'I can't work with that woman. She calls me Aberdeen.' And Carmel Snow said, 'You're going to work with her.' And I did, to my enormous benefit, for almost 40 years."^[10] Avedon said at the time of her death: '"She was and remains the only genius fashion editor[.]"^[11]

In 1955, the Vreelands moved to a new apartment which was decorated exclusively in red. Diana Vreeland had Billy Baldwin^{[disambiguation needed ]} decorate her apartment.^[12] She said, "I want this place to look like a garden, but a garden in hell."^[10] Regular attendees at the parties the Vreelands threw were socialite C.Z. Guest, composer Cole Porter and British photographer Cecil Beaton^[10] In 1957's Paramount movie musical Funny Face, the character of Maggie Prescott (as portrayed by Kay Thompson) was based on Vreeland.^[13]

In 1960, John F. Kennedy became president and Diana Vreeland advised the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in matters of style. "Vreeland advised Jackie throughout the campaign and helped connect her with fashion designer Oleg Cassini, who became chief designer to the first lady."^[14] "I can remember Jackie Kennedy, right after she moved into the White House.[...]It wasn't even like a country club, if you see what I mean-plain." Vreeland occasionally gave Mrs. Kennedy advice about clothing during her husband's administration, and small advice about what to wear on Inauguration Day in 1961.^[15]

In spite of being extremely successful, Diana Vreeland made a small amount of money from the Hearst Corporation, which owned Harper's Bazaar. Vreeland says that she was paid eighteen thousand dollars a year from 1937 with a raise finally in 1959 of one thousand dollars. "San Simeon^[16] must have been where the Hearst money went, I certainly never saw any of it."^[17]

Vogue 1963-1971 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art

According to some sources, hurt that she was passed over for promotion at Harper's Bazaar in 1957, she joined Vogue in 1963. She was editor-in-chief until 1971.^[18] Vreeland enjoyed the sixties enormously because she felt that uniqueness was being celebrated. "If you had a bump on your nose, it made no difference so long as you had a marvelous body and good carriage."^[19] During her tenure at the magazine, she discovered the sixties "youthquake" star Edie Sedgwick. In 1984, Vreeland explained how she saw fashion magazines. "What these magazines gave was a point of view. Most people haven't got a point of view; they need to have it given to them-and what's more, they expect it from you. [...][I]t must have been 1966 or '67. I published this big fashion slogan: This is the year of do it yourself. [...][E]very store in the country telephoned to say, 'Look, you have to tell people. No one wants to do it themselves-they want direction and to follow a leader!'"^[20]

After she was fired from Vogue, she became consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1971. By 1984, according to Vreeland's account, she had organized twelve exhibitions.^[21] Artist Greer Lankton created a life size portrait doll of Vreeland that is on display at the museum.

Later years

In 1984, Vreeland wrote her autobiography, D.V.. At age 86, she died in 1989.

Diana Vreeland Estate

The Diana Vreeland Estate is run by Alexander Vreeland, having been turned over to him by her sons — his father, Frederick and uncle, Tim. The official Diana Vreeland website was launched September 2011. Created and overseen by her estate, DianaVreeland.com is dedicated to her work and career, presenting her accomplishments and influence — and revealing just how and why she achieved such notoriety and distinction.

Film portrayals

Vreeland was portrayed in the film Infamous (2006) by Juliet Stevenson. She was also portrayed in the film Factory Girl (2006) by Ileana Douglas.

References in film, television, theatre, literature

In the 1995 film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze) gives a copy of Vreeland's autobiography to a thrift-store clerk and tells him to "commit sections to memory." Later, the clerk quotes a passage that reads "That season we were loaded with pizazz. Earrings of fuchsia and peach. Mind you, peach. And hats. Hats, Hats, Hats, for career girls. How I adored Paris."

In 1982, she met over dinner with author Bruce Chatwin, who wrote a touching memoir of their dinner conversation in a half-page slice-of-life, entitled "At Dinner with Diana Vreeland."^[22]

In the 1964 film Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, Miss Maxwell (Grayson Hall) portrays an extravagant American expatriate fashion magazine editor. The film's director, William Klein, worked briefly for Vreeland and has confirmed the outrageous character in Polly Maggoo was based on Vreeland.^[23]

In the 1941 musical Lady in the Dark by Moss Hart, Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin the character of Alison Du Bois was based on Vreeland.^[24]

References

1. ^ "Council of American Ambassadors Membership Frederick Vreeland" retrieved September 13, 2009
2. ^ Vreeland, Diana (1984). D.V.. New York: Vintage. pp. 258. ISBN 0394731161. http://books.google.com/books?id=2PqAQr20d1QC&dq=diana+vreeland. 
3. ^ "The Divine Mrs. V" Retrieved September 11, 2009
4. ^ D.V. 122
5. ^ "Lauren Bacall The Souring of a Hollywood Legend" retrieved September 24, 2009
6. ^ "Diana Vreeland 1906-1989" retrieved September 24, 2009
7. ^ D.V., p. 144
8. ^ "National Museum of Women In The Arts Louise Dahl-Wolfe" retrieved September 13, 2009
9. ^ "Nancy White, 85, Dies; Edited Harper's Bazaar in the 60s" retrieved September 11, 2009
10. ^ ^{a b c} "The Divine Mrs. V"
11. ^ "Diana Vreeland, Editor, Dies; Voice of Fashion for Decades" retrieved September 13, 2009
12. ^ "Diana Vreeland 1906-1989"
13. ^ "The All Seeing Diana Vreeland" retrieved September 11, 2009
14. ^ "Portrait of the Kennedys" October 26, 2007 retrieved September 24, 2009
15. ^ D.V., pp. 223-24
16. ^ the Hearst owned castle
17. ^ D.V. 189
18. ^ "The Little Extras The Society Divas Diana Vreeland" retrieved September 11,2009
19. ^ "The Divine Mrs. V
20. ^ D.V. 198
21. ^ D.V., p. 229
22. ^ "Dinner with Diana Vreeland," in: Bruce Chatwin, What Am I Doing Here (New York: Viking, 1989).
23. ^ Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow (2006)
24. ^ Bruce D. McClung: Lady in the Dark - Biography of a Musical (2007) p. 10

External links

• Diana Vreeland Estate
  • Diana Vreeland Estate Facebook
• Diana Vreeland – designer profile at Fashion Model Directory
• The lady in red
• Guide to Diana Vreeland's papers The New York Public Library Humanities and Social Sciences Library Manuscripts and Archives Division

Media offices
Preceded by Jessica Daves	Editor of American Vogue 1963–1971	Succeeded by Grace Mirabella

Persondata
Name	Vreeland, Diana
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 29, 1903
Place of birth
Date of death	August 22, 1989
Place of death