Diana Vreeland - Hardcover

Dwight, Eleanor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688167381 ISBN 13: 9780688167387

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

Synopsis

Complemented by more than three hundred photographs and illustrations, a portrait of the fashion editor discusses her work with Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and numerous celebrities and assesses her seminal role in shaping the fashion history of the twentieth century.

About this title

Review:

“Diana Vreeland was the beacon of fashion for the twentieth century. She spotted, attracted, and showcased the most talented designers, photographers, illustrators, models, and fashion icons and gave their genius a glamorous theater. This book is a beautiful tribute to her.” (Diane Von Furstenberg)

“D.V. dazzled and dazed you, laughed, sang, and prophesized in a single sentence. She was a self-made triumph of spirit, distilling all the world’s glories.... In this wonderful book, you get to sit at her knee and see how she made herself-this quintessential all-tribe American.” (Lauren Hutton)

“Dwight gives new richness and poignancy to a personality appreciated primarily for her epigrammatic wit, dramatic flair, and compelling style.... a nuanced portrait of a twentieth-century woman, socially liberated and intellectually unfettered, a modern careerist who never shed her Edwardian proprieties, a woman in full.” (Harold Koda, Director, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Synopsis:

Diana Vreeland has been called the fashion editor of the twentieth century. An epic self-mythologizer, she had an incredible aura of glamour, a great eye, and a genius for life. Diana Vreeland reveals the growth of her professional prowess and gives an account of her personal history, at the same time as it brings to life Mrs. Vreeland's pizzazz, humour, and flamboyant personality. A dynamic cast of characters accompanies Diana Vreeland's story. There are more than 300 illustrations, photographs, and drawings, many by the best fashion photographers of her time such as Louise Dahl Wolfe, Irving Penn, Cecil Beaton, and Brassai. Through her work Diana knew Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli, Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy and Oscar de la Renta. In the seventies a new wave of young talent came into her life - Andy Warhol, Fred Hughes, Mick and Bianca Jagger. She was friendly with Truman Capote, taught Jackie Kennedy Onassis how to dress in the White House, and was interviewed for her autobiography by George Plimpton. The fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar from 1937 to 1962, Diana Vreeland first shook things up with her "Why Don't You" column.

Later, as the editor in chief of Vogue from 1962 to 1971, Diana Vreeland became famous for her startling style - sheathing women in jungle print underwear, wrapping their heads with leopard scarves. She operated out of her red lacquered office with a leopard-print rug, smoked continually, and lunched on peanut butter and jelly and a shot of scotch. At the height of her power, she was fired from Vogue, and replaced by an editor who had worked under her. In 1972, Diana returned to centre stage for the final act of her life at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute as its "Special Consultant," a job she invented. She masterminded costume extravaganzas and contributed to the new age of blockbuster exhibitions in which museum attendance soared and people poured in to the galleries as never before. When Diana Vreeland became blind in the mid-80s she said it was because she had seen so many beautiful things. And after she died in 1989 she became a legend. Her story, as told by Eleanor Dwight, captures her great professional success as well as her personal relationships - in short, her vibrant and extraordinary life.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0688167381
• ISBN 13: 9780688167387
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320