Try a Bigger Size: Day 2: Diana Vreeland

Today's fashion figure is Diana Vreeland.


Diana Vreeland in the early 1980s (all images from getty images)

Some information from Wikipedia:

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 (Fashion Editor, 1937-1962) and Vogue (Editor in Chief, 1963-1971) and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Consultant, from 1971).

With Harper's Bazaar magazine editor Peggy LeBoutillier working on the Paris fashion show layouts

Other random facts:

She was portrayed in the movie Factory Girl (2006).
While working at Vogue, she discovered Edie Sedgwick.
She was fired from Vogue in 1971.

There's another article titled "The Divine Mrs. V" by New York Magazine which is quite long so I won't include, but its an interesting article about her life. Some of the things they talked about were her "signature epigrammatic style" of writing in her column "Why Don't You" based on the theme of "Don't just be your ordinary dull self", her mother's comment about how "It's too bad that you have such a beautiful sister and that you are so extremely ugly and so terribly jealous of her. This, of course, is why you are so impossible to deal with", and in one memo she instructed her Vogue staff to all wear bells at the office.


circa 1955: Diana Vreeland wearing a tube top and mini skirt, holding a leopard print purse, umbrella, and a cigarette, Southampton, New York.

circa 1975: Diana Vreeland points to a hole in a blouse worn by Empress Elizabeth, which was caused by an assassin's bullet, on display at an exhibition, probably at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City