The Vreeland View

There she is, Diana Vreeland, the legendary fashion editor, sitting in bed in Switzerland, admiring Mont Blanc’s changing morning light. She tells us all about it in her memoir D.V.  (Knopf, 1984). Here Jane’s Vanity shares more Vreeland views. And suggests ravishing lingerie to accompany them.

Back to Mont Blanc: Vreeland reminisces about this Alpine light, “...how much like my own temperament it was–how much like everyone’s temperament…a revelation of what we all consist of. I mean, the shadows and the colors and the ups and the downs and the wonderment…” She seems to be describing the geometric blue and pink patterning of the Tokyo Mozaicu Silk Pajama and Robe from Karma on the Rocks. Or perhaps the extravagant and soothing plainness of Layalina’s Nana Silk Pajama in palest pink.

Vreeland first drew fame in the mid-20th century, as editor of Harper’s Bazaar and later Vogue, then as leader of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. She knew clothes inside and out, and all about the people who wore them. Her memoir is as much about people as clothes. She writes, “...when I was editor of Vogue…[it] always did stand for people’s lives.” So live your life in something fabulous, such as Temperley London’s lime green Thalia Silk Gown. Then match it to Temperley’s Aphrodite Robe with its so-English garden print on black background with cunning black lace detailing ‘round the waist and down the front. 

And, of course, there is RED. Diana loved it, noting that “red is the great clarifier–bright, cleansing, and revealing. It makes all colors beautiful. I can’t imagine becoming bored with red…” Her red living room was almost as famous as she was, created by decorator BIlly Baldwin to “look like a garden, but a garden in hell.” And what would we wear to look decorative in such a setting? The lustrous floor-length Sussy Red Skirt from FrancesKa, with high side slit (and pocket!).   

Ever glamorous, ever joyous, Vreeland continues to enchant. Lucky us, to have this running monologue of stories that she shared with book editors George Plimpton and Christopher Hemphill. Let’s position ourselves near some beautiful view and get reading. We will, of course, be dressed to the teeth in Gilda & Pearl’s Frankly My Dear Slip Dress in raspberry pink silk velvet, accompanied by the matching slinky Midi Robe. 

Jane’s Vanity likes the view from Diana Vreeland.

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