She’s Diana Vreeland.
The celebrated editor (US editions of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar), curator and bon vivant defined her own legend in Allure and DV. Now, she’s the subject of three new explorations: a coffee table book, a documentary, and an exhibition at Venice’s Fortuny Museum, opening in March 2012.
The book and documentary are the products of three years of effort by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, DV’s granddaughter-in-law. The documentary contains film clips of Vreeland’s life, excerpts from televised interviews with Andy Warhol, and insights from Richard Avedon, David Bailey and Anjelica Huston .
‘She had a life that was rich with so many different experiences,’ Immordino Vreeland, who believes that the only two great books about Vreeland are those that Vreeland herself wrote, told WWD . ‘People need to know what this life was about.’
Vreeland was born in Paris and lived between London and New York for most of her life. During her years as a young bride in London, she ran a lingerie shop with a scandalous clientele: ‘One day Wallis Simpson came into the shop and ordered three nightgowns for a very special weekend. She was off to a rendezvous with Edward, the new King of England, and the rest is history,’ Vreeland wrote. She only entered the magazine world after Carmel Snow, then the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, saw Vreeland dancing at the St. Regis. The rest is fashion history.
Immordino Vreeland said that the fact she never met her subject made the project more manageable. So did access and enthusiasm for the project from Vreeland’s former employers, Hearst, Conde Nast and the Costume Institute.
‘I just knew she had been slightly misunderstood because people were in love with her personality, her looks, her extravagance,’ Immordino Vreeland said. ‘But there was so much more depth to her. She pushed the limits on so many things. She was a society woman who worked really hard her whole life. She didn’t want to push for feminism in any way, but she did.’
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