Women in design | Diana Vreeland

Born in Paris to a Scottish father and an American mother at the turn of the 20th century, Diana spent her childhood in Montmartre. When the First World War broke out the family found refuge in New York City, but Diana’s European sensibilities and nose for style were already well ingrained and as the less-beautiful daughter of her high-society mother, Diana realised at an early age the power of style to shape her position in life.

By no means a scholar, having left school in her early teens to pursue ballet, her career began with a chance encounter with Carmel Snow, Editor of Harper’s Bazaar. She was noticed on the dancefloor in a Chanel dress and without any experience in the workforce was offered the position of Fashion Editor, commencing with a satirical column titled “Why Don’t You?”

Despite favouring a restrained personal wardrobe composed largely of cashmere separates, she saw talent in young designers like Manolo Blanik and introduced American society to the bikini in 1947 after seeing one on the French Riviera. Her former assistant Barbara Slifka recalls shock passing through the magazine’s offices as she dressed the model and announced that “with an attitude like that, you keep civilization back [a] thousand years.” 

After 25 years with Harper’s Bazaar Diana began a ground-breaking tenure as Editor-in-Chief of Vogue magazine in 1962. Famous for her diction and endless supply of creative aphorisms, with quotes like “I never met a leopard print I didn’t like” and irreverent creative direction she has been immortalised in films from Funny Face starring Audrey Hepburn to Confessions of a Shopaholic starring Isla Fisher.

Her home, much like her wardrobe, was modest in size and clearly defined. A Park Avenue apartment consisting of two bedrooms, an L-shaped living space serving as both the library and dining room, and an entrance hall. Her husband, Reed Vreeland, organised their home and social activities to such a degree that following his death in 1966 she looked around and asked, “where is the kitchen?” 

Decorated in 1957 by famed interior designer and close friend, Billy Baldwin, Diana directed “I want my apartment to look like a garden, a garden in hell!” Her vision was realised in vibrant scarlet Spanish cotton decorated with twisting vines and blooming peonies which adorned the walls, curtains, and sofas, while an array of chairs featured crimson and animal print upholsteries.

For a woman with an affinity for red she certainly decorated accordingly. Once declaring,“I can’t imagine becoming bored with red – it would be like becoming bored with the person you love.” Red carpet, red lacquered doors and closet linings, red walls, and red flowers all coordinated perfectly with her signature red lip, nails, and rouge – add a touch of leopard and the kingdom hums.

The same floral fabric in navy-blue enveloped Diana’s bedroom. A sanctuary she habitually rose from in the late morning, never entering the office before noon instead she chose to work from her bathroom – a position close to the telephone. Each space in her home was touched by reminders of a life well-lived; “mostly just things of no value that I picked up on travels,” she told Architectural Digest in 1975. Seashells, books, flowers, artworks, and photographs largely by friends, like Cecil Beaton, and of friends, beauties, and family including her husband Reed in a red-lacquered frame.

Diana Vreeland’s third act began in 1971. Following the loss of her husband and dismissal from Vogue she took hold with two hands and dug her legacy ever deeper into the world of fashion. Appointed Special Consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum, New York, at a time when Costume was an unloved department.

Nominated by Chief Curator, Theodore Rousseau, and with a salary raised by high-society ladies including Babe Paley and Jacqueline Onassis, Diana worked alongside Curator Stella Blum to execute the most successful exhibitions ever seen at the Met.

Beginning in 1973 with a retrospective exhibition of designer Christiano Balenciaga which was followed in 1974 by ‘Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design.’ An exhibition attended by a record-setting 730,000 visitors and running for nine months of the year. Diana produced exhibitions championing storytelling, emotion, and entertainment over truth and reality by presenting genuine historical objects alongside replicas, in an effort to share stories more beautifully and aspirationally that she felt worn items could achieve.

While the illustrious Met Gala was conceived of in 1948 by renown fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, it was not until Diana’s appointment that it was held on site and crowned with a theme, commencing with ‘The World of Balenciaga.’ Upscaling the Gala from a dinner in Central Park to a star-studded party was largely a result of Diana’s address book; extending the invitation to celebrities such as Elisabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Cher, Andy Warhol, and Bianca Jaggar, to name a few.

The Met Gala is now one of the cultural events in New York society’s calendar and one of the most successful and enduring fundraising ventures in the city, reportedly having raised a record $15 million for the Costume Institute in 2019 alone.

Foregoing the 1985 gala celebrations for the ‘Costumes of Royal India’ Diana announced it was time for her to relax, her Saint Laurent ensemble laid out but unworn in Reed’s bedroom. She retreated back into family life in the lead up to her passing in 1987, taking a well deserved rest at the closure of a truly remarkable life.