Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (D)

This highly entertaining portrait invites you into the extraordinary world of perhaps the most influential woman of 20th-century fashion. Diana Vreeland’s sometimes outrageous pronouncements on fashion as editor of Harper’s BAZAAR (1937–1962) and Vogue (1963–1971) were eagerly awaited by, and hugely influential on, an international readership. Her unconventional sense of style and flair for shameless namedropping is lavishly illustrated in archival interviews, and is backed up by testimonials from a who’s who of contemporary fashion. Vreeland’s uncanny ability to capture and create the zeitgeist kept her ahead of the times decade after decade. At 65, she was appointed advisor to the Costume Institute at New York’s Metropolitan Museum, where she continued to challenge our perceptions of fashion until her death in 1989. Whether bedecked like some marvelous exotic bird or stylishly austere, this strikingly unconventional woman will be burned in your memory, her eyes sparkling at every quotable quote. — Angela Lassig “Instead of concealing her so-called flaws, as she grew up, Vreeland transformed them into a mark of her elegance by emphasizing them… Through sheer will and a disciplined study of all things sartorial, literary, and artistic, Vreeland became a force that dared observers not to notice. And during her 26 years as the fashion editor of BAZAAR… she constantly proselytized her personal mantra: ‘Style: All who have it share one thing — originality’.” — Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Harper’s BAZAAR