Empress of Fashion (51 page)

128 her creativity and inventiveness broke through: McCardell returned to the United States with noncouture ideas as well, such as the dirndl skirt, big buckles, and leather straps copied from European 1930s skiwear, which she adapted for American coats and jackets, developing a philosophy of “fashion is where you find it” very similar to Diana's own. She felt passionately that “I belong to a mass-production country where any of us, all of us, deserve the right to good fashion and where fashion should be made available to us all.” Quoted in Kohle Yohannan and Nancy Nolf,
Claire McCardell: Redefining Modernism
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998), p. 98.

128 “Please don't be modest”: Sally Kirkland to DV, DVP, Box 4, Folder 1. Sally Kirkland's work on Clare McCardell eventually appeared as a chapter in
American Fashion: The Life and Times of Adrian, Mainbocher, McCardell, Norell, Trigère
, ed. Sarah Tomerlin Lee. (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1975), pp. 209–314.

130 an all-female world: much of the workforce in New York's fashion industry was already female by the 1930s but concentrated at its humbler end. In the late nineteenth century, in common with other industries that were rapidly mechanizing, skilled men were replaced by semiskilled women capable of learning particular functions and prepared to work for less, increasing the profits of male manufacturers. This pattern was replicated on the retail side, with shopgirls clustered in the lower ranks and men owning the stores.

130 “Probably about the best paid of all women's jobs”:
Harper's Bazaar
, “How to Get Into The Fashion Business,” August 1939, p. 51.

131 “you were the person I always worked the closest with”: DV to Marjorie Griswold, May 2, 1972, DVP, Box 3, Folder 6.

131 “making a great effort to learn photography”: quoted in Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 207.

131 his lover and protégé Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann: Horst became a naturalized American in 1943, when he abandoned his surname and chose to be sworn in as Horst P. Horst.

131 “We had the best time”: quoted in Vicki Goldberg and Nan Richardson
, Louise Dahl-Wolfe
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000), p. 28.

131 “Dahl-Wolfe freed color”: ibid., p. 4.

132 “One was never selfish”: ibid., p. 7.

132 “She was the tops”: ibid., p. 30.

132 “There'd be big rows”: Babs Simpson to Calvin Tomkins, Tomkins II.A.108, MoMA Archives, N.Y., p. 15.

132 asking the manufacturer to change a piece: Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 210.

132 “Sometimes you'd get [these clothes]”: Goldberg and Richardson,
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
, p. 30.

133 “Dahl-Wolfe's use of color”: Arnold,
The American Look
, p. 160.

133 Jay Thorpe slacks: Jay Thorpe was an exclusive fashion store on West 57
th
Street with its own custom-made department and a team of in-house designers.

133 a new American body: see introduction by Valerie Steele,
Claire McCardell
, p. 12.

134 “I was scared to death”: Lauren Bacall,
By Myself and Then Some
(New York: HarperEntertainment, 2005), p. 72.

134 “Mrs. Wolfe was there—and Mrs. Vreeland”: ibid., p. 73.

134 “I remember going into Diana Vreeland's room”: ibid., p. 75.

135 “We were staying in a ninth-rate hotel”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 120.

135 “Talk of acting”: Bacall,
By Myself and Then Some
, pp. 75–76.

135 “Betty's always been”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, pp. 118–19.

136 “This is the little girl”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 128.

136 “She was in her glory”: Babs Simpson to Calvin Tomkins, Tomkins II.A.108, MoMa Archives, N.Y., p. 9.

136 
Lady in the Dark
: see Bruce D. McClung's account in
Lady in the Dark: Biography of a Musical
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), chap. 1, “Opening Night,” pp. 5–34, passim.

138 “Is she good looking?”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 125.

138 “After I went to work”: Vreeland,
D.V.,
p. 90.

139 “Everything is this color around here”: DVP, Box 52, Folder 1.

139 “While it looked nothing more”: Phyllis Lee Levin,
The Wheels of Fashion
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 114.

140 “I
did
love it so much there”: Emi-Lu Kinloch, later Astor, to DV, June 1, 1947, DVP, Box 34, Folder 1.

141 “You don't know what it was for a mother”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, pp. 118–19.

141 “During the War years”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, p. 93.

141 “They had no exaltation”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 117.

141 “Can a duck swim?”: a favorite expression, but in this instance from Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 129.

141 “He was there for seven years”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 109.

142 “
One morning, I said ‘Betty
' ”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 129.

CHAPTER FIVE: NEW LOOK

143 “I've never taken any side”: Weymouth, “A Question of Style,” p. 43.

143 “I was no more willing”: Snow and Aswell,
The World of Carmel Snow
, p. 145.

144 “Why brilliant fashion-designers”: Eric Hobsbawm,
The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991
(London: Abacus, 1994), p. 178.

144 a different, more curvaceous silhouette: Arnold,
The American Look
, pp. 173 and 175.

144 “There is no other way”: Alexandra Palmer,
Dior: A New Look, A
New Enterprise (1947–57)
(London: V&A, 2009), p. 22.

145 “It's quite a revolution”: quoted in Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring,
p. 365. Rowlands notes that Carmel Snow said, “This changes everything,” though it is not clear whether she used the phrase “the New Look” at the show or later.

145 “I remember
everybody
being so excited”: Babs Simpson to Calvin Tomkins, Tomkins II.A.108, MoMA Archives, N.Y., p. 12.

145 “Carmel, it's divine!”: quoted in Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 369.

145 “Dior saved Paris”: Snow and Aswell,
The World of Carmel Snow
, p. 158.

145 “I always call it the guinea hen look”: Weymouth, “A Question of Style,” p. 48.

146 “Oh I couldn't stand [the clothes] for myself”: ibid. The extent to which the New Look suited well-to-do American women more generally was also controversial.

146 “The first thing I asked”: Vreeland,
D.V.,
p. 115.

146 “
Of course I look at all of these clothes
”: DV to Louise Dahl-Wolfe, September 7, 1951, Louise Dahl-Wolfe Archive, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ.

147 “You Can't Be A Last-Year Girl”:
Harper's Bazaar
, August 1947, p. 95.

147 “Every woman has a waist”:
Harper's Bazaar
, September 1947, p. 184.

147 the whole country was in transition:
Harper's Bazaar
, “Anxious Women,” October 1946, pp. 203–5.

148 “Look at you”: Dwight,
Diana Vreeland
, p. 69.

148 “Reed was always about to make a million dollars”: quoted in Kornbluth, “The Empress of Clothes,” p. 33.

149 “Diana Vreeland's home”: Levin,
The Wheels of Fashion
, p. 113.

149 “I always
looked
rich”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 3.

150 “looking as though they had come out of some other world”: Billy Baldwin,
Billy Baldwin: an Autobiography
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1985), p. 242.

150 “He was never withered”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 1, p. 34.

150 “It must be understood”: Baldwin,
An Autobiography
, p. 241.

151 “Geneva isn't inspirational”: Elizabeth Vreeland to DV, DVP, Box 32, Folder 1.

152 “Any number of contemporary critics”: Beaton,
Glass of Fashion
, p. 2.

152 an affectionate portrait of Diana: Beaton,
Glass of Fashion
, pp. 311–15.

152 “The main point of this letter”: Elizabeth Vreeland to DV, DVP, Box 32, Folder 5.

153 “almost an entire winter”: Baldwin:
An Autobiography
, p. 244.

153 “Diana attacked the whole apartment”: ibid, pp. 244–45.

153 “I raced home”: Billy Baldwin,
Billy Baldwin Remembers
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974), p. 136.

154 “In it were the most beautifully made shelves”: Baldwin:
An Autobiography
, pp. 248–49.

154 “red carpets, red lacquered doors”: quoted in Paige Rense (ed.),
Celebrity Homes: Architectural Digest Presents the Private Worlds of Thirty International Personalities
(New York: Penguin, 1979), p. 183.

154 “Piero della Francesca rubs shoulders”: Beaton,
Glass of Fashion
, p. 314.

154 “I don't want you to show me one Chippendale chair”: Baldwin,
An Autobiography
, p. 245.

155 world of “Va-va” and “Mona” and “the Engelhards”: New York society figure Count Va-Va Adlerberg was from “the Swedish side of a White Russian family,” according to Diana; Harrison Williams died in 1953, whereupon “Mona” married her longstanding gay companion, “Eddie” von Bismarck and became widely known as Mona Bismarck; the “Engelhards” were the American billionaire mining and minerals tycoon Charles W. Engelhard Jr, and his second wife Jane whom he married in 1947.

155 “outrageous, individual”: see Carrie Donovan,
New York Times
, March 28, 1962.

156 Brodovitch's classes at the New School: alongside his work at
Harper's Bazaar
, Brodovitch continued to give classes at the New School in New York, educating a generation of designers, illustrators, art directors, and photographers in European design, and revolutionizing American graphic design through his influence.

156 “I knew that in Richard Avedon”: Snow and Aswell,
The World of Carmel Snow
, p. 155.

156 a new supplementary publication:
Junior Bazaar
was dreamed up by Snow as a way of matching Seventh Avenue advertising to the clothes budgets of affluent young college women. She also used
Junior Bazaar
as a proving ground for much new postwar talent, including art director and photographer Lillian Bassman.

156 “Mrs. Vreeland never looked at me”: from Richard Avedon's eulogy at Diana's memorial service, 1989, reprinted here by permission of RAF and in Martin and Koda,
Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style
, looseleaf.

157 “Boy was I lucky”: Richard Avedon in “Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light,” directed by Helen Whitney,
American Masters Series
, (PBS), 1996.

157 “It was a three-way vote”: Richard Avedon to Calvin Tomkins, Tomkins II.A.108. MoMA Archives, N.Y., p. 4.

157 ‘A.G.' was pronounced “Agi.”

157 “It was a triumvirate”: A G. Allen to Dodie Kazanjian, Tomkins II.A.108. MoMA Archives, N.Y., p. 3.

157 “They had each found their look”: ibid., p. 9.

157 “Unmarred by a hat”: Ballard,
In My Fashion
, p. 285. When actress Ali MacGraw worked for
Bazaar
for a few months in the early 1960s, Diana's look had still scarcely changed at all: “Day after day she looked exactly the same: little black sweater and black Mainbocher skirt, funny little handmade black T-strap pumps, hair so black that it was nearly navy-blue, and a gold wedding ring on a hand whose nails were perfectly manicured a brilliant scarlet, matching her huge mouth.” Ali MacGraw,
Moving Pictures
(New York: Bantam Books, 1991), p. 49.

158 “Anyone who had any contact”: quoted in Diana DuBois,
In Her Sister's Shadow: An Intimate Biography of Lee Radziwill
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1995), p. 58.

158 “I learned to ‘see' ”: MacGraw,
Moving Pictures,
p. 49.

158 “D. D. Ryan worshipped her”: D. D. Ryan started her career as assistant to Richard Avedon, and as photo editor on
Harper's Bazaar
as Dorinda Dixon Prest.

159 “To Diana Vreeland, I was ‘Girl' ”: MacGraw,
Moving Pictures
, p. 48.

159 Snow understood and transferred her without comment: Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 458.

159 “Once Diana was hooked on a shade of orange”: Diana DuBois,
In Her Sister's Shadow
, p. 59.

159 “She was really a wonderful catalyst”: Richard Avedon to Calvin Tomkins, interviewed for
Alex: The Life of Alexander Liberman
, Tomkins II.A.108. MoMA Archives, N.Y. p. 4.

160 “Cleopatra was ‘the kitten of the nile' ”: letter from DV to Richard Avedon with cc Gloria Schiff, “Re: Cleopatra,” November 9, 1961, The Richard Avedon Foundation archive, New York.

160 “She just sort of threw your way of thinking”: Richard Avedon in “Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light.”

160 “She was without exception”: From Richard Avedon's eulogy at Diana's memorial service, 1989.

160 “You think, of all the nonsense in the world”: Baldwin,
An Autobiography
, p. 243.

161 “Monsieur Balenciaga
likes
a little tummy”: quoted in Valerie Steele,
Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), p. 24.