Empress of Fashion (52 page)

161 “It was a satisfaction”: Snow and Aswell,
The World of Carmel Snow
, p. 172.

162 “It was always very interesting to me”: A. G. Allen to Amanda Mackenzie Stuart and to Dodie Kazanjian, Tomkins, II.A.108. MoMA Archives, N.Y., p. 9.

162 did in fact ‘gnaw'” at Diana: Richard Avedon to Calvin Tomkins, Tomkins, II.A.108. MoMA Archives, N.Y., p.3.

162 “In a curious way”: Vreeland,
D.V.
, p. 121.

162 “How can you work in this confusion” Ballard,
In My Fashion
, p. 288.

163 “
the
best
in every field”: Snow and Aswell,
The World of Carmel Snow
, p. 172.

163 “Wise Men, or Disraeli”: Ballard,
In My Fashion
, p. 284.

163 “Diana was not then in the habit”: Bill Blass,
Bare Blass
(New York: HarperCollins, 2002), p. 28.

164 Diana was known to go back to advertisers: see Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 417.

164 “She does not indulge in cruelty”: Baldwin,
An Autobiography
, p. 243.

165 “My dear”: quoted in Ballard,
In My Fashion,
p. 284.

165 “You must always give ideas away”: Kenneth Jay Lane,
Faking It
(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), p. 117.

165 he built a very good business: Vreeland,
D.V
., p. 111.

165 “took care of women's hands just for
love
”: Vreeland,
D.V
., p. 112.

165 “I . . . knew that
he
knew that I knew”: Vreeland,
D.V
., p. 113.

166 “You know in the whole city of New York”: Lane,
Faking It
, p. 116.

166 “Yes!
Daunkey
”: ibid., p. 117.

166 “There's never been a blue like the blue of the Duke of Windsor's eyes”: Vreeland,
D.V
., pp. 103–106.

166 “Last night we went to the Russian Tea Room”: Lane,
Faking It
, p. 117.

166 “eyes far off”: Ballard,
In My Fashion
, p. 287.

167 “With pure Dianaism”: ibid
.

168 “There is at this moment”: Elizabeth Vreeland to Diana Vreeland, May 1956, DVP, Box 32, Folder 9.

169 language captured by
Bazaar
's copywriters:
Harper's Bazaar
, misc., 1956–59.

170 “One doesn't talk to Maggie Prescott”:
Funny Face
, directed by Stanley Donen, Paramount Pictures, 1957.

170 “Mrs. Vreeland marched out”: quoted in Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 460.

170 “I'm too real for teasing”: to Leo Lerman on February 26, 1984,
The Grand Surprise: The Journals of Leo Lerman
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), p. 502.

170 “The inevitable was coming”: Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 457.

170 “She had bones showing”: quoted in ibid., p. 451.

170 “She was pickled in alcohol”: ibid., pp. 451 and 462.

171 “faceless Freddy”: nicknamed thus by Hearst because Bérard often sketched people without their faces.

171 “The time that followed”: Rowlands,
A Dash of Daring
, p. 466.

172 “When Mrs. Snow got the word”: quoted in ibid., p. 465.

172 “She was impossible with advertisers”: ibid
.

172 “We needed an artist and they sent us a housepainter”: quoted in Calvin Tomkins, “The World of Carmel Snow,” p. 158.

173 “She's . . . open minded”: unattributed note, “Diana Vreeland, RE: Nancy White,” undated (The Richard Avedon Foundation archive, New York).

173 “I am slowly, I believe”: DV to Cecil Beaton, PCB, June 27, 1958.

173 “Vreeland had this annoying posture”: Melvin Sokolsky,
Seeing Fashion
, with text by Martin Harrison (Santa Fe, NM: Arena Editions, 2000), p. 16.

173 she wanted the green of a billiard table: there are many different versions of this story, including Diana's own account in
D.V.,
pp. 105–6. She thought the story was apocryphal and that if it happened at all it involved a photographer, not Henry Wolf.

174 “If her husband reaches the White House”: quoted in Hamish Bowles,
Jacqueline Kennedy: the White House Years
(New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Boston: Bullfinch Press, 2001), p. 37.

174 In July 1960 Fairchild proclaimed: ibid, p. 27.

174 “I buy most of my clothes off the racks”: ibid.

175 “I must start to buy American clothes”: quoted in ibid. p.28. Apart from this one, all letters to DV from Jacqueline Kennedy quoted in this chapter are in DVP, Box 18, Folders 27–30. Jacqueline Kennedy's letters to Diana were often written in great haste on yellow lined paper, with many dashes, missing apostrophes and ‘+' for an ampersand. In these transcriptions the apostrophes have been left off as written, but the ampersands restored.

176 Hamish Bowles points out: Hamish Bowles is currently international editor-at-large for
Vogue
, and an authority on design and couture. In addition to writing a number of books on fashion, designers, and
Vogue
, he has curated a number of fashion exhibitions including
Jacqueline Kennedy: the White House Years
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to which this passage is indebted.

176 “line for line copy”: Bowles,
Jacqueline Kennedy
, p. 29.

177 “Cassini approached each project”: ibid., p. 31.

178 “Now I know how poor Jack feels”: quoted in Oleg Cassini,
In My Own Fashion: an Autobiography
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), p. 308.

179 “I think the chances of an increase”: DVP, Box 1, Folder 9.

179 Diana was furious: this version of her reaction from Weymouth, “A Question of Style,” p. 49.

180 The Hearst organization dripped with tears: for these and other reactions see DVP, Box 1, Folder 13.

CHAPTER SIX: YOUTHQUAKE

181 “Suddenly a rumour was buzzing”: Nicholas Haslam,
Redeeming Features: A Memoir
(London: Jonathan Cape, 2009), p. 171.

181 “It was said that her maid”: Grace Mirabella,
In and Out of Vogue
(New York: Doubleday, 1995), p. 103.

182 “He had a great gift”: former travel editor Despina Messinesi, quoted in Francine du Plessix Gray,
Them: A Memoir of Parents
(New York: Penguin—2005), p. 258.

182 a Jekyll and Hyde character: see, for instance, ibid. pp. 405–409.

183 “We had to touch out navels”: Haslam,
Redeeming Features
, p. 172.

183 she was mystifyingly badly dressed: sometimes Daves's forgetfulness about what she was wearing was remarkable by any standard, let alone in the world of fashion. “Jessica used to absentmindedly chew canapés through the veils of the little black hats she always wore, creating a gooey mess of tuna fish or chopped liver, her hat gradually descending upon her face until she realized her gaffe and ran into the nearest bathroom, moaning, to clean up,” writes Gray,
Them
, p. 329.

183 “NO to a skirt”:
Vogue
, March 15, 1962, p. 93.

183 “She believed in elegance”: Valentine Lawford,
Horst: His Work and His World
(Harmondsworth: Viking, 1985), p. 112.

184 “the sort of woman”:
Vogue
, October 15, 1961, p. 112.

184 “You've cased the collections”: ibid., p. 75.

184 “We have thought of you so much”: Elizabeth Vreeland to DV, April 14, 1962, DVP, Box 32, Folder 10.

185 “I worried that you with your birdlike legerté”: quoted in Dwight,
Diana Vreeland
, p. 127.

185 “My goodness we are so proud”: Elizabeth Vreeland to DV, DVP, Box 32, Folder 6.

185 “What is fashion?”: DVP, Box 7, Folder 13. offprint dated November 20, 1962.

186 “
My God, when I think of my years
”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 151.

187 “Diana Vreeland didn't just sweep”: Mirabella,
In and Out of Vogue,
p. 103.

187 “The steam started coming out of my ears”: quoted in Dodie Kazanjian and Calvin Tomkins,
Alex: The Life of Alexander Liberman
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), p. 237.

188 “My mind drifts around a lot”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 151.

188 “Whereas the entire chain”: Mirabella,
In and Out of Vogue
, p. 116.

188 “Sometimes she paid attention”: Carol Phillips to DK, DKP, p. 12.

188 “At my first run-through”: Mirabella,
In and Out of Vogue
, pp. 107–8.

189 “Her tastes were as aristocratic”: ibid., p. 108.

189 “It seemed the perfect antidote”: ibid., pp. 110–13, passim.

190 “From the moment she came to
Vogue
”:
Vogue
, December 1989, p. 307.

191 “We are talking about a snake pit”: comment from someone who prefers to remain anonymous.

192 “Editing is four walls of work”: Levin,
The Wheels of Fashion
, p. 106.

192 “Those were terrible pictures”: Hugo Vickers, ed.
Beaton in the Sixties: More Unexpurgated Diaries
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), p. 205.

192 “
At
Vogue
I was what you might call an enfant terrible
”: Vreeland,
Allure
, p. 134.

193 “free-wheeling school of collectors”:
Vogue
, August 1, 1962, pp. 66–76.

194 “
In this stillness
”:
Vogue
, January 1, 1963, p. 77.

195 “
The image she presents
”:
Vogue
, August 1, 1964, p. 43.

196 “A funny thing has happened”: ibid., p. 93.

196 “What fires his imagination”:
Vogue
, June 1, 1964. p. 68.

196 “Chanel started it”:
Vogue
, January 15, 1965, p. 45.

196 “Isn't that life”: Weymouth, “A Question of Style,” p. 54.

197 “Being from Lancashire himself”: Haslam,
Redeeming Features
, p. 173.

198 “No one knew more about fashion”: Jean Shrimpton,
Jean Shrimpton: An Autobiography
(London: Sphere Books Ltd., 1991), p. 84.

198 “I think we are frightfully missing”: memo to Allene Talmey, n.d. but probably early 1964, DVP, Box 3, Folder 2.

198 “To women, Jagger looks fascinating”:
Vogue
, July 1, 1964, p. 73.

198 “I've known two great decades”: “Jet Setting,” DVP, Box 3, Folder 3.

199 “against everything expected of them”:
Vogue
, August 1, 1963, p. 75.

200 “I didn't go much for this street-up business”: Weymouth, “A Question of Style,” p. 51.

200 “
That
was something”: Vreeland,
D.V.
, p. 150.

201 “It's possible to feel on your cheek”:
Vogue
, January 1, 1963, p. 77.

201 “I blurted out”: Haslam,
Redeeming Features
, p. 174.

202 “Aside from new topics”:
Vogue
, September 1, 1964, pp. 60, 82, 83, 100.

202 “There is a marvellous moment”:
Vogue
, January 1, 1965, p. 112.

203 “Now the body itself”:
Vogue
, January 1, 1965, p. 76.

203 “the body that
is
fashion”:
Vogue
, January 1, 1965, p. 73.

204 liberating women from unnatural permanents: though in reality many women still had to make frequent visits to the hair salon to have their hair straightened, blow-dried, and trimmed incessantly to keep the new geometric shapes.

204 “As I walked into her office”: Vidal Sassoon,
Vidal: The Autobiography
, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2010), p. 171.

205 “the spy system was incredible”: R. Avedon to DK, DKP, p. 13. Letters in the Richard Avedon Foundation files suggest that it was known he would make the move by November 1965. He wrote to one friend on December 16, 1965, that he did not have time to meet her in Paris because he was saying good-bye to people and trying to stick to a list of
Vogue
priorities.

205 revolutionizing the distance between photographer and model: see Jane Mulvagh,
Vogue History of 20th Century Fashion
(London: Bloomsbury Books, 1992), p. 240.

206 “I had this baby face”: Vera Lehndorff and David Wills,
Veruschka
(New York: Assouline, 2008), p. 12.

206 “ ‘Vera' was not the person”: ibid., p. 12.

207 “Our sessions together were very intense”: ibid., p. 22.

207 “What Antonioni was saying”: ibid
.

207 “Veruschka's bones, her body”: ibid., pp. 5–7. By permission of RAF. Richard Avedon's observations on Veruschka first appeared in “Veruschka is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World” in
Vogue
, June 1972.

207 “Veruschka is the only woman”: ibid., pp. 6–7. By permission of RAF.

208 “the land of Style”: See Holly Brubach, tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com 2010/02/12.

208 “He made hair expressive”: ibid.

208 “Some of the conditions were very harsh”: quoted in David Wills,
Ara Gallant
(Bologna: Damiani, 2010), p. 129.

208 “I said to Mrs. Vreeland”: Martin and Koda,
Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style
, looseleaf.