Empress of Fashion (53 page)

208 a hallucinogenic fashion spread:
Vogue
, October 15, 1966, pp. 88–175.

209 “a Heian beauty”: in Japanese history, the Heian period ran from 794 to 1185, when the Imperial capital was based at Heian-kyo, modern day Kyoto.

210 “She has the concentration of a child”: Lehndorff and Wills,
Veruschka
, p. 5. By permission of RAF.

210 “There are times during a sitting”: ibid., p. 7. By permission of RAF.

210 “It's without content”: Richard Avedon to DK, DKP, p. 16.

210 “You looked like a victim”: DV to Veruschka, DVP, Box 9, Folder 5.

211 “Jets were brand new”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 151.

211 “All over the world”: “Jet Setting
,”
DVP, Box 3, Folder 3.

211 “Flaunting bare feet and legs”: Valerie Steele,
Fashion, Italian Style
(New York: Fashion Institute of Technology), 2003, p. 27.

212 “an oasis of high style”: ibid., p. 36.

212 Diana appointed Consuelo Crespi: Countess Consuelo Crespi (1928–2010) was twin sister of Gloria Schiff, and a New York model before she married Count Rodolfo Crespi in 1948. An elegant society figure, she became an important tastemaker in her own right as a fashion PR and editor of Italian
Vogue
, with considerable impact on the careers of Italian couturiers such as Fendi, Missoni, and Valentino.

212 “India has given a new freedom”:
Vogue
, December 1, 1964, p. 195. The article ran on pp. 194–215, 277–80, and 282–85.

213 “Vreeland made fashion out of her dreams”: Mirabella,
In and Out of Vogue
, p. 117.

213 “The impressionable manufacturers are wooed”: Marilyn Bender,
Beautiful People
:
A Candid Examination of a Cultural Phenomenon—the Marriage of Fashion and Society in the 60's
(New York: Coward-McCann, 1967), pp. 215–16.

214 “The East drew them”: quoted in Anne Boston,
Lesley Blanch: Inner Landscapes, Wilder Shores
(London: John Murray, 2010), p. 120.

214 “
Wilder Shores
opened up far horizons”: ibid., p. 121.

214 “At last I have visited your Liotards”: Elizabeth Vreeland, postcard of a Liotard to DV, March 1956, DVP, Box 32, Folder 6.

214 “my complete inspiration”: DV,
Vogue
memo, April 15, 1965, DVP, Box 6, Folder 11.

215 “in the East”: Lesley Blanch quoting Gérard de Nerval in
Vogue
, April 15, 1965, p. 107.

215 “it follows that both the home and the woman”: ibid., p. 111.

215 “You will notice”: DV,
Vogue
memo, April 15, 1965, DVP, Box 6, Folder 11.

215 “to charm the sheik at home”:
Vogue
, April 15, 1965, p. 101.

215 In 1964 Freck was posted to Rabat: he eventually became Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East (1991–92) and then U.S. Ambassador to Morocco (1992–93) by which time he had ceased all contact with the CIA.

215 “Women relaxing into caftans”:
Vogue
, July 1, 1966, p. 67.

216 “All float, nothing static”:
Vogue,
September 15, 1966, p. 330.

216 “She was the first editor to say to me”: Alexander Liberman to DK, DKP.

216 “You have no idea”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, pp. 151 and 152.

216 seeing the vaudeville performer Joe Frisco on a train: Vreeland,
D.V.,
p. 153.

216 “ ‘Use all the Dynel you want' ”: Norman Parkinson,
Lifework
(London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983), p. 112.

217 “For inspiration Mrs. Vreeland showed me an 18th century French picture”: quoted in Amy Fine Collins, “It Had to Be Kenneth,”
Vanity Fair
, June 2003, p. 153.

217 “I was in the middle of my Dynel period then”: Vreeland,
D.V.,
pp. 153–54.

217 In Parkinson's version of what happened next: Parkinson,
Lifework
. p. 113.

217 “Now, apparently, if you go near a certain part of the anatomy”: Vreeland,
D.V.,
p. 152.

218 “hadn't seen a lady in eight years”: quoted in Collins, “It Had to Be Kenneth,” p. 153.

218 “Mrs. Vreeland was always in there”: Parkinson
, Lifework
, p. 114.

218 “creative and warm-hearted human beings”: Horst and Valentine Lawford,
Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, People
(London: The Bodley Head, 1968), introduction by Diana Vreeland, p. i.

219 all the costs of running the apartment: Discovery Proceeding, In the Matter of the Application of Fiduciary Trust Company of New York as executor of the Last Will and Testament of T. Reed Vreeland, Surrogate's Court: County of New York, February 27, 1968, testimony of Madeleine E. Wilson, pp. 14–16.

219 “It's always been men with feminine streaks”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 3.

220 “A highly emotional French lady”: Vreeland,
D.V.,
pp. 163–64.

220 “Woman should be a creature”: Florence Pritchett Smith,
These Entertaining People
(New York: Macmillan, 1966), p. 1.

220 “Arrange a quiet room”: Florence Pritchett Smith,
These Entertaining People
, pp. 50-51.

221 
I said, ‘What do you take my husband for'
: Vreeland,
D.V
., p. 169.

222 “Reed died loving Yvonne more than anything”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 2, p. 169.

222 “The terrible thing was”: ibid
.

CHAPTER SEVEN: WILDER SHORES

223 “She was so brave”: Carol Phillips to DK, DKP, p. 13.

223 “She was the wife”: Weymouth, “A Question of Style,” p. 54.

223 “Some may see Charles Engelhard”: Vickers,
Beaton in the Sixties
, p. 205.

224 “the fantasy of foreign lands”: FIT exhibition, 2009.

225 “Astonishingly friendly”: Blass,
Bare Blass
, p. 95. Nicholas Haslam also remembered Reed's kindness: “You'd be feeling uncomfortable at some rather grand and intimidating party—and then you'd see Reed winking at you across the room.”

225 “Those were the evenings I loved most with her”: Blass,
Bare Blass
, p. 95.

225 “She never had a sense of time”: ibid.

225 a “knuckle sandwich”: ibid., p. 58.

225 “
She was an amalgam of stories
”: ibid., p. 96.

227 boutique design: “Quant sold well in New York, Tuffin & Foale was stocked in Paraphernalia, Betsey Johnson was available in Bazaar. In London Barbara Hulanicki opened a new boutique called Biba, a treasure chest of the new romanticism. In Paris Khanh was designing for the ready-to-wear house Cacharel, and the nautical theme launched by Saint Laurent in the spring—reefer coats, more pea jackets, bell-bottom trousers, and T-shirt dresses—was copied for the ready-to-wear by Bagatel.” Mulvagh,
Vogue History of Twentieth-Century Fashion
, p. 291.

229 “kind of fashion American women live in”:
Vogue
, May 1, 1967, p. 198.

229 a wider process of liberalization: see Alan Petigny,
The Permissive Society: America, 1941–1965
, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 282.

229 “On the whole, fashion had become less a matter of designer diktat”: Valerie Mendes and Amy de la Haye,
20th Century Fashion
(London: Thames & Hudson, 1999), p. 192.

229 “It's your show”:
Vogue
, July 1968, p. 35.

229 “You take the most discreet black sweater”: ibid.

230 “Invent yourself”:
Vogue
, January 1, 1969, p. 79.

230 “I was saved by the 60s”: Richard Avedon to DK, DKP, p. 16.

230 “The girl herself is the extravaganza”:
Vogue
, March 15, 1967, p. 63.

230 “a broad”: Richard Avedon to DK, DKP, p. 16.

230 a stepfather who wanted her out of the house : interview in
Venice Magazine
, November 2007/http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com.

231 “You. You have quite a presence”: Derek Blasberg,
Harper's Bazaar
, January 13, 2011. www.harpersbazaar.com.

232 Truman Capote's Black and White Ball: Diana's invitation to Truman Capote's Black and White Ball was, of course, never in doubt, though reports vary as to how long she was there, with at least one friend insisting that she slipped away after the Trees' dinner party and never went at all because she missed Reed so badly that evening. Ostensibly thrown by Capote to celebrate the success of
In Cold Blood
, he turned the ball into one of New York's great who's-in-who's-out events. He changed the guest list incessantly, making, as he later said, five hundred friends and fifteen hundred enemies.

232 “She was gawky”: quoted in Kennedy Fraser, introd.
On the Edge: Images from 100 Years of Vogue
(New York: Random House), 1992, p. 148.

232 “I am really fascinated by how beautifully built she is”: memo from Diana Vreeland to Richard Avedon with cc. Polly Mellen. “RE: Penelope Tree.” June 12, 1967 (The Richard Avedon Foundation archive, New York).

232 “She projects the spirit of the hour”:
Vogue
, October 1, 1967, p. 163.

233 “Penelope Tree is the girl of her dreams”:
Vogue
, January 15, 1968, p. 38.

233 Tree's upbringing was almost as unhappy as Diana's: Louise France, interview with Penelope Tree: “People thought I was a freak; I kind of liked that,”
The Observer
, August 3, 2008.

234 “The call from Vreeland”: Twiggy Lawson,
Twiggy in Black and White
(London: Simon & Schuster, 1997), p. 68.

234 Mona Bismarck: Mona Harrison Williams married her long-standing gay friend Count Edward von Bismarck, known as Eddie, after the death of Harrison Williams in 1953.

234 “Mona didn't come out of her room”: quoted in Lesley Ellis Miller,
Cristóbal Balenciaga: The Couturiers' Couturier
(London: V&A, 2007), p. 87.

235 Diana dispatched Veruschka: Diana, unusually, was with them in the North African desert in 1967 when Ara Gallant wove a colossal silver-and-green wig of Dynel braids around and around Veruschka's face for specially designed fashions by Strega. After that Diana trusted the team implicitly.

235 Exuberantly original, he liked to ornament the body: see Caroline Rennolds Milbank,
New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style
, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989), p. 231.

235 “We took fabrics, cords, tools, pins”: Lehndorff and Wills,
Veruschka
, p.19.

235 “At some point, I fainted”: ibid.

236 “There was a time”: quoted in
Vogue
, August 1, 1966, p. 86.

236 “For [many] people”: Petigny,
The Permissive Society,
p. 221.

236 “The fact is”: See
Vogue
, May 1, 1967, p. 159
.

237 “I think people who lunch don't work”: DV to DK, DKP, p. 2.

238 Memos streamed in: the memos quoted here come from someone who prefers to remain anonymous, Grace Mirabella,
Visionaire 37: Vreeland Memos
(New York: Visionaire, 2001) (no page numbers) and DVP, Box 6, Folder 17. Several memos quoted here are duplicated across these sources.

238 “these pieces of hair dipped in salad oil”: memo from Diana Vreeland to Richard Avedon, with cc Polly Mellen, July 14, 1967 (The Richard Avedon Foundation archive, New York).

239 “There are only a handful of magazines”: Meriel McCooey, “Why don't you knit yourself a little skullcap?”
Sunday Times
, March 17, 1968.

241 “The Americans have created Viet Nam anew”:
Vogue
, May 1, 1967, p. 260. The other two articles by FitzGerald appeared in the January 1, 1967, issue (“The Long Fear: Fresh Eyes On Viet Nam”) and the February 1, 1967, issue (“The Power Set: The Fragile But Dominating Women of Viet Nam”).

241 “Black nationalism was wonderful afros”: Mirabella,
In and Out of Vogue
, p. 129.

241 “You read revolution in clothes”: Weymouth, “A Question of Style,” p. 49

241 “People Are Talking About”:
Vogue
, June 1, 1965, p. 94.

242 “To roam the earth”:
Vogue
, April 15, 1969, p. 52.

242 “You go your own way”:
Vogue
, July 1, 1970, p. 51.

242 an exceptional wardrobe of couture clothes: an exhibition of ensembles and accessories from Mrs. Taylor's wardrobe,
Fashion Independent: The Original Style of Ann Bonfoey Taylor,
took place at the Phoenix Art Museum from February to May 2011.

242 “It's all very confusing”: transcript of the conversation between DV and Mrs. Vernon Taylor, DVP, Box 6, Folder 2.

244 “Oh Betty Friedan”:
Vogue
, March 15, 1966, pp. 92–93.

245 “I believe women are naturally dependent on men”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 3.

245 “The feminine side of
so many
men”: Ibid.

245 “How free can you get?”: Lieberson, “Empress of Fashion,” p. 25.

245 “If that's the case, my dear”: Allure Manuscript, DVP, Box 35, Folder 3.

246 “Rosemary, don't forget”: telegram from DV to Rosemary Blackmon, “RE Accompanying text in March 15,” February 2, 1968 (The Richard Avedon Foundation archive, New York).

246 “Pride of body”:
Vogue
, September 15, 1967, p. 131.

247 “Nureyev, here in an agony of action”:
Vogue
, December 1967, p. 210.