Diana Vreeland | Success story of the VOGUE editor

Diana Vreeland was a French- American journalist. Her success story is about finding your passion and giving it all. She was famous for her columns and her writings. Diana Vreeland was also known as an archetypal fashion editor. She brought the attention of people to the fashion editors. She had an immaculate fashion sense. Vreeland changed the future of the fashion industry forever with her articles.

Early Life

On 29th September 1903, Diana Vreeland was born in Paris, France. Her mother was an American Socialite and her father was a stockbroker. They went back to America during World War and settled in New York. Vreeland was a dance student of  Michel Fokine. And she even performed at Anna Pavlova‘s Gavotte at Carnegie Hall. Later in 1922, she was featured in Vogue for her extravagant car Cadillac under the title of socialite and their cars.

Vreeland married Thomas Reed Vreeland, banker in 1924. She had two sons with him, and after living for a while in New York they went to live in London. Diana started her own lingerie boutique in London near Berkeley Square. Wallis Simpson the future Duchess of Windsor was a regular client of Vreeland. She often traveled to Paris to get fits from Chanel.

Career

Vreeland moved back to America with her family in 1935. There she met the then editor of Harper’s Bazaar Carmel Snow. He offered her a job to write a column in Harper’s Bazaar. And this was the start of her fashion editor career. “Why Don’t You…?” column was her creation, she made some of the wittiest comments during her employment there. She said, “Pink is the navy blue of India”.

She worked with Harper’s Bazaar from 1936 to 1962 she left the company because they didn’t give her a raise for a long time. After that, she worked with Vogue from 1963 to 1971 as editor-in-chief. Due to some creative differences, Vogue fired Vreeland in 1971.

Later she joined the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a costume consultant in 1971. Vreeland held around 12 exhibitions till 1984. Also, she wrote her autobiography “D.V.” in 1984.

Memorable Works

In 1957 Kay Thompson portrayed a character based on Vreeland named Maggie Prescott in the movie Funny Face. It was a movie musical by Paramount studios.

Vreeland was an advisor of the first lady of America in 1960. She was by the side of Jacqueline Kennedy during the entire election campaign. She introduced the first lady to Oleg Cassini a fashion designer who later became a chief designer to the first lady.

Diana Vreeland has been portrayed in many movies like Infamous (2006) by Juliet Stevenson,  Factory Girl (2006) by Illeana Douglas, and in her documentary in Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2012).

Lesson to Learn

Vreeland said, “There’s only one very good life and that’s the life you know you want and you make it yourself”. Creativity pulled her up to the position she was. From being a lingerie designer to a fashion editor she came a long way. She’s still considered one of the best fashion editors in the fashion industry. That wouldn’t have been true if she had no creativity. She achieved all of the fame because she worked hard and embraced her qualities. Find your true self and nail it because you got it.

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