Magazines were once the most important place where fashion came to life. Before the internet and social media gained such prominence, readers excitedly anticipate their monthly magazines subscriptions (often described as ‘bibles’ to the fashion world) to find out what to read, watch and wear (and many still do).
Diana Vreeland, the American editor of Harpers Bazaar, is one of the greatest names in the industry and really transformed magazines into the vibrant and visually arresting tomes that they are better known as today.
The film released last year to commemorate Diana’s life, named The Eye Has To Travel, gave fans an insight into what Diana’s life was actually like. Full of Chanel, Andy Warhol, Harpers Bazaar and New York, what woman wouldn’t want Diana’s life?
After the success of the film last year, we are looking back at the Top 10 Diana Vreeland Quotes on Fashion and Style:
1. “Unshined shoes are the end of civilization.”
2. “Of course, one is born with good taste. It’s very hard to acquire. You can acquire the patina of taste.”
3. “The first rule that a geisha is taught, at the age of nine, is to be charming to other women…Every girl in the world should have geisha training.”
4. “You know the greatest thing is passion, without it what have you got? I mean if you love someone you can love them as much as you can love them but if it isn’t a passion, it isn’t burning, it isn’t on fire, you haven’t lived.”
5. “I think part of my success as an editor came from never worrying about a fact, a cause, an atmosphere. It was me—projecting to the public. That was my job. I think I always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. Give ‘em what they never knew they wanted.”
6. “Style – all who have it share one thing: originality.”
7. “I was always fascinated by the absurdities and luxuries and the snobbism of the world that fashion magazines showed. Of course, it’s not for everyone…But I lived in that world, not only during my years in the magazines business but for years before, because I was always of that world – at least in my imagination.”
8. “Where would fashion be without literature?”
9. “Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world.”
10. “In a Balenciaga you were the only woman in the room – no other woman existed.”
Balenciaga xoxo