Had Diana Vreeland been beautiful like her sister, she
probably would never have had to develop her sense of style to make up for her
plainness. She reported that her mother once told her how unfortunate she was
the ugly daughter.
Vreeland, who believed that “Style is Everything,” built a
career which included being editor of both Harper’s Bazaar (1937-1962) and
Vogue (1962-1971), changing the look of each magazine and helping define the
fashion world of the 1930s through 1970s. She helped launch the bikini, jeans
for women, the modeling careers of Lauren Bacall, Penelope Tree, Audrey
Hepburn, Cher, Angelica Huston, and played advisor to First Lady Jackie
Kennedy. Eventually she went on to help
organize twelve exhibitions at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum. (I remember her fondly as narrator for a film on one exhibit called, La Belle Epoch.) She also became a
larger than life icon who could match the Meryl Streep character in The Devil
Wears Prada.
Directors Lisa Immordino Vreeland, Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng’s
film consists of rare footage, photographs and magazine layouts, along with
interviews with the people who worked with her or knew her. Throughout much of
the film, the voice overs are based on interviews that George Plimpton did with
her as they prepared to write her autobiography, D.V. in the 1980s.
Vreeland was a unique. She tells the story of laying on the
lawn one day with her son and watching
Charles Lindberg flying overhead on his way to France. Later in the film, her
son says that she told him that one should never tell a boring story. “If you
need to, make something up.” Near the end of the film, a friend says the story
about Lindberg was probably one of her fabrications because his route was
nowhere near where Vreeland was living at the time.
Diana Vreeland’s life was one she created and crafted. That
sense of panache above all can be seen throughout in her work. She took to putting rouge on her ears because she saw geishas from Japan do it and loved the exotic look. (She is parodied
in the 1957 film Funny Face and the 1964 film Who are You, Polly Maggoo?)
The documentary was an enjoyable review of the woman, her
style, and American pop culture.
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel (2012) ****
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