Diana Vreeland Quotes

Of course I was always mad about the ballet russe, mad about it! ~ Diana Vreeland

How boring to copy the past
with all the magnificence of today and tomorrow. ~ Diana Vreeland

No one had a better sense of luxury than Coco Chanel, She really had the spirit of the 20th Century. ~ Diana Vreeland

I once heard someone say, I shall die very young. How young? I don't know. Maybe seventy, maybe eighty, maybe ninety. But I shall be very young. ~ Diana Vreeland

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity. ~ Diana Vreeland

Peanut butter is the greatest invention since Christianity, ~ Diana Vreeland

I am not really sure that Diana Vreeland did Yves Saint Laurent a favor, as opposed to the world, by putting that exhibition at the Met in 1983. Because I'm sure that Saint Laurent started looking back at his own work. You see that with artists, don't you? Once they get their first retrospective, it's really hard for them to push ahead. ~ Suzy Menkes

The red library is Sui's tribute to fashion maven Diana Vreeland, who served as editor for Harper's Bazaar (1939-1962) and Vogue (1963-1961). My most precious collection is my bound Vogue magazines, .. and they're kind of like my Bible. I look at them all the time when I'm trying to inspire myself for a collection. ~ Anna Sui

Being vulgar is fine, but oh please just don't be boring. ~ Diana Vreeland

No one knows how hard one works. ~ Diana Vreeland

If you had a bump on your nose, it made no difference so long as you had a marvelous body & good carriage. You held your head high, & you were a beauty You knew how to water-ski, & how to take a jet plane fast in the morning, arrive anywhere, & be anyone when you got off. ~ Diana Vreeland

I read everything! I would have read the phone book if you put it in front of me. I just read. ~ Diana Vreeland

A good photograph was never what I was looking for. I like to have a point. I had to have a point or I didn't have a picture. This is what I've always found so fascinating about paparazzi pictures. They catch something unintended, on the wing ... they get that thing. It's the revelation of personality. ~ Diana Vreeland

The personality is a work of art. ~ Diana Vreeland

This world without a leopard ... I mean, who would want to be here?! ~ Diana Vreeland

The woman was Diana Vreeland, the high priestess of fashion and legendary fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue. Dana paused, eyes wide. Well, perhaps she was a bit star-struck after all. ~ Lynn Steward

Chutney is marvelous. I'm mad about it. To me, it's very imperial. ~ Diana Vreeland

In a Balenciaga you were the only woman in the room - no other woman existed. ~ Diana Vreeland

I've always remained totally myself, which is to say, without an idea ... of what to do. ~ Diana Vreeland

The bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb. ~ Diana Vreeland

I am tired of the cult of youth. The cultural rejection of old age, the stigmatization of wrinkles, grey hair, of bodies furrowed by the years. I am fascinated by Diana Vreeland, Georgia O'Keeffe and Louise Bourgeois, women who have let time embrace them without ever cheating. Society today condemns this, me, I celebrate it. ~ Tom Ford

The hottest thing in the world is to wear pants with stockings. ~ Diana Vreeland

All people are meant to be creative in a certain way. What way? Perhaps I was cut out to be a wonderful housewife, with a marvelous sense of cooking, being with my friends, running a perfect house. But I am not ambitious towards anything. ~ Diana Vreeland

The best thing about London is Paris, ~ Diana Vreeland

Balenciaga did the most delicious evening clothes. Clothes aren't delicious any more. ~ Diana Vreeland

Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola. ~ Diana Vreeland

Red is the great clarifier - bright and revealing. I can't imagine becoming bored with red - it would be like becoming bored with the person you love. ~ Diana Vreeland

I think allure is something around you, like a perfume or like a scent. It's like a memory ... it pervades. ~ Diana Vreeland

I've always had such wonderful opportunities, but I never made the effort, haven't put on the pressure. But I never took them. ~ Diana Vreeland

You're not supposed to give people what they want, you're supposed to give them what they don't know that they want yet. ~ Diana Vreeland

I like to indulge myself by sitting up late without having to do anything in the morning. ~ Diana Vreeland

Fashion needs incredible women, alive, stimulating, with style like Diana Vreeland. She is the most. The way she talks expresses all her values. ~ Gianni Versace

This is a weakness of the world. Someone thinks they've discovered something for the first time. They want to be authoritative about it. ~ Diana Vreeland

Why don't you have a room done up in every color green? This will take months, years, to collect, but it will be delightful-a melange of plants, green glass, green porcelains, and furniture covered in sad greens, gay greens, clear, faded, and poison greens? ~ Diana Vreeland

For goodness sakes, beware of curls ... It is a great art to do them so that the girls not only look modern - but do not suddenly look very vulgar. ~ Diana Vreeland

It's only intelligent to wish to look after yourself properly. ~ Diana Vreeland

Before even the technique, there is a dream. Chanel had it. The dream is everything. ~ Diana Vreeland

<"To bewitch" is to me always slightly artificial as it is always put on
whereas witchery is a form of naturalness that some people can't help, and the world judges that they don't create it ... > November 15 1967 memo to Mrs. Loew Gross re "THE ROMANTIC POINT OF VIEW ~ Diana Vreeland

When I arrived in America, I had these very dark red nails which some people objected to, but then some people object to absolutely everything. ~ Diana Vreeland

I went to work to make money, not because I was bored. It was money that I wanted. ~ Diana Vreeland

If it's not there in fashion, fantasize it, ~ Diana Vreeland

You can see and feel everything in clothes. ~ Diana Vreeland

Unshined shoes are the end of civilization. ~ Diana Vreeland

No one cuts backs like he did. No one knows what a back is anymore. ~ Diana Vreeland

People who eat white bread have no dreams. ~ Diana Vreeland

Power has got to be the most intoxicating thing in the world - and of all forms of power the most intoxicating is fame. ~ Diana Vreeland

The two greatest mannequins of the century were Gertrude Stein and Edith Sitwell - unquestionably. You just couldn't take a bad picture of those two old girls ~ Diana Vreeland

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. ~ Diana Vreeland

All creations demand greenery of spirt. ~ Diana Vreeland

I've never met a leopard print I didn't like. ~ Diana Vreeland

What do I think about the way most people dress? Most people are not something one thinks about. ~ Diana Vreeland

Truth is a hell of a big point with me. Now I exaggerate - always. ~ Diana Vreeland

The only thing people are interested in is people. ~ Diana Vreeland

We all need a splash of bad taste. No taste is what I am against. ~ Diana Vreeland

Vogue always did stand for people's lives. I mean, a new dress doesn't get you anywhere; it's the life you're living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later. ~ Diana Vreeland

Never fear being vulgar, just boring, middle class or dull. ~ Diana Vreeland

Lighting is everything in a color. ~ Diana Vreeland

Where would fashion be without literature? ~ Diana Vreeland

Pink is the navy blue of India. ~ Diana Vreeland

God was fair to the Japanese. He gave them no oil, no diamonds. He gave them style. ~ Diana Vreeland

One thing I hold against Americans is that they have no flair for the rain. They seem unsettled by it; it's against them: they take it as an assault, an inconvenience! But rain is so wonderfully cleansing, so refreshing, so calming ... ~ Diana Vreeland

Too much good taste can be very boring. Independent style, on the other hand, can be very inspiring. ~ Diana Vreeland

I was always sort of a loner, I suppose. I always had to think out everything for myself ... I suppose that is what you call a loner. ~ Diana Vreeland

I certainly didn't learn anything in school. My education was the world. ~ Diana Vreeland

You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to your mother, you don't owe it to your children, you don't owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked 'female'. ~ Erin McKean

The future holds a golden world. It will be for beauty; it will be for intelligent productiveness. ~ Diana Vreeland

When I discovered dancing, I learned to dream. ~ Diana Vreeland

When fashion turns over it brings in little tiny creaks and cracks. This is the fascination and that is where you have to watch every step. ~ Diana Vreeland

Don't you loathe the word "workaholic"? It has nothing to do with an important thing, that you and your secretary are at the office until 6:30. But that's life, kiddo. 24-hour work doesn't go on in America. 24-hour work is what Italy and Holland did after the war. The lights never went out! ~ Diana Vreeland

Pleasure is everything. ~ Diana Vreeland

The way to judge a good hand is that the fingers are the same size at the tip as where they come out of the hand itself. ~ Diana Vreeland

I sincerely believe that energy grows from itself and the more energy you expand the more you create within yourself. ~ Diana Vreeland

A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste-it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against. ~ Diana Vreeland

Allure is a word very few people use nowadays, but it's something that exists. Allure holds you, doesn't it? Whether it's a gaze or a glance in the street or a face in the crowd or someone sitting opposite you at lunch ... you are held ~ Diana Vreeland

I'm for everybody. There are no set rules. But if one's not a joiner. To hell with all of them! ~ Diana Vreeland

A funny person is funny only for so long, but a wit can sit down and go on being spellbinding forever. One is not meant to laugh. One stays quiet and marvels. Spontaneously witty talk is without question the most fascinating entertainment there is. ~ Diana Vreeland

I have a terrible time remembering exactly when my birthday is. Age is totally boring ... ~ Diana Vreeland

I wish I could swap closets with Diana Vreeland, but I think only my left thigh would fit into her clothing. ~ Catherine Martin

There's only one very good life and that's the life you know you want and you make it yourself. ~ Diana Vreeland

I never felt comfortable about my looks until I married Reed Vreeland. I believe in love at first sight because that's what it was. I knew the moment our eyes met that we would marry, ~ Diana Vreeland

We are not looking for endless variety
we are looking for fashion. ~ Diana Vreeland

I adore artifice. I always have. ~ Diana Vreeland

Don't look left nor right and never compete. Never. Watching the other guy is what kills all forms of energy. ~ Diana Vreeland

Parents, you know, can be terrible. ~ Diana Vreeland

Oh, but I think that thoughtfulness and manners are everything. ~ Diana Vreeland

There was a time when it was considered vulgar and unnecessary to pursue money, but today anyone who doesn't believe in money must be out of their minds! ~ Diana Vreeland

The best time to leave a party is when the party's just beginning. There's no drink that kills except the drink that you didn't want to take, as the saying goes, and there's no hour that kills except the hour you stayed after you wanted to go home. ~ Diana Vreeland

Too much good taste can be boring ~ Diana Vreeland

You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It's a way of life. Without it, you're nobody. ~ Diana Vreeland

My life has been more influenced by books than by any other one thing. ~ Diana Vreeland

Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal. ~ Diana Vreeland

I have always felt that the only great thing about an interview is the questions that are asked. ~ Diana Vreeland

I think we live only through our dreams and our imagination. ~ Diana Vreeland

Style; all who have it have have one thing: originality. ~ Diana Vreeland

I adore that pink, it is the navy blue of India! ~ Diana Vreeland

Water is God's tranquilizer, ~ Diana Vreeland

I mean, a new dress doesn't get you anywhere; it's the life you're living in the dress. ~ Diana Vreeland

Naturally, I've always been mad about clothes. You don't get born in Paris to forget about clothes for a minute. ~ Diana Vreeland

Where Chanel came from in France is anyone's guess. She said one thing one day and another thing the next. She was a peasant - and a genius. Peasants and geniuses are the only people who count and she was both. ~ Diana Vreeland

Don't look back. Just go ahead. Give ideas away. Under every idea there's a new idea waiting to be born. ~ Diana Vreeland