Eau de Diana Vreeland

What would Diana Vreeland smell like?  Something intoxicating, nothing gentle, something bold, slightly sauvage...

Diana Vreeland would be like Eleanor Lavish from A Room with a View when it comes to scent I think:

"I prefer something bolder: the reckless rose.  The tempestuous tulip."

Eleanor Lavish

The Extravagant Russe:

Diana Vreeland at the opening of The Glory of Russian Costume at the Metropolitan Museum

Perfectly Marvelous:

Outrageously Vibrant:

Simply Divine:

Extravagance Russe, Absolutely Vital, Perfectly Marvelous, Outrageously Vibrant, Simply Divine, Diana Vreeland, will be available in September exclusively at Colette in Paris.

love and kisses, Juliana

A Krizia Panther Embroidered Kaftan

Diana Vreeland declared that caftans are "fashionable for the beautiful people".

And what Diana says, the fashionable people do.  And still do.

Just in at RARE vintage is this Ahh-mazing blue linen Krizia caftan with a panther cleverly cut into and  embroidered onto the caftan and it is "Dee-vine" as Mrs. Vreeland would say!

Krizia panther embroidered caftan available for purchase at RARE vintage

Don't you just love the whiskers and the eyes?  And can you see the paw??

Here is another fab Krizia caftan from Vogue Italia in 1965... or maybe is that me at home with my leopard pillow and the remote : ) settling in for the night to watch TV...

love, kisses and feeling the Krizia caftan love, Juliana

Met Gala Flashback 1979

A Met Gala flashback from 1980 via Town and Country magazine...

"One glance at the committee names on the invitation to The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 'Fashions of the Hapsburg Era' opening in last December made it clear that one would not be hobnobbing with little match girls or the ladies who fix the flowers.  The committee chaired by Mrs. William F. Buckley Jr., was a constellation of the brightest stars in New York's social firmament and included Mrs. Winston Guest, Nancy, Lady Keith, Mrs. Aristotle Onassis, Mrs. Giovanni Agnelli, Mrs. Walter Annenberg, Miss Doris Duke, Mrs. Charles Englehard, Princess Lee Radziwill...  These well heeled heavenly bodies, glittering like Fourth of July sparkers in their haute couture gowns, radiate magnetic currents and powerful g forces.

Mary Sykes Cahan, the Metropolitan Mueum's senior public affairs associate in charge of the dinner that accompanies the exhibition which benefits the Costume Institute.  This dinner has long been a fundraiser for the CI, but became bigger in the 1970s with the appointment of Diana Vreeland as special consultant.  

Mrs Cahan said, 'Everything, from the invitation down to the placment of the last fork, goes through us.  No tapers, only unscented, votive candles are used.  Wax blows.  People deserve a suberb evening when hundresd of dollars have been spent.'

There's a waitng list for the six hndred invitations to the $300-per-person dinner.  Fifteen hundred tickets, priced at $75 for the post-dinner drinking, dancing viewing of the exhibit and the ultimate in people watching is the hottest ticket in town."

Town and Country, September 1980

Photos by Ron Galella from the Costume Institute Met Gala opening for Fashions of the Hapsburg Era, 1979

love, kisses and Party of the Year memories, Juliana

Diana Vreeland and Charles James #2

Leading up to Charles James: Beyond Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I will be posting quotes about and from Charles James.  

"He would far rather work and rework a beautiful dress ordered for a certain party than have that dress appear at that party."
Diana Vreeland on Charles James

Now, nearly 100 pieces of James' work will be all be dressed up and ready for the party of the year on May 5th at the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

love, kisses and vintage Charles James, Juliana

RARE vintage is in the Dominican Republic with Diana Vreeland and Oscar de la Renta

I have pulled this story from Oscar PR girls blog because I felt it was just too fabulous not to share and very apropos as there is yet another book out on Mrs Vreeland.

There are no photos but I am sure you will be able to picture it to a DV!

From Oscar PR Girl:

MRS. VREELAND
told by Oscar de la Renta

"This is a very funny story.  Diana use to come and stay with us in the Dominican Republic at Casa del Campo all of the time.  There was literally nothing to do in La Romana in those days, except of course go to the beach in the morning and play cards or something at the house.  

Every single afternoon, Diana would go to the pharmacy.  And there is a wonderful story about this particular pharmacy.  In the Dominican Republic, if they know you at the pharmacy, you can literally buy anything you want without a prescription.  At this pharmacy, you could buy all of the American products plus all of the European products that you could not buy in United States.  At the time there was a Romanian lady who was doing some kind of cream Diana liked.  Anyway, every day she would go.  

So one day the owner of the pharmacy comes to me and says that every day there are more and more people in the store.  And further, he said he did not think they were coming to buy anything, that they were there because they had heard about this unbelievable, extraordinary apparition of a lady who visits the store.  And you know, at that time, especially in the Dominican Republic, Mrs. Vreeland was always dressed in turbans and caftans, with extraordinary makeup.  

So one day Diana comes to me and says that she has to leave the next morning.  I asked her why she could not stay a few more days.  We thought that she didn't know what was happening at the pharmacy, but she said, 'you know, these people every single day expect more and more and more and more!  And now, I have run out of outfits.  Unless you have a camel or an elephant for me to arrive at the pharmacy, I have to leave.'  And do you know what that pharmacy is called today?  It is called the Farmacia Diana."

Diana Vreeland by Richard Avedon

Happy Birthday Dee-AH-nah Vreeland!

Yesterday was the birthday of the great Diana Vreeland.  Diana Vreeland was all about the life less ordinary.  We all could use a little - or a lot - of Diana Vreeland's extraordinary in our own lives So Why Don't You... take a memo from Diana...

To        BARON DE GUNZBERG

          MRS. SIMPSON

Copy to   MRS. SCHIFF

          MRS. MELLEN

          MRS. DI MONTEZEMOLO

          MISS MILINAIRE

          MISS DONOVAN

          MR. DUHE

          MRS. INGERSTOLL

          MISS HARLOW

          MISS MC KENNA

          MISS WINKELHORN

          MISS HAYS

          MISS PHILLIPS

          MRS. BLACKMON

          MISS MIRABELLA

RE: 

I do hope that you willall get cracking and get in divine

things that would make an amusing wardrobe...

Let's remember bright orange satin evening slippers 

that Gres shows with all sorts of contrasting colors.

It is a most chic and exciting touch.  They are just a little

Roger Vivier pumps with a small eveing heel but the color is

suberb with everything.

I am extremely disappointed that no one has taken the slightest interest in freckles on the model...

We wish to use greens that are everything from spring grass to

bright jade - and the nearer the spring grass the smarter

it will be...

I repeat again the importance of knee socks...

Certainly we need belts --very badly--in this effect--to be worn with everything--but I think the galloon, lace, jewels, everything must be beautifully handled--because we are touching on a very luxurious look with lots of splendour...

Don't forget the serpent...

The sticky situation with fringe is, of course, extremely serious.

Let's promote grey.

For everything.

At the present moment how much grey have we got?

I think that we can consider that the gypsy look has now gotten into the bloodstream of most people who are interested in fashion.

We need

embroidery

embroidery

embroidery

This is the year of the ribbon.  

No one ever looked prettier in ribbons than Chanel.

Please don't miss the divine shoes in the de Rosnay pix.

They are just Divine.  I think these are works of art.

All memos quoted from Visinoaire 37 VREELAND MEMOS

RARE vintage's Saturday Total Utter Ridiculous Fabulousness #3! Diana Vreeland

"Give them what they never knew they wanted." Diana Vreeland

Did you know that you wanted a 1920s gold tipped ivory cigarette holder that fully extended measures 14 inches?  No, nor I.  Until I saw...

and then I saw...

Cecil Beaton's portrait of Vreeland painted with said cigarette holder.

RARE vintage's Saturday Total, Utter, Ridiculous Fabulousness is Diana Vreeland's cigarette holder which will be up for auction June 25th at Kerry Taylor auctions in England.  Electronic ciggie anyone??!

Images from Kerry Taylor auctions

Quote of the Day #9

"Why don't you order Schiaparelli's cellophane belt with your name and telephone number on it?"

Diana Vreeland

Quote of the Day #4: Bardot and Mrs.Vreeland

"Her lips made Mick Jagger's lips possible."
Diana Vreeland on Brigitte Bardot in the book Allure

Diana Vreeland Hits the Sidewalk of Style!

The city of Beverly Hills and the Rodeo Drive Committee are honoring Diana Vreeland with a plaque on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style.  The plaque will be unveiled by Vreeland's son, Tim and the wife of her grandson Alexander, Lisa Immordino Vreeland.  Lisa recently published Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel (a must have for your fashion library) and a documentary of the same title which will be released later this month.

DV's plaque will include personal quotes.  They will have a plethora of fabulous quotes to choose from.  Which ones would you choose?  I like:

Pink is the navy blue of India.

Why don't you rinse your blonde child's hair in dead champagne, as they do in France?

Don't forget the serpent...

We need: embroidery, embroidery, embroidery

Why don't you realize that you are infinitely smarter this year if you dine out with tiny sleeves in your exciting dress

and the list of quotes just goes on and on...

Here is my new obsession: Dina Vreeland in a black evening dress with a bare back, bare arms, a chignon, a big, chunky bracelet and the piece de resistance, a leopard clutch.  Perfection!

Photo and above photo from Diana Vreeland by Eleanor Dwight

The Mughal: Kenneth Jay Lane

Pauline de Rothschild dedicated her book, The Irrational Journey, to her friend Diana Vreeland.  The dedication said, "You held two keys, discipline and wisdom.  They gave you a vision.  Of the real, of the unreal, of the unreality waiting somewhere in the wings to be made real."

Vogue in the 1960s under Diana Vreeland was a place of dreams: real and imagined.  That is the fun of fashion; you can slip on a pale beige mink, wear beige knickers by Donald Brooks, brocaded sashes by Calderon and a Dynel hairpiece and suddenly you are on Diana Vreeland's high speed train from Kyoto to Tokyo looking like the beautiful Versuhka with a cup of green tea.

This early Kenneth Jay Lane Mughal style bracelet from the 1960s in an apricot enamel with green stones could have been sprung from the imagination of Diana Vreeland.  

Why don't you wear it with...

an apricot colored caftan from Oscar de la Renta from the 1990s (or something similar as this piece has already sold.)

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Weekend Reading 4: "I want you to go to Chanel and buy anything you want"

From D.V. by Diana Vreeland.  For you from RARE vintage.  Read on...

"I loved the clothes I had in the thirties.  I can remember a dress I had of Schiaparelli's that had fake 
ba-zooms-  these funny little things that stuck out here.  When you sat down, they sort of went... all I can say is that it was terribly chic.  Don't ask me why but it was."

Image from Shocking!  The Art and Fashion of Schiaprelli by Dilys E. Blum

Weekend Reading 3: Loulou de la Falaise, Yves Saint Laurent and a little Opium

Weekend reading for you from RARE vintage.  Read on...  (click on the images to enlarge)

Harper's Bazaar UK March 2011

Jerry Hall in the 1978 Opium ad campaign.  The clothes look so familiar don't they?!

Night of a thousand red lanterns:

Marina Schiano, Loulou de la Falaise and Yves Saint Laurent:

Loulou de la Falaise in the black velvet dress embroidered with a red poppy that Yves Saint Laurent made for Loulou.  It was short in the front, with a train in the back and lined in gold fabric:

Two greats: Yves Saint Laurent and Diana Vreeland:

Yves Saint Laurent and models:

DV and RV

Diana Vreeland and RARE Vintage of course!

The March issue of Harper's Bazaar features Sarah Jessica Parker as the great Diana Vreeland. It was wonderful for us to be a part of recreating one of her legendary and lavish exhibitions. Our incredible fully feathered 1967 Donald Brooks dress is the only vintage piece to be included in the exhibit that SJP is curating.