Not Diana Vreeland Quotes & Sayings

I went to work to make money, not because I was bored. It was money that I wanted. — 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

Photographers aren't artists, for goodness sake. — Diana Vreeland

It's not about the dress you wear, but it's about the life you lead in the dress. — 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

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

Don't think of Diana Vreeland's memoir as a book; it's more like a lunch. A bit of souffle, a glass of champagne, some green grapes - light, bubbly and slightly tart - all served up by an egocentric but inventive hostess. — Cathleen McGuigan

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

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

Beauty has nothing to do with possession. If possession and beauty must go together, then we are lost souls. A beautiful flower is not to be possessed, it's there to be beheld. ... It's there for your pleasure. — Diana Vreeland

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think laying out a beautiful picture in a beautiful way is a bloody bore. I think you've got to blow it right across the page and down the side, crop it, cut it in half, combine it with something else ... do something with it. You've got to make something out of it. — 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

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

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

I'm a person who is only invested in the pleasures and enjoyments of life. All the rest is left to the men. I've always remained what you might call "feminine" about the whole [work] thing. — Diana Vreeland

Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world. — 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

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

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

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

I have a terrible time remembering exactly when my birthday is. Age is totally boring ... — 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

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

I always wear my sweater back-to-front; it is so much more flattering. — Diana Vreeland

This is a great shame, but of course there have to be some things in life that not everybody can have, and great perfume is one of them. — Diana Vreeland

Pink is the navy blue of India. — Diana Vreeland

We are not looking for endless variety
we are looking for fashion. — 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

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

Balenciaga often said that women did not have to be perfect or beautiful to wear his clothes. When they wore his clothes, they became beautiful. — 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

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

I wonder about prisoners. They're told, "You are free, you are innocent, you can go anywhere." I'm sure they usually feel nothing. They don't burst into tears or hysterics or joy or "I told you so." It's nothing. To be on the straight path isn't a bloody thing. It's just ordinary. — 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

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

Lighting is everything in a color. — Diana Vreeland

Money has nothing to do with style at all, but naturally it helps every situation. — Diana Vreeland

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

You can see and feel everything in clothes. — 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

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

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

Water is God's tranquilizer, — Diana Vreeland

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

I like to indulge myself by sitting up late without having to do anything in the morning. — 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 think your imagination is your reality — 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

Parents, you know, can be terrible. — 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

Too much good taste can be boring — Diana Vreeland

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

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

The body must stay fit. Fit people like themselves much better. — 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