Diana Vreeland: The Modern Woman

Book excerpt: The first Vreeland book to focus on her three decades at Harper’s Bazaar, where the legendary editor honed her singular take on fashion. In 1936, Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief Carmel Snow made a decision that changed fashion forever when she invited a stylish London transplant named Diana Vreeland to join her magazine. Vreeland created “Why Don’t You?”—an illustrated column of irreverent advice for chic living. Soon she was named the magazine’s fashion editor—a position that Richard Avedon later famously credited Vreeland with inventing. The troika of Snow, legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch, and Vreeland formed a creative collaboration that continued Harper’s Bazaar’s dominance as America’s leading fashion magazine. As World War II changed women’s role in society, Vreeland’s love for fashion and endless imagination provided exciting, modern imagery for this new paradigm. This book covers Vreeland’s three-decade tenure at Bazaar, revealing how Vreeland reshaped the role of the fashion editor by introducing styling, creative direction, and visual storytelling. Her innovative perspective and creative working relationships with photographers such as Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Lillian Bassman, and Hoyningen-Huene brought the American woman into a modern world. Through more than 300 images from the magazine, this book shows how Vreeland’s work not only influenced her readership, but also forged the path for modern fashion storytelling that endures today.