All language subtitles for Diana.Vreeland.The.Eye.Has.To.Travel.2011.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

I think to just have little
bites out of the fashion world

is a sort of
a starvation diet myself.

I would rather keep right out
and eat ice cream cake all day,

look terrible and feel fine,

or I would like to be
bang in it

as I have been
for so many years.

*

When we think about an iconic
person in a magazine, an editor,

we always say Diana Vreeland.

*

Diana was just so far ahead in
terms of seeing fashion

as an art form,

seeing photography
as an art form.

When people call her
the Empress Vreeland,

it's not by hazard

because she did have this
incredible kind of

auteur and grandeur to her.

She was upside-down
original.

*

She was never a very rich woman.

She was never
a very beautiful woman,

but she created beauty
and she created wealth.

Come on,
for heaven's sakes !

Let's get that movie going !

*

( Diana )
I loathe nostalgia.

I don't believe in anything
before penicillin.

( George )
I can imagine.

How would you like to tell
the story of your life then ?

It's got to have
some bite.

It's all your voice,
Diana, it's all you.

I'm not doing anything.

All I'm doing
is editing.

Don't give me that.

I was an editor
for 40 years.

I know who's boss.

I don't give a damn what's
in it, as long as it sells.

Listen, I'm as practical
as Bloomingdale's.

All right then, Diana.

Of course, we are going to
talk about your years at

"Harper's Bazaar"
and at "Vogue,"

but first I think we should
start with your childhood.

How does one
become Diana Vreeland ?

I certainly didn't learn
anything in school.

My education
was the world.

Where do I begin ?

The first thing to do,
my love,

is arrange
to be born in Paris.

After that, everything
follows quite naturally.

*

I was brought up
in a world of great beauties,

a world where lookers had
something to give the world.

Paris was the center of
everything !

I saw the whole beginning
of our century there.

It was the Belle Époque.

It was a great moment.

Great, great !

Of course, I was always
mad about the Ballet Russe,

mad about it.

Diaghilev and his dancers.

Was he a friend
of your parents ?

Diaghilev ?

Of course.

I remember him and Nijinsky
coming over all the time.

What an enviable
and wonderful childhood.

Did you realize at the time
that you were lucky ?

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

We adored them,
they were so exciting.

Everyone who came in the house
was exciting.

( Diana )
A great deal of my upbringing
was in all those evenings

when I saw a lot of fun.

( Diana )
I've always sort of been in

a theatrical ambience,
so to speak.

I mean, I'm using
Paris as sort of a theatre

for certain things for a woman,
you know ?

My parents thought of
the most wonderful things

for my sister and me to see.

They sent us to London once
and we sat in the bleachers

and watched the coronation of
King George V !

It was marvelous.

The elephants, the horses,
the regalia, the trappings.

Oh, it was gorgeous.

Horses were perfectly natural
in those days.

Is there someone
who personifies

your idea of
great style ?

When you see
a race horse being led out,

I think they've got something,
hmm, that no one else has.

Race horse.

Why do you use the race horse
as a metaphor for style ?

Because the race horse
has a little extra.

A little extra pizzazz.

As children during our summers
in the Rocky Mountains,

we were brought up on horses.

I did, of course, ride a lot
with Buffalo Bill.

And I loved him,

he was very sweet,
sweet to my sister and myself.

He was essentially a cowboy,
you see.

That was his sort of
dazed experience in life,

this languid, plunging,
wonderful,

marvelous-looking man, you know.

We thought
he was beautiful.

And what did you think
you wanted to be ?

Or were you
just out to experience ?

I never wanted to be in
the Rocky Mountains again,

that was sure.

I knew that it was about
the loneliest place in town.

I wanted to get where
the action was.

When did you first have a sense
of how you wanted to look ?

Um... first time today
or first time, when ?

In your life.

Were you always pleased
by the way you look ?

Good God, no.

I should say not.

I mean, you can't go around
like a smug mademoiselle

from about seven years up.

Uh-uh.

( George )
Diana, could I ask you some
rather personal questions ?

( Diana )
Mm-hmm.

Your mother,
tell me about her.

I admired the fact that
she was very good-looking.

Yes, but how did
you get along ?

We were not sympathetic.

Very few daughters
and mothers are.

Yes.

She used to say, "It's too
bad that you have such

a beautiful sister and that
you're so extremely ugly."

So much of her character was
formed when, as a little girl,

her mother treated her
as her ugly duckling.

I was always
her ugly little monster.

Well, how-- how did that
make you feel ?

Now, George, I don't think
we want to go there.

Let's just say
Mom was a wild woman.

You know, she used to
hunt rhinos.

And, your father, was he
an adventurer as well ?

Oh, no.

Daddy was an Englishman.

He raised us to be British
in a healthy way.

That's the kind of
family we were.

Very little
visible emotion.

( Diana )
We were also gypsies.

We finally settled in New York
when I was about ten.

I was ready to hit the streets,

but my parents insisted
I go to school.

So, they enrolled me at
Brearley.

I lasted three weeks
at the Brearley School.

No, three months, months.

And really
they kept me there

out of sort of kindness
to my parents,

who obviously
didn't know what to do with me

because I didn't know any
English.

I never had time
to learn English.

I wasn't allowed to speak
French,

and I had no one to talk to.

And I started to stutter
and the whole thing

became really a very serious--

And stuttering
is quite a serious thing.

And then one day I went to
a Russian school

and then I was happy.

It was the only school I was
ever happy in

because all
I did was dance.

And it was a great education.

*

I realized if I was going to
make it, I must stand out.

My last name
was Dalziel.

D-A-L-Z-I-E-L.

Gaelic for 'I dare.'

There's only one
very good life

and that's the life
that you know you want

and you make it yourself.

I think when you're young,

you should be a lot with
yourself and your sufferings.

Then one day you
get out where the sun shines

and the rain rains
and the snow snows,

and it all comes together.

It came together for me
in New York

during the Roaring '20s.

I was going to
make myself

the most popular girl
in the world.

The Roaring '20s,
that was great.

The dancing,
the music, the artists.

The world was alive with
everything new.

It was the start of
the 20th century, actually.

*

What were you like
in your teens ?

When the rest of us were
going around gawky and...

I was dancing.

That's all
I cared about.

By the time I was 17,
I knew what a snob was.

I also knew that young snobs
didn't quite get my number.

I was much better with
Mexican and Argentine gigolos,

the odd ducks around town who
liked to dance as much as I did.

Naturally, I was
considered a bit fast.

The story got out.

But I didn't care
what anyone else said.

I was never out of Harlem
in those days.

The music was so great,

and Josephine Baker was simply
the only girl you saw

in the chorus line.

All you could feel was
something good coming from her.

She had that--
that thing--

that pizzazz.

My mother didn't
approve of my behavior,

but she had her own flirtations,
so to speak.

She'd even flirt
with my boyfriends,

and occasionally,
one would fall flat for her.

I never felt comfortable
about my looks...

... until I met Reed Vreeland.

He was the most beautiful man
I'd ever seen,

very quiet, very elegant.

I loved all that.

I met him on the 4th of July
at a party in 1924.

I believe in
love at first sight

because that's what it was.

( woman )
And did you
anticipate getting married ?

Or, again, was this...

Oh, yes,
because I was romantic.

Anything that was romantic
was great.

Nothing could have
spoiled my happiness.

Reed made me feel beautiful
no matter

what my mother made me think.

Reed and I moved to London
just before the Crash in 1929.

Now, London ran the world,
don't forget !

I learned
everything in England.

I learned English !

But, of course, the best thing
about London is Paris.

It was the '30s.

Strangers were dancing with
strangers,

girls were
dancing with girls.

It was always raining.

It was hideous--
and marvelous.

The clothes !

That's where I really learned
about fashion.

No one had a better sense
of luxury than Coco Chanel.

She really had the spirit of
the 20th century.

She really understood what
women's lives were going to be,

that they were going to take
subways,

they were
going to walk in the rain.

( man )
Uh-hmm.
She was very rigorous
and vigorous.

And, she was...

She would always fit me
in her private atelier;

we were very close, you know.

George, you don't know what
a part of life

fittings were for me.

I used to have
three fittings on a nightgown

and I'm not that deformed.

At the same time,

I was opening up my own lingerie
business in London.

We had some women
who sewed in the shop,

but the most beautiful work

was done in a Spanish convent
by nuns.

One day, Wallis Simpson
came into the shop

and ordered three nightgowns
for a very special weekend.

She was off for
a rendezvous with Edward,

the new King of England.

And the rest,
well, you know, is history.

My little lingerie shop had
brought down the throne.

( Edward )
You all know the reasons

which have impelled me
to renounce the throne.

( George )
Amazing story, Diana.

Were you still living in
London at the time ?

( Diana )
Good God, no.

The empire was finished
and the war

was about to break out.

We were spending most of our
time with our family upstate

in Brewster, New York.

I was so depressed, leaving
Chanel, leaving Europe,

leaving all
the world of my world.

But you had your family.

I grew up wishing I'd had any
mother but this mother.

I didn't understand
why I couldn't have

just an old nice mom

like all my friends had.
The other guys.

Yeah, what--

I didn't want
the other boys

to associate me with
this woman.

( Frecky )
She always made it clear that
she wanted us to be originals.

You've got to be either
first in your class

or the bottom
of the class.

Don't be in the middle.

That's a wretched piece of
advice to give a school kid.

( Diana )
George, why all
this family talk ?

Shouldn't we get to the more
exciting stuff ?

( George )
I find your family
life very interesting.

Well, did I tell you about
the time when

me and my son Frecky
were sitting in Brewster,

and you'll never guess who
flew over our head.

Lindbergh !

( man on radio )
Charles Augustus Lindbergh

will attempt what no man
has ever dared.

He will attempt to fly
the Atlantic non-stop.

New York to Paris alone,
all alone.

He flew right over us,
en route to Paris !

I always thought this
was a very lucky sort of sign.

Had you already started
working at

"Harper's Bazaar"
at this time ?

We had just
moved into the city,

and I was going through money

like someone goes through
whiskey

if you're an alcoholic.

Yes.

How important is money ?

Vital !

Absolutely vital.

Anyone who thinks otherwise
must be insane.

Of course it's very
modern to say it,

I mean, well-bred
people didn't talk like this

about money at one time,
but today, by God, they do !

( Diana )
We never really had that
much money,

so I realized
I had to go to work.

It hadn't crossed my mind
to work,

because I'm really basically
quite lazy, you see.

But, I loved it, loved it !

I was so mad about
working in those days,

so mad about taking the train,

I was so mad about
everything that was happening.

( man on radio )
Of the 60 million Americans

who hurry to their jobs

on workday mornings,
one in every four is a woman.

More and more women are rising
to top-flight executive jobs.

Mrs. Carmel Snow
of "Harper's Bazaar."

( George )
Tell me about Carmel Snow.

How did she find you ?

( Diana )
Well, you see,
she saw me dancing at

the St. Regis one night.

She admired what I had on--
Chanel, of course.

So, she offered me a job.

I said, "But I've never
worked before.

I've never
dressed before lunch."

She said, "But you seem to
know a lot about clothes.

Why don't you try it ?"

"Why don't you
try it ?"

So I started a column called
"Why Don't You..."

It was rather frivolous.

I don't remember too many of
the ideas, thank goodness,

but they were all very true
and tried ideas, mind you.

"Why don't you have the most
beautiful necklace in the world

made of huge pink spiky coral
and big Siberian emeralds ?"

"Why don't you rinse your blond
child's hair in dead champagne

to keep it gold
as they do in France ?"

( Frecky )
It was the Recession
and in the middle of it,

here is somebody advocating that
you do way-out things.

It was a voice
crying in the wilderness.

( Olivia )
"Why don't you paint a map
of the world on all four walls

"of your boys' nursery

so they won't grow up with
a provincial point of view ?"

"Why don't you wear
violet velvet mittens

with everything ?"

( woman )
It appears as though she
didn't edit herself,

but of course,

she knew what had
the sound of rhythm,

she knew what had
the sound of madness

and surprise and all of that.

( Frecky )
The important thing is that it
was the first step

into a career in fashion.

( Diana )
You know, I quickly
became fashion editor

of "Harper's Bazaar."

It was quite an important role
at the time,

meaning that I wasn't
"a" fashion editor;

I was the one-and-only
fashion editor.

( George )
So you stopped doing
"Why Don't Yous..." ?

Well, we went to war.

I mean, that Europe
went to war.

And "Why Don't You..."
seemed so silly.

Ridiculous, absurd.

Did I tell you about the night
I saw Hitler

before the war ?

I was at the Munich Opera.

My friend whispered
to me,

"It might
interest you, Madame,

"to see the man who
wishes to be

dictator
called Herr Hitler."

So I looked down,

that mustache
was unbelievable.

It was so hilarious,
it was just wrong.

( woman )
Mrs. Vreeland's major
contribution to the magazine

certainly was imagination

and a very, very
original point of view.

She simply didn't think
like other people.

Do you know what came out of
the war, George ?

Peace at last,
and the bikini !

*

It was the biggest thing
since the atom bomb.

America wasn't ready for it,
but I'm a reporter.

I know news when I see it.

*

( Barbara )
She had the first bikini,
and she put it on a model.

And, we were all in her office
and we were all aghast.

You know, we had never seen such
exposure of skin and she said,

"With an attitude like that,

you keep civilization back
a thousand years."

*

Mrs. Vreeland was not only
responsible

for the fashion look
of the magazine,

but, I think,
of fashion at the time.

*

( George )
Is it true you also
popularized the blue jeans ?

( Diana )
To me, since the gondola,

there's never been anything
like the blue jean.

They're the most beautiful
things I've ever seen.

I've done six or seven
articles on them, you know.

And do I have it right that
you discovered

Lauren Bacall ?

Oh, Betty was great.

( woman )
What did you first think when
you saw that very first picture

of Betty Bacall ?

She came smiling into
my office with this, um--

Someone had found her on
the street corner,

looking for a cab
or something

with this wide
Russian face.

I don't know how keen
she'll be about being

called a Russian,

but that's what she looked
like to me in those days.

( woman )
Anyone that knows
Diana Vreeland

knows that one has never
seen anyone

that looks like Diana Vreeland.

I mean, she wore flats
and black tights

before anyone ever
thought of it, you know.

We couldn't take
a bad picture of Betty,

not possibly take
a bad picture.

I've never seen
a model quite like that.

( Diana )
After I put her on the cover,
she got a call from Hollywood.

*

You know you don't have to
act with me, Steve.

You don't
have to say anything

and you don't have to
do anything.

Not a thing.

Oh, maybe
just whistle.

I graduated from Wellesley
in 1960,

thinking that I wanted
to be in the fashion business.

I was a "Harper's Bazaar"
magazine reader,

voracious reader.

And to my amazement,

I got a job with someone I had
never heard of,

and it was
Diana Vreeland.

I got the picture right away
that I was working for someone

very, very creative,
very, very demanding.

( women )
Good morning, Ms. Prescott.

When Mrs. Vreeland came storming
into the room,

she'd start barking orders,
"Girl, get me some pencils."

That would be me.

"A letter,
I need Cecil Beaton !"

( woman )
Now, hear this !

( Lillian )
She always gave her assistants
a very hard time.

They always cried during
the day.

Came back the next
morning loving her.

Were you an easy woman
to work for ?
No.

I had that reputation of
not being easy, and I am.

I'm charming,
I'm very easy.

But naturally, I expect someone
to do as much work as I do,

which I believe
is not usual,

I'm told, I don't know.

One day,
she stormed into the room

after a particularly good lunch

and she chucked
her huge coat at me.

And I chucked it back at her.

I mean, it was just knee-jerk,
it was like volleyball.

And she said in a loud voice,

"That is the rudest girl
I've ever met."

And I was not.

I was not, but it was, it was
pretty...

annoying, I think.

On the other hand--
( dog barking )

Stop it !

Everyone was threatened
by Diana Vreeland.

I mean, she was threatening,
she was awesome,

she was one of the only people--
There were two people--

I used to say to say there were

only two people
in the entire field

that ever intimidated me.

One was Diana Vreeland and the
other one was Dick Avedon.

I was terrified of both of them.

Boy, was I lucky that I would
have Carmel Snow as my editor

and Diana Vreeland
as my fashion editor.

And I was 19 or 20

and I went straight
from the Merchant Marine,

which meant straight
from my home

to my mother, father,
and crazy aunt--

brilliant crazy aunt who
just exploded with imagination.

Instead of saying,
"Do this, we need that"

in the issue, she'd tell
an anecdote.

She'd-- for example,
I went to Egypt with Dovima

and she sent me
a memo that said,

"Dick, before you plan these
pictures,

"just think about Cleopatra,

"think about
those hot nights.

"She was walking on the roof,
everybody is so old

and she's this young beautiful
girl pacing that roof !"

She just sort of threw
your way of thinking.

( woman )
Nobody did pure female
glamour like Dick Avedon,

and no one knew it like
Diana Vreeland.

She had this taste

for the extraordinary
and for the extreme.

*

( Richard )
Vreeland invented
the fashion editor.

Before her,
it was society ladies

who put hats on other
society ladies,

now it's promotion ladies

who compete with other
promotion ladies.

No one has
equaled her, not nearly.

( Anjelica )
The magazines before she came
were all about how to fit in

with your husband
or cook a pie or,

you know,
even glamorous women.

But she said, "Pie ?

Who cares about pie
when there's Russia ?"

*

( man )
She gave "Harper's Bazaar"
its pep,

that was her big contribution.

She gave fantasy to fashion
and romanticized it

because basically deep down,
it's not romantic.

Fashion is
very boring subject.

I mean, she gave the energy

and the pep to anything
she touched.

That's important,
even when you talked to her,

she gave you... pep.

*

( Tim )
She talked about spreads.

She talked about visions that
she had of a particular spread.

They always sounded
kind of fantastical to me.

I mean, they would all go off to
some remote part of the world

with the photographer
and glorious models

and invent fantasy.

( man )
We need adventure and she was
the lady that would go anywhere.

If you said to Diana Vreeland

we're going to put you
in a space ship

and you're going
to the moon, she'd go !

( Tim )
I remember when she did this
fashion shoot in Arizona

at the Pauson House
by Frank Lloyd Wright.

She even modeled herself
during the shoot.

( Lillian )
I must say, I used to love to
get an assignment from her

because she would
get in front of the mirror

and become the model that she
wanted you to photograph.

I remember I had
a group of kimonos to do.

She got in front of the mirror
and showed me how

in a kimono you didn't stand
straight, you curved your body.

And she just
took on the whole aura.

You-- you really felt that
she was a geisha girl

in front of that mirror.

( Diana )
Every girl in the world should
have geisha training.

The idea is that you
learn from exaggeration.

The way they move, their voices,
their faces, the makeup !

God was fair to the Japanese.

He gave them no oil,
no diamonds, no gold, nothing,

but he gave them
a sense of style.

Style is everything, George.

It helps you
get up in the morning.

It helps you get down the
stairs, it's a way of life.

Without it, you're nobody.

And I'm not talking about
a lot of clothes.

( Ali )
She was very aware of which girl
had-- had something

that wasn't just dress,

you know, how do you say,
clothing horse.

The posture,
the body, the movement.

She might do.
Might do what ?

The bones are good.

There were this little kind of
washed out, little Irish girls,

from, you know, Yonkers,
and she turned them into queens.

*

( Diana )
They have to do a great deal
for themselves--

their skin, their posture,

their walk, their interests in
things, their education.

*

She said, "Even if you're
wearing closed shoes and boots,

your toenails have to be
perfect."

You know, it was like
every single detail.

She knew that if your toenails
were painted, maybe you would

walk in a different way.

So I don't know,
but it was there.

You know, a special woman,
who-- who--

Which other women--

Name any of the ones
you interviewed.

Do any of them have
any sense like that ?

No !

No.

What does it matter how people
look and how they dress ?

I should think it'd
only matter to them.

Yeah.

I don't see that it matters
to anyone else.

Do I look all right ?
You look great !

And that matters to me.

You look great.
I do ?

Yes, yes.

She was more
than just an editor.

She was something
extraordinary.

She was the creator
of fashion

and she understood fashion

in a totally
different way.

( China )
One can make fashion
or one is.

Diana was fashion.

It's different.

Do Americans, as a rule,
have good taste or bad taste ?

They don't have any taste
or any desire for taste.

The Kennedys are-- have--
have style, don't they ?

Sure, Kennedy style.

Jacqueline Onassis is--

But she wasn't born
a Kennedy, don't forget.

She's got her own
special style.

When did you first discover
Jacqueline ?

Always known her,
always known her.

Love her.
You remember her
as a young girl ?

Yes, she just had that
wonderful pizzazz of youth.

She was avid, out for
everything.

She was enthusiastic,
something she's never lost.

*

( Frecky )
When Jack Kennedy ran
for President,

Jackie had no qualms
about asking Mom for advice

on what clothes to wear to
the inauguration

in case he was elected.

In fact, Jackie wrote to Mom,
"Dear Mrs. Vreeland,

"it sounds as if you know
exactly the right things.

"You are psychic
as well as an angel.

"I feel it is presumptuous

"and bad luck to even be
thinking about it now,

"but it's such
fun to think about.

"I would be imagining it even if
my husband were a garbage man.

"I'll just have to get it anyway

and wear it to watch TV
if things don't work out."

But of course, Jack was elected
and Jackie looked beautiful.

The torch has been passed to
a new generation of Americans.

( Frecky )
Because of her friendship
with Mom,

"Harper's Bazaar" was the first
to publish a picture

of the Presidential couple.

And she wrote, "Dear Diana,
everyone is wondering

"why we chose 'Harper's Bazaar'

"and they invent a million
reasons,

and no one says
the real one, which is you."

( George )
Diana, it seems like you
were on top of the world.

Why on Earth weren't you made
editor-in-chief of "Bazaar" ?

( Diana )
You know, George,

after 26 years of making
$18,000 a year,

the Hearsts
finally gave me a raise.

$1,000 !

Can you imagine ?

So when Alexander Liberman at
"Vogue" came to see me,

I suddenly made up
my mind to listen to him.

( woman )
Ah Miss Maxwell...
The thorn...

Who is she ?
The editor-in-chief...

( woman on PA )
Number one...

Magnifique !

*

( Diana )
I don't think anyone has ever
been in a better place

at a better time

than when I was editor of
"Vogue."

It was the '60s
and it all started in London.

*

( woman )
The Beatles opened up enormous
new channel

of excitement and life.

You didn't have to have
certain kinds of manners.

You wore your miniskirt
up to your crotch.

In England,
you wore what you want.

What Diana Vreeland did was
she channeled

a certain kind of energy.

Mrs. Vreeland felt that
the fashion

that was coming off the streets
of London was the way forward.

( man )
It was the time
of the youth revolution

and she was so unbelievably
intrigued by it.

And, uh, so she just
wanted to have the whole--

a whole new brew of young
photographers,

like Patrick Lichfield
and David Bailey.

I think that sleeve would look
better down on the right side.

Uh-uh, that's the left side.

It was a very London thing,
in a way.

I mean, the youth
and the vitality,

and it was so different from
America.

Well, say "lesbian"
a few times.

Lesbian.
Good.

And again.
Lesbian.

With more feelings.
Lesbian !

That's more like it.
Lesbian ?

( David )
Vreeland sent
for me and Jean.

I thought all of us were
going to get the elbow.

I thought she'd bring all the
"Harper's Bazaar" photographers.

It was raining and Jean didn't
want to go and she was crying.

All her mascara was running.

We looked like
a couple of drowned rats.

We walked into the office
and she said, "Stop !"

And Jean, tears came down,
she just stopped.

We looked like
a couple of drowned rats

standing in a puddle.

And she said, "Stop !

The English have arrived."

*

I love the '60s,
it was the Youthquake.

( man )
"Vogue" was a very sleepy
magazine when she took it over.

She really had to propel it
forward into being

a cutting-edge magazine

that people saw as
"the key fashion magazine."

Mrs. Vreeland was
the perfect oracle

for what was happening
in the world.

I think she understood
this whole Youthquake.

She understood this
influence of music and films

and photographers and models
and understood the change

and really presented it
to a bigger audience.

( man )
She was waiting for the '60s.

It was a revolution and probably
brought back the '20s to her.

Because that was her period,
again,

where everything was thrown out
and it was the new.

There was a social,
there was a sexual,

there was a political
revolution.

You know, Civil Rights
and "Black was Beautiful."

And, you know, all these things
that she could

just jump all over.

( Diana )
It was a revolution,

and for the first time,
youth went out to life,

instead of waiting for life
to come to them.

Boys and girls could do
anything,

it was true freedom !

And, of course, the music !

Isn't Mick marvelous ?

Those lips !

We did his photograph in '64
when he was quite plump !

The first picture ever published
of Mick was with Vreeland

because I offered it to British
"Vogue" and they said,

"No, who is this guy ?"

And I sent it
to Vreeland.

She said, "I don't care who he
is, I'm going to publish it,

it's such a great picture."

As long as people
know about it,

and they have to
know that you exist,

which is a very important part
of if you are somebody

new, starting out.

Mrs. Vreeland really brought us
into a modern period.

I think, you see, we are living
in a scientific age

and I don't think that--

That's the only thing that
brings us forward, is science.

( Anna )
She just really got it

and knew that fashion and the
world were on their way

to something much more global
than what had been happening.

*

Not just fashion,
but also the arts,

performers, entertainers,
and new models.

( Diana )
We had Polish, we had English,

we had girls from all the
different countries of Europe

all coming here.

You know, and they were
so happy to be somewhere else

and they were wonderful.

They were so charming.

*

I adored Twiggy !

She's just such
a personality.

She's such a kid, such a girl,
such a wow !

When she first came to us,
I think she was about 16,

and this Cockney kid walks in

and she's a bit of all right,
I tell you.

She almost killed me !

I thought
she was so great !

She was wonderful !

For the first time, models,
like Twiggy,

became personalities,
instead of simply mannequins.

( Joel )
She would say,
"Push their faults."

If they have a space between
their teeth,

make it the most
beautiful thing about them.

Make an asset of your faults.

If you're tall, be taller,
wear high-heel shoes.

If you have a long neck,

be proud of it,
don't try to hunch over.

If you have a long nose,
hold it up

and make it your trademark.

( Joel )
She celebrated
Barbra Streisand's nose

and made it into, you know,

a Renaissance statue or
painting.

( Diana )
It was my idea to use
Barbra Streisand as a mannequin.

We shot her in profile with
that Nefertiti nose of hers.

Her success was overnight !

Then there was Cher !

That girl was a dream !

No one had
ever heard of her,

so I tracked her down,
sent for her,

and, boy, did we use her !

She modeled
for us forever.

You see, George,
at the same time

mannequins became personalities
in the '60s,

personalities became mannequins.

Ravishing personalities are
the most riveting things

in the world.

Conversation, people's
interests,

the atmosphere that they
create around them,

these are the only things
worth putting in any issue.

Some of those girls that
she turned into models,

people would say, why ?

You know,
they look so strange.

And-- but she saw something.

And that's what was
extraordinary about her.

She saw things in people
before they saw it themselves.

( woman )
My aim was to use fashion to be
a transformer.

I think that Vreeland
must have sensed it, that she--

she said, "I want you to have
your own ideas and visions

about how you
want to transform yourself,"

because that was my wish:
to be different characters.

For her, the most important
thing was that it wasn't boring.

Don't be boring !

*

Don't tell a story, even if it's
true, if it's boring.

Invent something !

Mrs. Vreeland
invented this period herself.

I mean, through the pages,

she used people, like Veruschka,
looking like a leopard...

I mean, this world without
a leopard,

who would
want to be here ?

( Manolo )
Marisa Berenson
with wigs, with this, with that.

I think I was quite daring at
the time.

You know, I was the first one to
do naked pictures in "Vogue."

I was, uh, quite a free spirit.

She used people
like Penelope.

Penelope was not what I call
the look of a model.

( woman )
I remember she looked down
on my shoes and she went,

"I wonder what you're
going to do with your life.

I don't think you'll be in
fashion."

She would fix
her gaze on somebody

and then they'd start to
blossom.

I think she saw that
I was one of these new things.

I wasn't one of these swans,

these European put-together
'50s swans.

I was sort of
this new American idea.

( Anjelica )
She made it okay for women
to be ambitious,

for women to be outlandish
and extraordinary,

and for women
to garner attention.

( Manolo )
Vision !

"Vision" is the word I just
wanted to tell about her !

She had a vision--
Did I say that already ?

She really launched
a whole generation.

She started me off,
she encouraged me with words.

She put the clothes in
magazines.

She said to me, "Young man,
why don't you do extremities ?

Do shoes or something
like that."

I say, "Oh !"

"Young man, tell me what is--
what you want to do."

And she very quickly
looked at my sketches.

So that really, in a way decided
sort of my career.

Diana opened the American
market for us.

It was perfect
for our things.

Mrs. Vreeland was America !

( Diana )
All these people
invented themselves.

Naturally, as the editor,
I was there to help them along.

And her makeup... I need a face
that's smooth and hard

and luminous...

... like aluminum.

I want her eyes
to go "bee beep."

Do you understand ?

It starts always with the person
who's in charge.

That's the editor-in-chief.

And clearly, Vreeland had
a very strong impact

on the people that
she chose to do the editing.

The men and women that she chose
to do the sittings.

She hired them,
she inspired them

and worked with
the photographers

in a way that there was
a creativity

that came through on the pages.

( David )
She was a nightmare !

She wasn't really interested in
photography in a way.

It kind of got
in the way of the dresses.

And I wasn't interested in
dresses;

it kind of got in
the way of the photography.

So, we were always
at the other end.

She quite liked it when Bailey
was combative towards her.

Bailey and I shot
a story about three times.

And each time,

she said she didn't
really like it.

And, finally, we did it in
a completely different way

and we were both
really happy with the results.

And she looked at
the contact sheets...

Divine.

Dee-veen.
Dee-veen !

"These are divine !

"I've never seen Penelope
look like it !

"She looks fantastic !

How divine she looks !"

She said, "But, of course,
I can't use these."

And I'm going, "Why ? Why ?

If they're great,
why can't we use them ?"

She said,
"There's no langour !"

"There's no langour
in the lips !

You can't hardly
see the lips !"

And I think I called her
a blind old bat.

I mean, you know,
stuff like that,

it just made you want to
strangle her,

but, you know,
at the same time, it was--

she had this sort of instinct
about how things should look.

She would say, "Bob, you are not
supposed to give

"people what they want;

"you're supposed to give them
what they don't

know they want yet."

And that was, I guess,
the essence of her philosophy.

Diana's "Vogue" had this
great sense of curiosity.

I mean,
it wasn't just about fashion.

It was about art, it was about
nightclubs,

it was about music and,

I mean, it was society,
it was all woven together.

( woman )
"Vogue" was a wonderful
features magazine then.

If you go through the people

who were writing for
"Vogue" then,

it's astonishing...

( Diana )
"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.

Diana was really almost
the epitome

of what New York was about,

this melding of Europe
and America.

And, this openness to everything

that was new and different
and wild.

I mean, you know, she--
she liked all the wild stuff.

I mean, she was not shocked
by people taking drugs

or people
being gay or people--

You know, I mean,
she thought it was all amusing.

She understood the genius
of vulgarity.

She was fascinated with
pornography.

She was fascinated with--
with plastic surgery, you know,

the fact you could take
a woman's face

and completely reshape it.

She didn't see that
as immoral or anything.

She thought, "Why not ?"

Though she never
had it done herself.

( Joel )
She hardly
was a traditional beauty.

You know, she was a very
eccentric-looking woman.

And what she did was, instead of
trying to fit into some mold,

she absolutely went,
you know,

in the way of designing herself

so that she was an extraordinary
work of art in herself.

Every detail was perfect.

This is a woman
who put rouge on her ears

because she saw Kabuki
performers do it

and she thought it looked very
chic, which it did on her.

I love rouge.

Totally artificial.
Totally artificial, yes.

We lead an
artificial life.

We lead certainly an artificial
life in an artificial town.

So, I mean,
why all this naturalness ?

It's bloody boring.

A form of laziness,
hmm ?

That was her view of--
of life.

That life is artifice.

( Tim )
It's not until a woman
gets completely dressed up

with all her makeup on
and all the artifice,

then she's glorious !

She saw the whole business
of preparing yourself

and presenting yourself as
being almost ceremonialized.

( Alexander )
From 8:00 'til noon,

she'd be in her bathrobe, taking
phone calls, reading her mail.

You know, people used to joke
the fact

that she never had
any staff meetings.

She didn't have staff meetings--

she just told
everyone what to do.

She used to send out
dozens of memos a day.

She'd send a memo saying,

"Marisa's neck has grown
two inches this year.

I want you to photograph her
neck, that small head."

"Go to Venice
and hire a thousand gondolas !"

"Can you go to India to
photograph a white tiger ?"

( Diana )
The strong face comes not only
from the bone construction,

but from the inner thinking !

Those memos were
so intelligent and fun

and they explain so much her--
her mind.

I'm extremely disappointed

that no one has taken
the slightest interest

in freckles on the models !

She had blogs with her memos,
so she was the first blogger.

In case any of this
is of interest to you,

Brigitte Bardot travelled
halfway across the world

to get married, barefoot !

You'd be constantly sort of
breathless from, you know,

things that she would
say and the way she thought.

And you could never permeate
her thoughts.

She brought you back to
wherever she was interested in.

It was just like surfing
or something

when you were with her;

you sort of, you just
had to ride that wave.

( Diana )
But, you know, I'm really only
envious of one thing

and that is a surfer.

I think it's the most beautiful
thing--

see, I'm mad about water.

I think water is God's
tranquilizer;

to be in it,
to drink it, to look at it.

And to be a surfer,
between the sky and the water

would be, to me, the most
wonderful thing.

I'm sorry I just didn't make it.

Also, skateboards
I think are great.

Great !

I think any form of rhythm
is absolutely essential.

I mean, we are
a physical people.

We do count on action, mood,

and wit of the body and so on
to survive.

( Ingrid )
Her understanding
of rhythm is huge

because you see
it with the sentences.

In the same way,
she understood that in magazines

why a magazine
has to have a pause.

Why then it has to have a crash,

why then it has to have a blast
of color,

why then it has to have
a big headline.

( Diana )
Does anyone read a picture book
from the beginning ?

I don't.

The eye has to travel.

I tell you, George,

I think I'm more proud of
the December issues

than anything else.

Everything attractive
that I could think of

in the world
we would put into

the December issues.

It was Diana's idea to make
the December issue

a really extraordinary,
unusual feast for the eyes.

( Diana )
We had the eyes of Deneuve,

the eyes of the gothic,
the kites, The Beatles !

We even had crossed-eyes !

And, of course,
we had Irving Penn

and his beautiful flowers.

The fantasy and the dreaming
was something

she wanted to give the reader

and she wanted to bring
these exotic places

into the reader's mind.

We would spend three weeks
photographing 20 pages

and it would be the
big story of the December Issue.

( Anjelica )
In those days,
it was a real story.

That's how you referred to
a layout.

You didn't refer to it
as just a series of photographs,

it was a story.

Everything was so precise

and there was such
a luxury to it.

*

The Japan trip was,

I think, the most luxurious ever
done in fashion.

( Ingrid )
We were in Japan
for five weeks.

We were completely left to do
whatever we wanted,

but we had a synopsis.

( man )
Mrs. Vreeland says,
"The Tale of Genji,"

the first novel in the world
written by a woman !

( Ingrid )
Mrs. Vreeland had the idea

that we wanted it to be an epic
of a love affair

between a Caucasian woman
and a Japanese man.

Dick had the idea to find for me
as a partner in the pictures

a man taller than me.

And that was, of course,
right away, we all said,

"How could that ever happen ?"

*

( Ingrid )
Maybe he should be
a sumo wrestler.

We went to all of the wrestling
matches to find this man,

which was very difficult.

And then,
we heard about this man

and he was seven feet
and some inches.

( Veruschka )
He was a sumo wrestler

who was thin and much taller
than me.

I mean, he was so tall that
he couldn't fit in the car.

I mean, we had to
take out the front seat,

so he had to sitting in
the back of the car.

He had such
a powerful breathing

that he would take a cigarette.

It was finished, the cigarette,
and the next one came.

And we were just looking
at this man.

We had never seen
anything like that.

( Ingrid )
And that is the man
you see in the pictures.

Isn't he wonderful ?

That's the one thing about
Vreeland,

is she knew her job as an editor
is you've got to give people

what they can't get at home,

you know, give them something
that will just make them

travel in their minds.

Take them somewhere.

( Polly )
"Vogue" was very rich
at the time,

so they could go to
the Himalayas if they wanted

and she would be behind them.

I don't think that
Alexander Liberman,

her boss and the boss at
"Vogue,"

was particularly keen
on that sort of expenditure.

He was holding the reins,
but she could gallop quite fast.

There was a pride about
being a woman

of a certain age with knowledge,

with sexiness, mother,
career woman.

Not somebody
necessarily born beautiful,

but somebody who had
something up here.

Women were
embarrassed about working,

or it was a sign of poverty,

she made it something chic
to have somewhere

to go in the daytime.

Are you a feminist,
Mrs. V ?

I don't even know what
you're talking about.

I really mean that.
Explain that.

I don't understand what all
this talk is about women

and being different from
the way they ever were.

Are they different from
the way they ever were ?

She was
a self-invention--

the will, the strength,

the determination,
the risk-taking.

She was tough
and she was strong.

She was a star.

She was a huge
superstar.

We found out she hadn't seen
"Chinatown"

and she was always madly in love
with Jack Nicholson.

So, we looked in the newspaper

and it was only playing at
a theatre deep in Harlem.

So, we go into this
Great Hall Theatre

and it's packed.

And, of course, we are the only
Caucasians in the audience

and we sit down
in the middle of this aisle.

And...

... this is so Mrs. Vreeland.

And Jack comes on the screen
and it's dead quiet.

Okay, pal,
let's have us a big smile.

And I will never forget it,
Mrs. Vreeland raised her hand

with her red fingernails

and at the top of her lungs
shouted,

"Isn't Jack attractive ?"

Did you wear a uniform ?

Sometimes...

She met Jack
and because of Jack,

she met all kinds of
people in Hollywood

and it was a big enrichment
to her life.

( Tim )
Warren Beatty would come down in
his little sport car

and pick her up

and she would
spend the evening

with Julie Christie,
Jack Nicholson,

Anjelica Huston, and Cher.

They were all great friends...
I think.

When I first went out
to California, she said,

"You know, I'd love to
introduce you to

"people out there,
but all my friends

are so much younger
than you are."

And today, you're seen with
Jack Nicholson

and Warren Beatty.

What do all these people
have in common ?

The people I know, I know
through work usually,

and that's
what's so stimulating.

That's the best way to know
people, I think.

Bailey was always
flirting with Vreeland

and would say the most
outrageous things to her.

I said, "If you were 20 years
younger, I'd give you one."

She said, "If I was 20 years
younger, you'd have no choice."

She would go,
"Mmm, mmm, mmm !"

She loved that.

She was becoming a celebrity.

One was reading about her
all the time.

She was at The Factory,
she was at Studio 54.

And this all came
as a great surprise,

and that, yes, that did
affect me.

I was rising in
the Foreign Service,

but I don't think she took
any great interest in it

and that--
that hurt me somewhat.

She just didn't have time

to have conventional anything
left in

her life at that time.

( Diana )
You do realize that
from the age of 30,

I've worked every day
of my life,

and that goes for
Saturdays and Sundays.

( George )
Well, I was just going to ask
about your family.

We've not talked about your
husband,

we've not really
talked about your children,

we've not talked about
grief or disasters.

I don't think
we really want to.

You know, curiously enough,

those things haven't
touched me much.

I don't mean my husband,
that's a different story.

Reed and I had a great life
together.

He had fantastic glamour for
me and he always retained it.

Isn't it curious that even after
more than 40 years of marriage,

I was always
slightly shy of him ?

What do you mean ?

Well, don't you
think all women

are slightly
shy of all men ?

But your
husband of 46 years,

you always remained
slightly shy.

Of course.

I wouldn't have suspected
that of you.

But you're not
supposed to suspect.

( Diana )
I can remember his coming home
in the evening.

If I was in my bath
or in my bedroom making up,

I can remember always pulling
myself up, thinking,

"I must be at my very best."

( Frecky )
Think of it as a male dancer
in a classical ballet.

He gave support to her,
he's there to make sure that

if she jumps in the air he has--
he catches her.

But then he got sick.

Naturally, we didn't
discuss it.

Why would
we discuss cancer ?

When he was ill, it was
very difficult

because she wasn't really
admitting that he was ill.

And...

So it was very, very hard for
anybody,

I think,
to help her, at the time.

I saw a totally unemotional
person.

That's when you-- when you
never express any negatives.

You also never get too
emotion...

*

After the funeral service,
there was this lunch

at our home at 550 Park Avenue

and she wore white,
which was a statement.

*

She's marvelous.

( all )
She's divine.

She then totally immersed
herself in her work.

( Hubert )
Nothing stopped her.

She went a hundred miles
an hour.

She was fearless.

She followed her heart.

( Reinaldo )
She was of
the era of elegance.

She was of the era of
imagination,

and of great expense.

She was the most
expensive thing,

I think, that the new houses
ever had.

I mean, she cost
a fortune, you know.

It didn't matter to have
500 orchid plants shipped to--

to Alaska for a shoot.

You know, that was
perfectly normal for her.

You could tell that she was
often sailing

very, very close to the edge.

Sometimes, what Diana did
didn't please

all the advertisers.

The magazine
had hit a plateau,

people were complaining
too much.

And there were only
two people to blame.

There was Alex and there
was Diana.

Somebody had to go.

You were canned
from your editing job.

( Diana )
That's right.

And why was that,
by the way ?

Because they wanted a
different sort of magazine.

When Vreeland was asked to leave
"Vogue," she was--

I think she was angry that
Liberman didn't do it himself.

She said,
"So, I sent for Alex."

And he came up, she said,

and he's standing there in
profile, she says,

"Alex, I've looked
at your profile for ten years;

for once look me in the eye
and tell me I'm fired."

She said, "He wouldn't
look me in the eye."

And I said, "Alex,
I've met red Russians,

"I've met white Russians,

but you're the first
yellow Russian I've ever met."

And that was the end.

Everything changed--
the music changed.

The atmosphere changed,
the pictures changed.

That was the end of an era.

( Frecky )
Mom went into
a sort of collapse.

She was feeling
very, very sorry for herself.

In effect, her life had become
conventional, and she--

it was unbearable to her

that she didn't have some
intense thing

that she was doing.

She was out of work and nobody
really knew what she could do

after "Vogue" because that
was such a hard act to follow.

The person I saw that day was
not the autocratic,

sure-of-herself star.

I could see there was
some brokenness.

*

( man on radio )
Turn back, turn back ?

Should we turn back ?

The weather behind is
as bad as the weather in front.

Lindbergh goes on.

( Diana )
I was only 70--
What was I supposed to do ?

Retire ?

And then one day I got
a call from

the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

( Oscar )
Tom Hoving was then Director
of the Metropolitan Museum.

He said we would love to have
Diana as a Special Consultant,

but we don't really have
the funds.

( Bob )
Francoise de la Renta,
who was a real organizer,

got on the phone to all the
ladies and said,

"We've got to help Diana.

She should be taking over
the Met."

And so they all said
that they would give money

to the Costume Institute.

You continue to amaze people
by the fact that you keep going

and anything that knocks
you down,

you rise again
and start over--

uh, do you have any personal
philosophy ?
I don't start over.

You see, I just go on
from one thing to another.

They're all really
the same.

You could easily
have said,

"Well, that's it,
I've done enough."

But, you took over this
Costume Institute

at the Met,
put it on the map.

( man )
At the time,
the Costume Institute

was a rather sleepy place.

It was all about the costume,
the conservation,

publishing them, studying them,
thread-by-thread, whatever.

And what did she want to do ?

She wanted to get them out of
those shelves, onto dummies,

bring in the people, show them,
get the excitement going.

( Diana )
George, I was so excited.

Back in business !

I could show everything
I have loved all my life.

I started with Balenciaga.

His clothes were
devastating.

One fainted--
One just blew up and died.

*

The exhibition went on for
six months

and there were one every year.

( Nicky )
It was greater than a magazine.

It was a magazine that was alive
and three-dimensional.

( Alexander )
They had music,
they had artwork.

They had these huge horses
in the middle of the exhibit.

I mean, there was always
vitality.

( Harold )
She painted all the walls
these glossy colors.

She painted the mannequins,
and she pumped in,

through the air-conditioning
vents, fragrance.

What this did for the critics
was evoke Bloomingdale's.

What it did for
most of the public

was it created a kind of
freshness to the past.

*

Everything changed.

And, suddenly,
it became an event.

It became--

The show was a very big deal.

And it was a great success.

Lines, I remember !

For the Russian exhibition,
I went to it,

André got us
tickets or whatever,

I went five times
anyway, so.

You couldn't get into it.

The lines were around the block,
it was amazing.

And she wanted everybody
to understand her shows.

She used to say if an
eight-year-old girl from Harlem

doesn't understand

what she's looking at,
then I'm wasting my time.

It sounds a bit un-PC--
that girl was important to her.

That was just as important
to her

as having
Pat Buckley and Nan Kempner

jumping up and down.

She wanted everybody
to jump up and down.

And then, of course,
it made the opening night

of that a celebrity, social,
you know, event.

*

And the first party
was a huge success.

People came
from all over the world.

This was really the party of the
year, but all due to Diana

because she knew
how to mix the people.

( Philippe )
Well, the party of the year
was resented

by a lot of the curators
and the staff of the Met.

When you see your porcelain
start to walk on a shelf

because of the deep
basses of the rock bands...

And we said, "What is this,
a museum or a nightclub ?"

I mean, make up your mind.

( Frecky )
When Philippe de Montebello
took over,

he very ostentatiously said,
"And now, Madame Vreeland,

"tell me what
are your diplomas

and preparation for being..."

And she sat absolutely
quietly for a count of 60,

and then she got up and she
looked at him and she said,

"You know perfectly well

"that I have had no education
whatsoever,

"that I am here,
I've done one thing,

and that is bring in the people
to the museum."

( man )
Well, I think that she was
not academic in any respect.

And that's what-- that's what
was so interesting about her

approach to fashion.

She knew the history of fashion,

but she didn't
get bogged down in it.

And she was about ideas
and about the magic of fashion.

( Katell )
Diana, forever, was an editor.

She had a vision.

She will say of 18th-century
woman, she will say,

"Oh, that won-der-full
Marie Antoinette,

"that poor Queen.

That wonderful French way."

Everything French was fine,
you know.

"The minuette, the beauty !"

*

I'm Marisa Berenson.

I'd like to welcome you
to the 18th Century.

The Met is busy gathering
together for the first time

the greatest collection of
costumes, jewelry,

and accessories.

Please, don't stand there !
( woman )
All right, thank you.

( Simon )
I think the conservation people
had heart attacks

when they saw her
going into the archive.

She would grab things and whack
the back of them.

( woman )
How 'bout this color ?

Now, are we waiting for
something ?
( man )
The lavender feather.

( man )
It was like asking
a football player

to stylize the mannequin,

but she always
had a concept.

They're all fighting with
each other,

they're all flirting
with each other.

There's a story of who was
having an affair with who,

and she would say,

"If they're not
having any fun,

how can the visitors have
any fun ?"

( Harold )
I don't think she had the
average person's relationship

to the English language.

She would give you these
oblique haiku things

that gave you a sense
of where she was headed

or where her idea was.

My favorite was when I was
called in to make a wig for her.

She had this idea of a hairdo
which had a frigate in it.

She said, "You know, Harold,

the 18th century is all about
proportion."

So, I measured the dress.

I found portraits
from the period.

People would come into my loft
and they would say,

"What is that ?"

And I would say,
"Oh, it's an 18th-century wig."

They say, "It is ?"

I brought it to the Met in
a Checker Cab,

nothing else would fit.

As soon as I took
the garbage bag off,

I knew
she was disappointed.

She went, "Hmmmm."

It was accurate, and that's not
what Mrs. Vreeland wanted.

What she wanted was the surprise
of this grotesquely huge hairdo.

I began to create a new hairdo,

which was based on
the height of the ceiling.

She came back and she said,

"Mmm, now she can go
to the guillotine !"

( Diana )
"Romantic and Glamorous
Hollywood Design."

This killed Tom Hoving,

the director of the
Metropolitan.

It killed him !

He's on the floor.

And he said,
"In the name of God,

"why do we have to drag
Hollywood

into the Metropolitan
Museum of Art ?"

( woman )
For the first time,

the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York

is honoring a living designer.

( Diana )
George, the controversy,
the outrage over nothing.

A living designer,
with a store down the street.

"You're promoting his business
with a show in the museum."

She answered...

"I'm not talking about
money...

I'm talking about art."

( woman )
Is it art ?

There is great art in what he
does-- used as a verb, yes.

If that is a verb, I don't
know enough about grammar.

It was the first show
she dare.

( Philippe )
The field was entirely
transformed

because from then on,

all other museums with
great collections,

seeing how popular and how
successful were costume shows,

began to mount
great exhibitions of their own.

( man )
She didn't
have a college education.

She learnt history,
art, literature.

She learnt
civilization through fashion

and she wanted to share it.

( man )
Fashion is not
just clothes, is it ?

( Diana )
No, it isn't.

It's part of the daily air
and it changes all the time,

with all the events.

You can even see
the approaching of...

... a revolution in clothes.

You can see and feel
everything in clothes.

( Diana )
Of course, now that I work
at the museum,

I'm only delving into my past.

You've lived through so many
eras of fashion.

Do you have a favorite ?

I think the '20s
were superb.

Of course, it was terribly
exciting to me

because I had just
started to wear clothes.

I was just starting to
live in Europe

and I thought that
the whole revolution--

There has never been a woman
without a back

in her dress in history.

There's never been a woman
with her clothes chopped off

at the knee in history.

( Bob )
She was educating us about
periods in history that,

you know, came before our time:

the 1920s, the 1930s,
the '40s, the '50s.

I mean, she kind of knew it all.

( woman )
I loved to get her on a riff
about something

that appealed to her,

and above all,
the Diaghilev era.

( woman )
We'd go back into her office
and she would tell me the story

of when she saw Nijinsky
dance The Spectre of the Rose.

And the-- you know, I even get
a chill now talking about it.

The description of the stage
and the window blowing open

and Nijinsky
flying through the room.

( Diana )
He didn't leap up.

He leaped across the stage
to the far end.

We knew it was amazing

because it was so amazing
that it appeared amazing.

Not all things that are amazing
appear, perhaps, you know ?

( Diana )
The Belle Époque,
the era in which I was born,

the last era of absolute luxury.

Ah !

The Bois du Boulogne of my
childhood,

the demimondaines
with their hats and parasols.

I was young, but I remember the
most wonderful excitement

all the time.

And, there was a great deal of,
I suppose,

what we call decadence,

but, of course,
I didn't see any of that.

I only saw the horses.

( woman )
Mrs. Vreeland
had her own view of history.

She would pick up certain
characteristics of an era

and perhaps magnify it too much.

( Harold )
There were these kinds of
moments where perhaps

she was not representing
the historic truth.

But, in a strange way,
for example

with the 18th-century headdress,

she was capturing
the real truth,

which is
the integrity of the idea,

that the idea is something that
is bigger than the actual facts

and it just sort of
breaks through the facts.

Fantasy sometimes is applied to
Mrs. Vreeland

in a derogatory sense,

that the fantasy eclipses
the reality,

the authority, the academic,

and I think it's a skew
that is wrong.

I think the fantasy for
Mrs. Vreeland was like a pulse.

When she felt the pulse, it--
it kept,

it kept everything
alive for her.

( Reinaldo )
She was a great inventor.

There was something rather
charming about that.

And she didn't pretend
that she was not inventing.

It just turned out that it was
a better story

than the other one.

How could Diana Vreeland write
that she saw

Lindbergh
flying over Brewster ?

That wasn't even his route.

Uh, well, Diana,
is that fact or is it fiction ?

And she said, "Faction."

And, uh, that's pretty much
where it is.

Because, there are
various stories

which are historically not true,

but in her mind,
that's the way life should be.

( Simon )
I remember her saying
that she'd never been to India

and had no real intention
of going,

because if she went, it wouldn't
match the vision in her head.

And I think it was
the same with Russia, too.

Maybe she had been to Russia.

I really wouldn't know anything
about Russians.

What I love is Russia.

It was all storytelling

and I think that's where
she and I met,

is that we both
liked to tell stories.

Her vision of the way
the world could be,

of the way it
possibly should be,

of when it's at its best,

of when a woman is at her
most beautiful.

( Diana )
I believe in the dream.

I think we only live through our
dreams and our imagination.

That's the only reality
we really ever know.

You know, I can't stand seeing
shows being taken down.

They have to
do it when I'm gone.

You know, I get very, very
attached to Josephine Baker

and to the Princess Murat

walking in
the Bois with her boyfriends.

I find them very
attractive women.

But you know, George,

you have to let go
at some point.

I'm not creeping around.

I once heard someone say,
"I shall die very young."

"How young ?"
I don't know.

Maybe 70,
maybe 80, maybe 90.

But I shall be very young.

( George )
It was my privilege to help
Diana Vreeland with her memoirs,

a book called, "D.V."

One night,
Diana Vreeland told me this...

"Oh, I am mad about
armor.

"Mad about it.

"I love the way it's put
together.

"I love the helmets with
the feathers out the back.

"Milanese, you see.

"Have you ever seen
a Tilting Green ?

"It's the most beautiful thing
I ever saw.

"There are great banks
that rise up on either side

"like giant steps terraced
in grass--

"grass, grass, green grass,
with the knights in armor,

"banners,
and these great horses.

"You can say, 'Well, give me
a good game of football.'

"But, that must have been
the most beautiful contest

"to see in the world.

"You can't imagine it until
you've seen a Tilting Green,

all green, green,
green right to the sky."

I like to think that's where
Diana is at this moment.

*

*