The Who's Who Of Who's Dressing You - fashion designer Diana Vreeland - Interview - Brief Article

Interview, Oct, 1999

. . . Plus conversations with two champions of fashion who've admired and reported on it for a lifetime - one form the Interview archives, another arranged especially for this thirtieth-anniversary issue

From Interview, December 1980: Jonathan Lieberson sat down to supper with the "Empress of Style," Diana Vreeland.

DIANA VREELAND: There is a Who's Who, you know.

JONATHAN LIEBERSON: To put it bluntly, you seem to be . . . self-invented.

DV: But don't we all invent ourselves? Look here, I was naturally influenced by the literature of my youth and tried to exploit the idea, you know . . . .

JL: . . . that the personality is a work of art. Oscar Wilde, Pierre Loti, etc. The idea that every gesture, every utterance, is part of a total design, an economy, just as words are combined In a poem or dabs of oil in a painting.

DV: Yes. But I think that is all very true. I did tell you I fought for a long time to be like all other people. Of course, I was always sort of a loner, I suppose. I always had to think out everything for myself. . . . I suppose that is what you calla loner. Now where do you put this screen? Where do you put that sofa? How do you arrange that dressing table. . . . But my room never came out like anyone else's. It used to kill me!

JL: So when did you give up the struggle?

DV: Hmmmmmm. You know, many years ago, I mean many, many years ago, I was on the train to Chicago - the 20th Century train - and Frisco was there. Now don't you know who I mean? Oh, but he was marvelous! A black dancer, with a bowler hat, and the most exquisite shoes. And he woke up and asked the waiter for ice cream and apple juice. This was breakfast, you understand. And the waiter said, "But we don't have it," and Frisco said, "Fake it!" That story has always been a big influence on me. Fake it!

JL: [lamely] So you don't really care for mechanical conformists.

DV: I don't like the jambon here tonight either. It's too harsh. I don't like harsh food.

Interview's Karl Plewka sat down recently with Vreeland protegee, longtime editor, and fashIon champ Polly Mellen, to get a current point of view of where fashion is today, and where it may be heading.

KARL PLEWKA: What makes fashion exciting?

POLLY MELLEN: There are people who have an eye. They are seers and dare speak - we must have those people. We need those people.

KP: You're never nostalgic.

PM: I'm not nostalgic. I'm not a history major. I hark back to history but I believe in today and manyana.

KP: What's really exciting about fashion today?

PM: The mixture of what's happening. And the sense of the unknown. I am not a negative thinker; I will never be a negative thinker. I believe in the hope that s given to us, and in people opening their eyes, and in the thrill of being around.

KP: Do you think a sense of humor is important in fashion?

PM: It's essential. You to be able to laugh at yourself. Sometimes, watching a runway show, I get the giggles, like [I would] in church.

KP: You must miss [your old boss] the legendary Diana Vreeland.

PM: She was my mentor. I get teary when I think of two people: one is my mother and the other is Mrs. Vreeland.

KP: But you are a legend, too.

PM: Well, I've been lucky. I had the best training in the world. I am deeply grateful to have been given all this.

KP: And now after a major run at Conde Nast you are spreading your wings.

PM: I feel my job now is to share everything I can. It's the best feeling I've had in a long time. I am sure that Mrs. Vreeland up there, and Mummy, are cheering [me on] because I'm really a late bloomer.

KP: Oh no, You've been blooming and budding for a long time. And setting style, Tell us how you define the meaning of style.

PM: Style comes from not buying the package. It has to do with what your eyes see for you. That's how you develop style - and that's how you develop a look that gets attention. That's how you become an icon. And there are many icons today.