Diana Vreeland in Vogue Office
Photograph by James Karales
Courtesy of the Estate of James Karales
“There’s only one thing in life and that’s the continual renewal of inspiration.” The speaker of these words, and the subject of the new book The Eye Has To Travel, is Diana Vreeland.
Vreeland, nicknamed the “high priestess of fashion,” undoubtedly lived up to her own words. Starting in 1936, when she became a fashion editor at Harper’s, Vreeland developed a reputation as a visionary. She drew from a bottomless well of ideas, and she was as disciplined as she was creative. During her tenure as editor-in-chief at Vogue during the ’60s, she practically reinvented the magazine, and in the process reinvented the role of the modern day fashion editor. Though her vivid personality and singular approach to fashion won her many fans, it also brought controversy. She was ousted from Condé Nast by her publishers, who according to hearsay, thought the magazine had become “too exotic, expensive and adventurous.” Vreeland’s career wasn’t over, though. She became the “muse-in-residence” at the Met’s Costume Institute and continued to shape the fashion world in her singular way until her death in 1989.
The Eye Has To Travel is written by Lisa Immordino Vreeland, who married Vreeland’s grandson Alexander. Immordino also produced the documentary film of the same name that premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. Though the author never met Vreeland, her admiration for her mother-in-law comes off the page. Vreeland’s story, however, is probably best told by the amalgamation of her various magazine covers and spreads (350 pages of them!), shot by legendary photographers like Richard Avedon, Irving Berlin and Louise Dahl-Wolfe. Though decades separate today’s reader from the world of Diana Vreeland, the impact of her work has yet to fade.
The Eye Has To Travel by Lisa Immordino Vreeland is published by Abrams and is available now.
