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Diana Vreeland: Bazaar Years
"Why Don't You . . .
tie black tulle bows on your wrists?
have a yellow satin bed entirely quilted in butterflies?
remember how delicious champagne cocktails are after tennis or golf? Indifferent champagne can be used for these."
For more than half a century, Diana Vreeland, doyenne of American fashion, beguiled, awed, astonished, and was adored by almost anyone who created or wore clothes.
Irresistible and flamboyant, socialite Mrs. T. Reed Vreeland began her now legendary twenty-five-year tenure at Harper's Bazaar writing a column of audacious advice: extravagant ideas that helped redefine American women and twentieth-century fashion. Her commentary created a fashion frenzy when it began appearing in Harper's Bazaar in 1936. Her ideas were simultaneously stylish and outrageous, and have as much appeal today as they did decades ago.
Here for the first time, John Esten has compiled one hundred of Mrs. Vreeland's kaleidoscopic "Why Don't You . . . ?" suggestions, and paired them with the breathtaking works of such renowned photographers and artists as Munkacsi, Dahl-Wolfe, Hoyningen-Heune, and Bérard, which further capture the dazzling legacy of whimsy, elegance, and style of Mrs. Vreeland's Bazaar years.
tie black tulle bows on your wrists?
have a yellow satin bed entirely quilted in butterflies?
remember how delicious champagne cocktails are after tennis or golf? Indifferent champagne can be used for these."
For more than half a century, Diana Vreeland, doyenne of American fashion, beguiled, awed, astonished, and was adored by almost anyone who created or wore clothes.
Irresistible and flamboyant, socialite Mrs. T. Reed Vreeland began her now legendary twenty-five-year tenure at Harper's Bazaar writing a column of audacious advice: extravagant ideas that helped redefine American women and twentieth-century fashion. Her commentary created a fashion frenzy when it began appearing in Harper's Bazaar in 1936. Her ideas were simultaneously stylish and outrageous, and have as much appeal today as they did decades ago.
Here for the first time, John Esten has compiled one hundred of Mrs. Vreeland's kaleidoscopic "Why Don't You . . . ?" suggestions, and paired them with the breathtaking works of such renowned photographers and artists as Munkacsi, Dahl-Wolfe, Hoyningen-Heune, and Bérard, which further capture the dazzling legacy of whimsy, elegance, and style of Mrs. Vreeland's Bazaar years.
- GenresFashionPhotography
80 pages, Hardcover
First published November 3, 2001
123 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 13, 2010
Editor of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue in the 30s through the 60s, Diana Vreeland was not simply a person of opinions; she overflowed with ideas. In fashion, this meant she invented ways of seeing clothes and women.
She also developed a spry Twitter-esque way of communicating her ideas: a monthly column of somewhat random one-line suggestions, called "Why Don't You...?" This book reproduces a few of them.
Some Vreeland ideas I'll keep in mind:
"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?"
...have a white monkey-fur bedcover mounted on yellow velvet?"
...knit yourself a little skullcap?"
...use a gigantic shell instead of a bucket to ice your champagne?"
...wear violet velvet mittens with everything?"
She also developed a spry Twitter-esque way of communicating her ideas: a monthly column of somewhat random one-line suggestions, called "Why Don't You...?" This book reproduces a few of them.
Some Vreeland ideas I'll keep in mind:
"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?"
...have a white monkey-fur bedcover mounted on yellow velvet?"
...knit yourself a little skullcap?"
...use a gigantic shell instead of a bucket to ice your champagne?"
...wear violet velvet mittens with everything?"
March 12, 2016
Oh, I did love this book. LOVED it! I have to offer full disclosure and tell you that I do not like biographies, but I love memoirs. I think it's the impatient part of me. I do not have time to read their whole life story. Seriously! Not interested. However, I love to read about someone's life when it is linked to a theme, the wittier the better. And I do love foodie memoirs. Technically, this isn't a memoir because DV herself didn't write it. But, it only deals with her years at Bazaar and doesn't actually go into much about her personal life. It's a peek at her as a stylish woman and style-icon. LOVED this book!! Really, really love all the Why Don't You ideas included here.
November 23, 2017
A short little book about Diana Vreeland's time at Harper's Bazaar, with some fascinating photographs and a selection of her 'Why Don't You...?' columns from that magazine. A nice appetizer; I'm looking forward to reading some issues of the magazine & seeing the full impact of her aesthetic at work.
December 14, 2016
Inspiring, as anything coming from Diana Vreeland. I find her audacity difficult to rationalize, and these "Why don't you" are timeless, they don't have a chronological setting, they were fantastic then as they are now, half a century later.
It's a short book, but the material is concentrated and it needs time to be read, digested, imagined, absorbed and lived, why not. If you are inclined so, you can read it while reading other books, whenever you will pick up from, it's always a good point and, somehow, appropriate to the moment.
It's a short book, but the material is concentrated and it needs time to be read, digested, imagined, absorbed and lived, why not. If you are inclined so, you can read it while reading other books, whenever you will pick up from, it's always a good point and, somehow, appropriate to the moment.
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December 30, 2013Diana Vreeland sounds like a caricature, everything that is spoofed and mocked in fashion. That said her "Why don't you...?" columns are fascinating and hilarious, and I want a pair of black linen shorts now.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews