Diana Vreeland
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Diana Vreeland (July 29, 1906 in Paris, France – August 22, 1989) was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion.
She was born Diana Dalziel, the eldest daughter of a British father, Frederick Young Dalziel and an American mother, Emily Key Hoffman, a socialite who was a descendant of George Washington's brother as well as a cousin of Francis Scott Key. Vreeland had one sister, Alexandra. She also was a cousin of Pauline de Rothschild.
Diana's family emigrated to the United States of America at the outbreak of World War I, and moved to 15 East 77th Street in New York. On March 1, 1924, she married Thomas Reed Vreeland, a banker, at St. Thomas's Church in New York.
After their honeymoon, they moved to Albany, New York and raised their two sons – Frederick (later U.S. ambassador to Morocco) and Thomas, Jr. – staying there until 1929. They then moved to Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, London; during her time in London, she danced with the Tiller Girls, and then operated a lingerie business whose clients included Wallis Simpson, later famed as the Duchess of Windsor. While living in London, she lived a luxurious life. She enjoyed playing tennis with Gertrude Lawrence in Regent's Park every morning.
She often visited Paris, where she would buy her clothes, mostly from Chanel, whom she had met in 1926. She was presented to King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace on May 18, 1933.
She also befriended composer Cole Porter, artist Christian Berard, and writer Evelyn Waugh. Of Waugh she later recounted "I adored his books. I mean Vile Bodies – wasn't it great? He was writing about a whole society that existed in London – wonderful looking girls and wonderful fellas, some of them grew up to be somebody, some of them just didn't, but at that particular moment they were just marvellous. They were so crazy, they were rather wild – crazy as only the English can be. That's the London I walked into – it existed from I guess about 1927, 1928, right through to about 1935 -- and then it was pretty much over."
In 1937, her husband's job brought them back to New York, where they lived for the remainder of their lives.
Her career began in 1937 as columnist for Harper's Bazaar, and worked closely with Louise Dahl-Wolfe over the next 25 years. She joined Vogue in 1962, where she was editor-in-chief until 1971, when she was fired. Her husband died in 1967. She became consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1971.
Playwright Mark Hampton wrote a play about Vreeland called Full Gallop; it was based on Vreeland's memoirs. The play starred Mary Louise Wilson.
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