Diana Vreeland is still a mould-breaker and trendsetter 30 years after her passing

Beauty and style are so symbiotic in the world of fashion that in our ideal of allure you cannot imagine them apart. And yet in a wonderful paradox, Diana Vreeland – the greatest arbiter of style and undisputed queen of elegance in the 20th century, was amazingly ugly. She was also witty, forever oozing her passion for living.

Born Diana Dalziel in Paris in 1906, she was the daughter of a Scottish father and an American mother, who in Diana’s own words, “never contributed a bloody thing and they and all their friends lived the life of Riley”. The outbreak of World War I compelled them to return to New York, then in full swing of the jazz age.

During those heady years the dance-mad Diana benefited from her mother’s foresight not to be chained to any academic regimen. Rather, she attended various ballet schools, the first being the Michael Fokine ballet school. It was here that she acquired her poise that could suggest and covey myriad emotions with immaculate precision and flawless grace.

Her sense of rhythm, movement, being in touch and disciplined is what made her every photographer’s dream with a presence that eclipsed and mesmerised everyone else in the room. It was also the secret of carrying her clothes with incredible panache while constantly refining and redefining style. No wonder the world’s top-notch designers willingly lent her tones of haute couture, which although she could never afford to buy, she was sure to make wealthy fashionistas dig deep into their purses to clinch the Diana Vreeland chic.

Like her parents, Diana’s pockets were never larded. But as the quintessential social butterfly, she was well connected. Hobnobbing with the glitterati and literati was also a skill that rubbed off from her parents so that decade after decade she could swan her way in a whirl of parties where the fizz of celeb­rity incessantly popped along with the froth of bubbly.

Coco Chanel, Balenciaga, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the Rothschilds, Daisy Fellowes, Cecil Beaton, Christian Bernard, Andy Warhol, Billy Baldwin, Greta Garbo, Katherine Graham and Susanna Agnelli were just a handful of her famous friends.

When Diana married the handsome banker Thomas Reed Vreeland in 1924, she still did not strike it rich because he too was not plush in the pocket, though high society gladly threw open its doors for him.

She taught women the importance to outdress – not simply to dress up

Her flamboyant personality and arresting presence were now capped with a striking name; a name that captured the essence of her charm, elegance and energy long before it became the buzzword for style. Coincidence or not, Diana instinctively understood that she now personified the perfect package of glamour gleefully galvanising a culture where image is all. “Never worry about the facts, just project an image to the public” is one of her legendary sallies.

But Diana was no airhead. She knew that “the only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it”. Together with her husband, she devoured cartloads of books and sized up everyone she met.

Four years into the marriage and two sons in tow, they crossed the Atlantic to live in one of the most fashionable districts in London and be presented to the King and Queen. They stayed on till 1937 when they returned to New York and laid anchor there for good.

In her early years, countless hours would be spent in designers’ fitting rooms which no doubt sharpened Diana’s appreciation of couture. Yet her fashion career took off only after returning to New York in 1937 as columnist for Harper’s Bazaar, immediately breaking the taboo of denying work to genteel-born married mothers.

From the start, the non-conformist Diana set her stamp. Rather than simply reporting emerging fashion trends, Diana began to forge and popularise what’s in. Moreover, she spun attitudes and ideas.

At ballet school Diana Vreeland acquired her poise which could suggest and covey myriad emotions with immaculate precision and flawless grace.

“Never fear being vulgar, just boring”, was one of her many humorous but insightful observations. Another was calling her beloved pink “the navy blue of India” or the bikini as more explosive than the atom bomb. Quizzed about what she thought of the way people dress, she instantly re­torted: “Most people are not something one thinks about.”

Diana eventually climbed up to the top of the editorial ladder of Harper’s Bazaar and stayed there for 25 years. Diana responded to then fantasy-starved American women with her vision, whetting their appetite for more. True, Diana was lucky to be there when the likes of Dior and Balenciaga dictated high-maintenance fashion. Yet again, she was no blind follower.

She made it a point to wear her sweaters back to front because she vehemently believed that this is how to maximise their impact. Diana was also the one to designate a particular shade of blood red for lipstick and matching nail polish as the signature of the femme fatale.

She wore simply cut clothes piled on with exotic jewellery and eccentric accessories, bridging the gap “between the tacky and the hideous to create that splendiferous hallowed ground of chic,” as one biographer put it.

In 1962 she became Vogue’s editor-in-chief, somersaulting a staid publication into a daring and eclectic one. She had models pose in totally unconventional ways and in exotic locales because she knew that the magic of fashion lies in its theatricality, a fabled land of fantasy that keeps us dreaming and clamouring for more. There was no argument about who had the most influential voice in fashion.

Diana invented the impeccable ‘Jackie look’ when Jackie Kennedy walked into the White House in 1960. Yet Diana was also the one to feel the pulse of the rebellious 60s even before they began to swing by promoting the art of disjointed, angular poses with an invariable twist of surprise.

Her fabulous eye for detail and sharp nose for innovation also zoomed in on young talent, en­abling Lauren Hutton, Penelope Tree, Iman, Mary McFadden, Oscar de la Renta, Issey Miyake and Richard Avedon to reach stellar heights in their careers.

Summarily given the boot in 1971 after years of unstinting devotion (that’s the publishing world!) her flame continued to blaze as consultant to the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Here, Diana organised a series of crowd-pulling exhibitions glorifying the beauty and emotion of the fashion world she knew so well, while perfume and music wafted through the ventilation system.

Thriving on contradiction, the woman who drank and fed on visuals spent the last years of her life totally blind. As with all larger-than-life characters, countless myths grew about Diana Vreeland before she died in 1989.

Her typical response to separate fact from fiction was to call it “faction”. Indeed, her linguistic play both complimented and pinned the frivolity of fashion, showing that she was far more profound than an eccentric dabbler in style.

Diana Vreeland did not merely leave her stamp on fashion. With her unwavering perception to take risks at the right time and at the right place, she taught women the importance to outdress – not simply to dress up.