"Style is a wonderful thing to have because it maintains you through the way you behave, the literature you read, your life with friends, with children and with your family. Style is always growing and changing..."
— Diana Vreeland in "Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Shaped our Times"
The coat above, represents some of the types of clothes from another era that Diana Vreeland brought to the attention of the audience at the Met.
Read a brief chapter, an oral biography of Diana Vreeland, whose seminal exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art elevated fashion to fine art, a bite sized "taste" of an inspiring book. Better yet, buy the complete book of 46 women who opened doors for women in many disciplines around the world. It is available at Amazon and Apple. Chapters are $0.99, the book $7.95. It's a bargain.
As one reviewer said of the book - "One of those rare, rare books that pick your life up, turn it around and point it in the right direction." — K.T. Maclay.
Fashion Week brings buyers flocking from all over the country to see what fashions are next on the horizon. But we all know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it's not necessarily what is new that is more beautiful. The old and timeless can be equally exciting. At least in the arena of fashion we can be a tolerant society and recoginize there is room for both points of view.
I think I'm somewhat of the old school, because what was fashionable or beautiful fades quickly as new styles and trends rapidly replace each other. They quicken the heart of the potential buyer who sees "a must have" and keeps the economy running at a clip. There are designs though, that transcend time. The coat above, is one of them. I hope you enjoy the timeless and subtle elegance of this regal design from an earlier century.
If you enjoy these blogs, I have no doubt you will enjoy the book. It's chock full of wonderful stories, history, inspiring tales. Try it, you wont be disappointed.