Diana Vreeland
Vogue Editor, Harper's Bazaar, Fashion Oracle
The Lion Oracle of Style
Diana Vreeland invented the concept of the fashion oracle — the editor whose taste is so total, so specific, so unapologetically Leo that the entire industry defers to it. Her ‘Why Don’t You?’ column in Harper’s Bazaar in the 1930s was pure Leo provocation. As editor of Vogue she made the magazine a document of cultural transformation.
Leo Legacy
- Harper’s Bazaar: ‘Why Don’t You?’ column invented provocative fashion journalism
- Vogue editor: 1962-1971 — transformed the magazine into a document of the cultural revolution
- Costume Institute: Her exhibitions at the Met Costume Institute defined curatorial fashion
- Quote machine: Her aphorisms — ‘Elegance is refusal’ — became the language of fashion
Vreeland’s Leo taste was so absolute that disagreement was simply proof of inferior vision.
“The only real elegance is in the mind. If you have that, the rest really comes from it.”