From Harpers Bazaar to Vogue, Diana
Vreeland is one of the most influential fashion editors of all time. Yesterday,
we watched her documentary “The Eye Has to Travel” which gave me an insight
into her life prior to success and how she became “the one and only fashion
editor”. Initially, Vreeland comes across as a confident woman, however, from a
young age she was very uncomfortable with her appearance and her mother
regularly commented on her being the “ugly duckling” of the family which
damaged her confidence. Despite this, she continued to keep her head up and
focus on her ambitions.
Whilst listening to the documentary, every time a new
idea was mentioned for an editorial cover, I kept finding links between her work
and previous insecurities that stemmed from childhood. For example, someone quoted
in the documentary that Diana “didn’t edit herself” she embraced her beauty and
loved being natural. This also links to her publication of Barbra Steisand’s
nose on American Vogue. Barbra was very insecure about her nose but Diana
wanted to celebrate the attributes that made people unique. She continued to do
this with other women such as Twiggy who at the time was insecure about her skinny
frame and Penelope Tree who didn’t like her unusual look. I admire professionals such as Diana Vreeland who go against the social norms, she doesn’t get rid of certain
features that are not seen as beautiful, she embraces them. In my eyes, what is
deemed to be “perfection” in todays media is not true beauty.
Imperfections create true beauty!
Quotations referenced from the documentary - "The Eye Has to Travel"
Photo Credit - Google Images
Photo Credit - Google Images
