Top 141 Quotes & Sayings by Diana Vreeland - Page 2

To be contented—that’s for the cows.

Never fear being vulgar, just boring, middle class or dull.

Still, my dream in life is to come home and think of absolutely nothing. After all, you can’t think all the time.

You've got to have style, it helps you get out of bed in the morning.

A lie to get out of something, or take an advantage for oneself, that’s one thing; but a lie to make life more interesting—well, that’s entirely different.

When I arrived in America, I had these very dark red nails which some people objected to, but then some people object to absolutely everything.

A funny person is funny only for so long, but a wit can sit down and go on being spellbinding forever. One is not meant to laugh. One stays quiet and marvels. Spontaneously witty talk is without question the most fascinating entertainment there is.

Where would fashion be without literature?

I think allure is something around you, like a perfume or like a scent. It's like a memory ... it pervades.

This world without a leopard…I mean, who would want to be here?!

For goodness sakes, beware of curls… It is a great art to do them so that the girls not only look modern - but do not suddenly look very vulgar.

The West is boring itself to death! And talking itself to death!

I wasn't a fashion editor. I was the one and only fashion editor.

All my life I’ve pursued the perfect red. I can never get painters to mix it for me. It’s exactly as if I’d said, ‘I want rococo with a spot of Gothic in it and a bit of Buddhist temple’—they have no idea what I’m talking about. About the best red is to copy the color of a child’s cap in any Renaissance portrait.

You can see and feel everything in clothes.

I've never met a leopard print I didn't like.

Of course I was always mad about the ballet russe, mad about it!

If it isn't a passion, it isn't burning, it isn't on fire, you haven't lived.

I never felt comfortable about my looks until I married Reed Vreeland. I believe in love at first sight because that's what it was. I knew the moment our eyes met that we would marry.

Before even the technique, there is a dream. Chanel had it. The dream is everything.

I have a terrible time remembering exactly when my birthday is. Age is totally boring.

Every girl in the world should have geisha training

I sincerely believe that energy grows from itself and the more energy you expand the more you create within yourself. I also believe that energy is habit -- which can be created quite easily. In other words, use your energy and more energy flows and then it is very hard to stop it -- as if one would ever want to!

There was a time when it was considered vulgar and unnecessary to pursue money, but today anyone who doesn't believe in money must be out of their minds!

My life has been more influenced by books than by any other one thing.

I certainly didn't learn anything in school. My education was the world.

Balenciaga was incredibleI was madly infatuated with his clothes. His clothes were devastating. One fainted. One simply blew up and died.

I always say I hope to God I die in a town with a good tailor, a good shoemaker, and perhaps someone who's interested in a little quelque chose d'autre.

Naturally, I’ve always been mad about clothes. You don’t get born in Paris to forget about clothes for a minute.

The only thing people are interested in is people.

Don't you loathe the word "workaholic"? It has nothing to do with an important thing, that you and your secretary are at the office until 6:30. But that's life, kiddo. 24-hour work doesn't go on in America. 24-hour work is what Italy and Holland did after the war. The lights never went out!

People who eat white bread have no dreams.

No one knows how hard one works.

God was fair to the Japanese. He gave them no oil, no coal, no diamonds, no gold, no natural resources — nothing! Nothing comes from the island that you can sustain a civilization on. What God gave the Japanese was a sense of style—maintained through the centuries through hard work and the disciplines of ambition.

A world without leopards, well, who would want to live in it?

I think part of my success as an editor came from never worrying about a fact, a cause, an atmosphere. It was me—projecting to the public. That was my job. I think I always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. Give ‘em what they never knew they wanted.

Too much good taste can be boring

Water is God's tranquilizer.

I think i always had a perfectly clear view of what was possible for the public. "Give'em what they never knew they wanted".

When I discovered dancing, I learned to dream.

If it's not there in fashion, fantasize it.

All people are meant to be creative in a certain way. What way? Perhaps I was cut out to be a wonderful housewife, with a marvelous sense of cooking, being with my friends, running a perfect house. But I am not ambitious towards anything.

Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked 'female'

I like to indulge myself by sitting up late without having to do anything in the morning.

I wonder about prisoners. They're told, "You are free, you are innocent, you can go anywhere." I'm sure they usually feel nothing. They don't burst into tears or hysterics or joy or "I told you so." It's nothing. To be on the straight path isn't a bloody thing. It's just ordinary.

It's only intelligent to wish to look after yourself properly.

I've always remained totally myself, which is to say, without an idea... of what to do.

I was always fascinated by the absurdities and luxuries and the snobbism of the world that fashion magazines showed. Of course, it’s not for everyone...But I lived in that world, not only during my years in the magazines business but for years before, because I was always of that world-- at least in my imagination.

One is born with good taste. It's very hard to acquire. You can acquire the patina of taste. But what Elsie Mendl had was something else that's particularly American––an appreciation of vulgarity. Vulgarity is a very important ingredient in life. I'm a great believer in vulgarity––if it's got vitality. A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste––it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against.

Money has nothing to do with style at all, but naturally it helps every situation.

Vogue always did stand for people's lives. I mean, a new dress doesn't get you anywhere; it's the life you're living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later.

The two greatest mannequins of the century were Gertrude Stein and Edith Sitwell - unquestionably. You just couldn't take a bad picture of those two old girls

I read everything! I would have read the phone book if you put it in front of me. I just read.

Where Chanel came from in France is anyone’s guess. She said one thing one day and another thing the next. She was a peasant—and a genius. Peasants and geniuses are the only people who count and she was both.

Style; all who have it have have one thing: originality.

If you had a bump on your nose, it made no difference so long as you had a marvelous body & good carriage. You held your head high, & you were a beauty You knew how to water-ski, & how to take a jet plane fast in the morning, arrive anywhere, & be anyone when you got off.

I'm a person who is only invested in the pleasures and enjoyments of life. All the rest is left to the men. I've always remained what you might call "feminine" about the whole [work] thing.

Allure is a word very few people use nowadays, but it's something that exists. Allure holds you, doesn't it? Whether it's a gaze or a glance in the street or a face in the crowd or someone sitting opposite you at lunch... you are held

When fashion turns over it brings in little tiny creaks and cracks. This is the fascination and that is where you have to watch every step.

Peanut butter is the greatest invention since Christianity.