Quotes from Diana Vreeland

The first rule that a geisha is taught, at the age of nine, is to be charming to other women...Every girl in the world should have geisha training.

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.

Too much good taste can be boring

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.

I once heard someone say, "I shall die very young. How young? I don't know. Maybe seventy, maybe eighty, maybe ninety. But I shall be very young.

I adore fringe.

You gotta have style to get up in the morning

People who eat white bread have no dreams.

Unshined shoes are the end of civilization.

What sells is hope.

Beauty is in all beings that love and are loved, animals and children, and if older women have it, it is because they feel completely free in this world and in their lives as they feel close to God....and they are spiritually in tune with the universe." December 6 1968. Letter to Miss Anita Colby, 3 East 78th Street, New York

maintainence is elegance. Diana Vreeland. vogue magazine 1984.

To bewitch" is to me always slightly artificial as it is always put on -- whereas witchery is a form of naturalness that some people can't help, and the world judges that they don't create it ...> November 15 1967 memo to Mrs. Loew Gross re "THE ROMANTIC POINT OF VIEW

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.

Pale pink salmon is the only color I cannot abide––although, naturally, I adore pink. I love the pale Persion pinks of the little carnations of Provence and Schiaparelli's pink, the pink of the Incas…And though it's so vieux jeu I can hardly bear to repeat it––pink is the navy blue of India.

You don't have to be born beautiful to be wildly attractive.

A new dress doesn't get you anywhere. It's the life you're living in the dress.

I adore that pink, it is the navy blue of India!

We are not looking for endless variety--we are looking for fashion." February 10, 1967, Memo re HAIR ON SITTINGS

I don't think you have enough "new" words - and speaking of languor I would speak of it as 'a touch of languor' which comes from the depths of well-rested people who enjoy their life..." November 15 1967 memo to Mrs. Loew Gross re "THE ROMANTIC POINT OF VIEW

I think when you're young you should be a lot with yourself and your sufferings. Then one day you get out where the sun shines and the rain rains and the snow snows, and it all comes together.

What's that terrible phrase one used to hear? "Relate," as in "relate to." People were always relating to themselves, and that's where they went wrong. 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.

The first thing to do is arrange to be born in Paris. After that, everything follows quite naturally

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.