DV by Diana Vreeland

Sweetie, I saw that book in someone's office just yesterday, and thought, "I should read that." Now your sparkling review has made it a certainty. I'll have to track one down. Do you remember the scene in Unzipped (or maybe an outtake?) of Isaac Mizrahi tooling around town in a limo with Diana? They were both so brilliant together in those scenes that night out, feeding off each other's oddness...

Thank you!
"DV" is gorgeous. I've only read it twice (or maybe 3 times) but it has, along with "From A to B and back again" -the Andy Warhol book, made me who I am today.
(NO comments from Messy-You-Know-Who OR Nancy Isla!)
I LOVE the ending of "DV". Genius.
Her husband Reed must have been pretty amazing as well.
Did you ever see her book "Alure"? It's very rare now. (I saw it last year for $800.00) Amazing.
We have a copy if you want to browse...
but you can't check it out!

And who are you anyway big guy?
Nancy, wanna help me with this?

Do not just read it, Michael, memorize it!

"The first thing to do, my love, is to arrange to be born in Paris."

THANKS, BEE-YOTCH!

After reading this forum I ordered "DV" from Amazon.com late yesterday afternoon (normal delivery, typically 3-5 business days). I even mentioned it to Daddy last night that I'd ordered it.

To my shock the book arrived first thing this morning. I've never gotten anything that fast from Amazon before. Guess that means I was meant to have it.

I need to read this, all this talk has me dying. Daddy, I noticed 2 different copies of Allure are on ebay right now, either they are reprints or someone does not know how rare the books they are selling are.

Don't know but it was in Bergdorf's for $800.

All that aside...
It's a beautiful book and really shows why DV was so major.

Oh Daddy...$800 at Bergdorf's...well..Duh..
Everything at Bergdorfs is $800. I bought an eyeliner pencil there that normally cost $12 at Mac ( which is overly marked up to begin with) but at Bergies it was $24. But I do like their window displays. And as for Ms. Vreeland, I have photos in my archives that will make you pee.I took them during the 70's in NYC when she was still walking around and could be found at Studio 54 so many nights. I promise to post them as soon as I pull them.

Oh, don't bother Bobby...
I have one here.

Wow...I think you are mistaken Daddy..That is Diana's sister....Verna Vreeland..I remember the night she showed up at J60. She is indeed the "prettier" one.

So glad that everyone loves this as much as I do. As for Alure, I got my copy at Barnes and Noble shortly after it came out. I remember frothing at the mouth with randella when we heard it was out. As much as I love Bergie's, I am not aware they do a mark up THAT terrible. I buy almost all of my cosmetics at Bergies as they always have everything I need from YSL, Shu Umura and all the other cuntier lines. I also adore their Jo Malone department. Jo Malone candles make exquisite gifts. Mr. Kenn and I were at Bergdorf last Sunday. he is copying a $3900 Zac Posen dress fro me, and we got great inspiration for a $10,000 de La Renta. I am sickend that these things DO NOT COME IN A SIZE 24! Uggh. Hon we are knocking of the Posen for $35!!!!!!

Hon,
Wake up!!!!
Where the hell do you think Zac got the idea for the dress in the first place...
MR. KEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Zac used to come to "Jackie 60" when he was 14!
(Alba used to bring him)
I knew he was young but he recently told me he was only 14 when he started coming.
Gorgeous!
Anyway, he grew up watching YOUR shows
IN MR. KEN OUTFITS!!!!!
He's doing YOU!
I think he owes you one.

Oh...
and Bobby,
You're right.
That is Verna Vreeland.
Sorry.

And speaking of fashion fierceness...

Last night I DJ'ed for "The Best Of The Best Dressed List" party. They had alot of famous dresses on display.
(Jackie Kennedy's Adolfo suit, Liza's Halston, Marlena Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn... etc. etc.)
Anyway, they had this dress of Coco Chanel's. She was tiny!
It looked like a doll's dress. She must have been 3 feet tall. I couldn't believe it.
Such a giant monster in such a small package.

mmm...Coco Chanel. I was just perfume shopping for my mama for mother's day, and was stuck on Coco Chanel. Smells SO INCREDIBLE. Just gorgeous. I settled on something else, more flowery, for my mom. But if anyone wanted to pick up a bottle of that for moi, well... "why don't you?"

Coco's Main Ingredients:
French angelica, Bulgarian Rose,
Spice Island clove bud,
Indian jasmine, Caribbean cascarida,
Frangipani, Mimosa.

NO CIVET CAT GLANDS!

You can look at the "Allure" book at the "Egoiste" magazine store down in Soho... they used to have a copy for public worship.
They also have an unbound folio edition of dozens of Diana Vreeland's original "Vogue" memos, all in typewritten facsimile. (Tres tres cher.)

Eveytime I see someone's dirty shoe-bottoms on a TV talk show I think about how DV always polished the bottoms of her shoes (or rather, had them polished.)

I saw Allure on amazon.com for $50-something.

I think it was only like $125 when it came out, maybe even cheaper. BTW Michael Madison, DON'T GET ME STARTED ON FRAGRANCES!!! You KNOW what a fragrance whore I am. I am searching high and low for a bottle of Joseph Aboud for Men. It smells like The New Orleans in summertime. Very lush, but it isnt made anymore. As for Chanel, I adore #19 as well as Chanel Gardenia (available at boutiques only). The Gardenia is exquisite. Perfect for evening.

Sweetie I know we could start our own perfume topic. btw, Sephora now carries the full Chanel range, including both Gardenia and #19. mmm... i'll keep my eyes peeled for the joseph abboud. Have you tried ebay?

is this it???

As much as I would love to say a fragrance topic would totally turn me out. I dare say many folks here are more the essential oil and "natural musk" types. I am amazed at how much body funk I encounter on any given night out on the town in NYC. Especially the gay boys. I think B.O. is the patchouli of the '04. BTW I do adore patchouli in summer time clinging to a hairy chested man. It makes me swoon. I posted eons ago about an isolated experience I had as a young teen with a friend of my older brothers who was a drummer in a rock band. He always had the faint smell of patchouli on his skin. Dark hair and eyes and hirsute in the MOST sexy of ways. Mugler's ANGEL for women is something that actually nauseates me. It is such a staple in the drag world. It reminds me of La Arias on a tear at Jackie with dick on her breath, butt on her fingertips and that ANGEL doing a lousy job of covering the smell. Way too sweet for my taste. It's the "Sweet Honesty" or "Loves Baby Soft" for grown ups. A surprisingly HOTTT fragrance for the shemale in all of us is Cartier's (forgive my butchering of french) Basure du Dragon. It goes on VERRRY "nursing home", but after it settles is one of the sexiest smells I have encounterd of late. I also adore YSL's "In Love Again" for a fresh grapefruity citrus Donny OR Marie scent. There is an elderly gentleman in the club scene that wears Creed's Irish Tweed and I have always adored the freshness of it against his weatherd ol' carcass. I believe he is mulatto and it mixes well with his melonin.

How very DV, that discussion of her book led into much ado about fragrances.

Sweetie, you and I have had many a discussion about the fabulousness that she was, and of course, credit to where credit is due, but I would have never heard of that book were it not for the esoteric musings of Matthew Kasten.

I too have never been a fan of Angel or any of those "harder" pungent smelling ones, but I am now a Jo Malone convert, and her yummy light fragrances are now available to us downtown residents at the new Bloomingdale's on Broadway. So convenient, and more importantly this new store doesn't have the nauseatingly overpowering olfactory onslaught for which the 59th St store is infamous.

what was the fragrance that Vreeland wore... I hear she used to have perfumes cotton balls on her light bulbs (she 'invented' the Glade plug in!)...

For some reason, Chanel No5 comes to mind, but I may well be mistaken.

Oh Sweetie...

quote:

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It reminds me of La Arias on a tear at Jackie with dick on her breath, butt on her fingertips and that ANGEL doing a lousy job of covering the smell.

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It's funny how a smell can instantly take you back. Your description of my sister Joey brought a tear to me eye. I miss her.

And...

quote:

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There is an elderly gentleman in the club scene that wears Creed's Irish Tweed and I have always adored the freshness of it against his weatherd ol' carcass. I believe he is mulatto and it mixes well with his melonin.

---

You've always loved me in my "Green Irish Tweed". Thanks. It drives trannys crazy, I don't know why. Girlina drools whenever I get close to her. (At least I think its when I get close to her).
It's not for everyone though. Marti Domination recently asked me NOT to hug her hello because she didn't want to smell like "Green Irish Tweed".
So that proves it.
Marti Domination is definately a real girl.
I do put it on a little thick I know. Some say, "like a whore".
It's a Puerto Rican thing.
I can't help it.

And I will concur Daddy, you always do smell good.

But back to Mrs Vreeland. She was such a visionary, and she was the penultimate in the Trump-isms (long before we heard "you're fired"). Pink is the new navy. I miss fringe. And so on.

The book was out of vogue until the mid 90s when the Met's Costume Institute paid her homage and Mary Louise Wilson brought her to vivid red-laquered life onto the Off-Broadway stage (BTW: a wonderful birthday memory Sweetie dearest seeing that with you years ago on a hot summer night and then trolling around the midtown of yesteryear). The book found a resurgent interest of new pups hungry for her quips, quotes, and embellished anecdotes, so it's easily found now in re-printed versions.

This topic inspired me to read it again, and I have the time this summer to do so.

What's that movie that all the gays watch?
I think with Audrey Hepburn. She works in a book store but they make her into a model. Anyway, that's based on Mrs. DV I'm sure. That song "Think Pink". All those doors in the big fashion Magazine. Gots to be DV.

ooo,ooo I'm gay, and I know! Funny Face w/ Hepburn and Fred Astaire. Kay Thompson plays the fashion editrix, and her "Think Pink" is total DV! You're right Daddy. I think I'll go home and watch it tonight as I'm getting ready for NOTS. Will be a nice foil to all the leather and lace! Astaire's character was based on Richard Avedon, who was the visual consultant on the film and responsible for that incredible think pink carnival-of-colors sequence.

"Pink is the navy blue of India."

Yes I believe that segment in Funny Face was based on her.

I once met Mrs. Vreeland at the Pyramid; she appeared one night with Lilliane Montevecchi, all in black and pearls and all of five feet tall, drinking tumbler-sized vodkas on the rocks.
She also sent us a telegram which Sister reproduced on one entire wall in her home.