D.V.
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List Price: $17.00 $12.41 $ 4.59 ( 27% ) Da Capo Press Diana Vreeland
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 920EAN: 9780306812637ISBN: 0306812630Label: Da Capo PressManufacturer: Da Capo PressNumber Of Items: 1Number Of Pages: 216Publication Date: 2003-05-07Publisher: Da Capo PressRelease Date: 2003-05-06Studio: Da Capo Press
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Editorial Reviews: As fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue , Diana Vreeland--and her passion, charm, insouciance, and genius for style--energized and inspired the fashion world for fifty years. In this glittering autobiography she takes us around the world with her, revealing her obsession with fashion high and low--pink plastic poodles, for example--and dropping timeless sayings like, "As you know, the French like the French very much." A fabulous, witty read.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: who cares if it might not be true?Comment: I've heard that not every word of "D.V." is necessarily, you know, true. Well, whatever. In an age of fraud and being less than truthful to the public, it's permissible here because D.V. has such a good time, and really, we'll never know with someone who led a life that epitomized the meaning of glamor and style. D.V. is from the era just before tabloidery, going commando, and movie stars traveling with stylists, and her memoir is less about real events than how one person decided to do it all in grand style. While I usually balk at any personal histories that seem a bit too much on the "so privileged, la-di-dah" side, D.V.'s prose reveals only her elegance and her joy at being around style and trendsetting in all its forms - art, achievement, derring-do.
Customer Rating: Summary: Top-notch froth mixed with moments of candorComment: I saw Mary Louise Wilson play Vreeland in the one-woman show "Full Gallop" in New York in 1996. I knew nothing of Vreeland before "Full Gallop," and couldn't wait to learn more about her after. "D.V." reads just like the character Wilson played on stage--larger than life, perhaps a little shallow, but a hell of a lot of fun to have a drink with. Not in the same league as memoirs by Moss Hart and Lillian Hellman (who, like Vreeland, was accused of doing a little fabricating in her memoirs), but "D.V." remains a pretty entertaining way to spend an afternoon.Customer Rating: Summary: Over the top funComment: It's time the world rediscovered Diana Vreeland. She's the maven we'd all love to be. Friend to all the rich and famous, she moved freely in high society, imprinting it with her personal style and never losing her earthiness. When she made her faux pas, they were so hilarious that nobody even thought of suing her. Owners of major European fashion houses gave her their clothes because they knew that they'd be seen by all the best (read "richest") people, who would no doubt pay the clothes more attention than they did dear Diana's plain face (she acknowledged it as so herself). If ever a person made the most of every card she was dealt, it was Diana Vreeland. And "DV" is a narrative of her very own world with details you never knew before. (I'll give you one tidbit as a hint: Edward VI made up his mind that he didn't want to be king LONG before he met Wally Simpson.) Buy this book and enter Vreeland's parlour for some revealing and often amusing gossip about nearly every high society character of her times--royalty, high profile politicians (including the Kennedys in their prime), artists, authors--everyone who made the news worth reading. Warning: once you enter Vreeland's world, you'll never want to leave. A person like this comes along at best once or twice in a century. A marvelous read and look at a world we'll probably never see the like of again.Customer Rating: Summary: well, I'll never get that time backComment: If you're looking for some insights into fashion and/or the fashion world, look else where. I thought I'd gain some insights to the world of fashion (an area of life that I'm not famailiar with) but I was very disappointed. Nothing but nothing in this book had to do with fashion, the fashion business, nor the intellectual exercise that goes into fashion. This was simply the rambling lifetime memories of a well respected player from the fashion field. Childhood, young adult, married, Europe, here, there, everywhere... if you like name dropping (and I admit she did drop some impressive names) - this book is for you. If you're looking for some insights into fashion and/or the fashion world, look else where.Customer Rating: Summary: DV = DiVineComment: Okay, all the stereotypes might be true for this one, but it's a classic. She's in charge, in control and just amazing. I've bought more copies of this book to "loan" but of course no one has ever been stupid enough to return it. Truely, buy two copies to begin with, so you aren't crushed when the one you loan out doesn't come back. I think of it the way Gideons think of Bibles.
