Diana Vreeland was known for her quips and quotes. She invented the word pizazz and once declared, “Pink is the navy blue of India!”
On having original style
"Style—all who have it share one thing: originality."
“We are not looking for endless variety, we are looking for fashion.”
“I think it’s a great mistake to cater to popularity. Where’s the style in it?”
“Too much good taste can be boring.”
— So why not wear the simple but chic Brigitte dress with a pair of pink tights and red heels?
Diana Vreeland on style and age
“You must always look your best, not try to look someone else’s…. I believe only in the specific woman herself at any age, and I believe that style carries all … and that applies to any age….”
“Luxury is a point of view. It’s not what you pay, but what you make of yourself.”
“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.”
On managing your wardrobe
“Why don't you...Find one dress that you like and have it copied many times? You will be much more successful than if you try to produce new effects each evening."
“It’s really old fashioned to dress by the season.”
“You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It's a way of life. Without it, you're nobody. I'm not talking about lots of clothes.”
“Everyone should have a shoemaker they go to the way they go to their doctor.”
“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.”
“Because many of the clothes will be charcoal and a great deal of black, I suggest the shoes have great character and often great color…”
— A client once wrote that Senza Tempo is an accessory lovers dream. The founder is a firm believer in bold, colorful shoes. Sometimes and outfit is all about the accessories.
On Color
“Red is the great clarifier — bright, cleansing, and revealing. It makes all the other colors beautiful. I can’t imagine becoming bored with red — it would be like becoming bored with the person you love.”
“Yellow! You don’t understand yellow! Only Matisse and I understand Yellow!”
“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!
— We believe Diana Vreeland would have approved of the red of the Jackie I and Diana Cocktail.
On Life and Work
“I don’t work, I only dream and achieve. Quite a different thing.”
“In my leisure time I appear rather... impractical. But I do think that I’ve made a practical woman out of myself. You can’t have worked the number of years I have, through hell or high water, without being basically practical.”
“To be contented — that’s for the cows.”
The search for a Diana skirt was what inspired the founder to start Senza Tempo.