"An entertaining memoir" (New York Times) from one of the 20th century''s greatest fashion icons.D.V. is the mesmerizing autobiography of Diana Vreeland, the one-time fashion editor of Harper''s Bazaar and editor-in-chief of Vogue, whose incomparable style-sense, genius, and flair helped define the world of haute couture for fifty years. The incomparable D.V. proves herself a brilliant raconteur as she carries the reader along on her whirlwind life—from English palaces to the nightclubs of Paris in the 1930s to the heart of New York high society, hobnobbing with everyone who was anyone, from Queen Mary to Clark Gable to Coco Chanel."An evening with D.V. is almost as marvelous as an evening with D.V. [herself]—same magic, same spontaneity and, above all, never a boring moment." —Bill Blass"Vreeland shows us an utterly theatrical raconteuse who turns anecdotes into dramatic monologues, editorial pronouncements into rhapsodies." —San Francisco Chronicle"All told, D.V. is a splendid read created by an observant woman whose curiosity and zest for living virtually leap from every page." —Variety
The exciting, novel fashions of Sonia Delauney, a member of the avant-garde movement in Paris in the early twentieth century, heralded the advent of a radically new concept in clothing design. Like many champions of Modernism, Sonia Delauney believed that art should be used to redecorate modern life, and that design should be truly artistic. By applying the bright colours of the peasant costumes from her native Russia to the elegant silhouettes that were currently in vogue in Paris, she translated theory into practice and produced a stunning series of clothes for the Jazz Age. Like the contemporary Orphist paintings created by her husband Robert, Sonia Delauney's designs are characterised by their vibrant colours and sharply patterned geometric collages. They were worn by starlets Gloria Swanson and Gaby; her imaginative theatre costumes were commissioned by another great advocate of Modernism, Diaghilev, for the Bullet Russes. Indeed, Sonia Delauney's clothing, as exalted in the poetry of Tristan Tzara and Guillaume Apollinaire, epitomised the spirit of the new age.