Vreeland's Musings II

The 1930s

Following on from these earlier newsletters (“A Question of Style” and “Vreeland's Musings I”), here is more from Lally Weymouth’s interview with Diana Vreeland, published in Rolling Stone, August 11, 1977. This week centers on the 1930s in London, celebrity friends, Coco Chanel, and Vreeland’s time at Harper’s Bazaar.

Diana Vreeland. Unknown photographer, 1933.

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THE 20s AND 30s

The look of the Twenties was the short skirt and the cropped hair. It was a very new look…

Yeah, it was about as new as you could get. Go right down through the 15th, 14th centuries; go down to anything you want, there's never been a woman with a totally naked back and a skirt to there. That's the way our clothes were cut. The beginning of the Twenties was the beginning of this century. Everything changed—the paintings, the music, the way of life.

And who was the leading designer of the new world?

Well, to me the one who really had the spirit of the 20th century was Chanel, without question. She chopped the skirts off, and she dressed the women like little Eton boys in cashmere and little shirts. She put pockets where they ought to be, and everything was totally practical and clean and elegant—exactly as if you were going to take the Metro, but of course you didn't. You got into a most beautiful automobile and drove back to a most beautiful house, because, after all, she was a couturiere only to the very rich and famous. But she dressed you like a stenographer going to work, of course in the most elegant and elaborate way—it was divine. The House of Chanel in the Twenties was so fascinating, and she was so fascinating.

When did you first meet Chanel?

I met her… in 1926, which was really the moment that the world's clothes… totally changed: the clean shirt, the little jackets and skirts—everything fell away except the essentials. Hair was cropped—everyone's hair was cropped.

Why did it all change in 1926?

Well, because the outcome of an experience is seen later than the experience. So, say, World War I ended in 1918 but it cast a long shadow until 1925 or '26.

In 1929 you left Albany and went to live in England with your husband.

My husband was offered a job with the Guaranty Trust in London and that's why we went off to London. I arrived in London the second day of January 1929… When I got there I became a member of a great team that Ziegfield used—the Tiller Girls. Ask anybody over 400 years old what a Tiller Girl was. They were the great chorus girls of London. And I trained with them… for the love of the dance. I was running a house… I was terribly involved with my husband and my two children…

At the Erlanger Palace in Tunisia, 1931.