Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/175740
PHOTOS BY © FRANCESCO SCAVULLO, © JAMES KARALES DOYENNE VREELAND A collection of memorandums paint an intimate portrait of the influential editrix. BY JULIE BAUMGARDNER "My grandmother didn't tell people how to do things; she gave them thoughts that would trigger how to do it," remembers Alexander Vreeland, whose surname reveals just who is the lady in question: the grande dame of fashion editing, Diana Vreeland. While it may be hard to fathom that a leader with such storied vision and monumental gesture, as she was in the halls of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, Vreeland inspired her staff of fellow creatives through rather unconventional means—often through her interoffice communication that is the subject of the latest tome, "Memos: The Vogue Years." About 2,000 were originally compiled then edited down to around 400 top notes by Alexander and his own son Reed (Vreeland's husband's name, in fact), to whom it became apparent that between exclamations of the season's freshest color or anxious proclamations of editorial emergencies, there were many valuable lessons. "She had a way of inspiring," Alexander explains, "o, I decided to organize the book as more of a 'how-to' volume—even though she didn't even believe in those sorts of things!" While Vreeland would never be caught in the aisles of Barnes & Noble perusing the self-help section, flipping through the organized chapters of "Memos," it is obvious that she had an unorthodox way of managing her team that Alexander believes has a broader appeal "outside of fashion people or those who would have known her." In essence, a handbook for out-of-the-box thinking, by the master of the technique herself! Tucked in the pages of this Rizzoli-published gem due out this month, are also reflections from Vreeland's cohorts Polly Mellen, and the fashion director, Grace Mirabella, who raised to the ranks to editor in chief and quips in the text: "Diana really had a vision. She saw where fashion was going. She spoke in such a way that the creative team knew what she had in mind . . . and wow, did By LYNN YAEGER she have a vision!" Playful they may be, but these pajamas are made for the workplace. 46 BAL HARBOUR FROM TOP LEFT: Diana Vreeland; Vreeland with Cecil Beaton in 1965; Vreeland with Truman Capote in 1965; a selection of office memos sent while Vreeland was the editor of Vogue.