Diana Vreeland Quotes about Fashion

The only real elegance is in the mind; if you've got that, the rest really comes from it.

Too much good taste can be very boring. Independent style, on the other hand, can be very inspiring.

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.

The first rule that a geisha is taught, at the age of nine, is to be charming to other women...Every girl in the world should have geisha training.

We all need a splash of bad taste. No taste is what I am against.

Unshined shoes are the end of civilization.

A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste-it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against.

The best time to leave a party is when the party’s just beginning. There’s no drink that kills except the drink that you didn’t want to take, as the saying goes, and there’s no hour that kills except the hour you stayed after you wanted to go home.

Fashion must be the most intoxicating release from the banality of the world.

Balenciaga often said that women did not have to be perfect or beautiful to wear his clothes. When they wore his clothes, they became beautiful.

I adore artifice. I always have.

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 wasn't a fashion editor. I was the one and only fashion editor.

Where would fashion be without literature?

When fashion turns over it brings in little tiny creaks and cracks. This is the fascination and that is where you have to watch every step.

If it's not there in fashion, fantasize it.

I was always fascinated by the absurdities and luxuries and the snobbism of the world that fashion magazines showed. Of course, it’s not for everyone...But I lived in that world, not only during my years in the magazines business but for years before, because I was always of that world-- at least in my imagination.

Style; all who have it have have one thing: originality.

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.

All my life I've pursued the perfect red.

Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.

I always wear my sweater back-to-front; it is so much more flattering.