Customer Reviews

Allure

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was desperately waiting for this book to become available. I owned the original and it was amazing. This book is small and some of the most memorable photographs are missing. The $23.10 that I paid for this book could have gone toward the cost of a used copy of the original. Calling it "Allure by Diana Vreeland" is a disgrace.

This book is really informative and interesting, but I hoped for some more text and less pictures. Photos in the book date from the old times when Vreeland was a magazine editor and they don't really inspire my aesthetic senses. What I wanted was some more insight from Vreeland about style and beauty so I'll purchase her biography D.V. This book is a nice thing to check out but if you're looking for inspiration, seek elsewhere.

Diana Vreeland was one of those RARE individuals who ENTIRELY created themselves....... A RARE GEM of a GLOSSY, LACQUERED, somewhat aristocratic woman who, through SHEER WILL (and intellect and breeding, certainly) became THE paragon of style in a world that continues to coarsen and disappear,,,,,,,Interestingly, as the years went by she became more ALIVE, more liberated, hopefully more happy......A woman of EXCEPTIONAL TASTE, she was able to maneuver the Park Avenue crowd where she purpurtedly grew up, but as she grew older she KNEW that new blood was needed and she headed DOWNTOWN to mix with the "demimonde" and started to leave behind all that stuffy old money that was growing more and more irrelevant.....
I have been GREATLY inspired by Mrs. Vreeland, even though I never had the honor to meet her......
Her joy of life, of BEAUTY, of humanity was alwyays PALPABLE, and I believe she had a great heart......
BRANDED forever an UGLY GIRL by her unstable,rather monstrous mother, perhaps that came to define her life, as she says in her"Bio" DV---which I highly recommend.....
This particular book is filled with large black-and-white cutouts from newspapers and magazines that she kept for inspiration, and the subjects are varied, but always come back to her obsessions with royalty and the most SOIGNEE women of the 20th century..... Half or more of what she says is pure FLUFF, but frothy and delightful (and sometimes downright CRUEL). I have derived much pleasure from this book, but may I suggest that you ONLY buy this book IF you have a fascination with the upper classes, STYLE, and the sayings of a very STYLISH woman who sometimes verges on madness and parody-------tongue-in-cheek parody, as she was too intelligent to take herself too seriously.
In a world that COARSENS more and more, Mrs. Vreeland is the perfect antidote-------a "figure of fantasy" that can offer us a moment of respite in a CRASS, VULGAR, let-it-all-out society.....
She was very SPECIAL, and she is missed.......
UPDATE!!!!
I had based my review on the ORIGINAL TOME which was perhaps 18" by 12"---an oversized, ultra-glamorous object (SIZE CAN make a difference sometimes-----SHUT UP!), and then saw the new print a few days ago (March 2011) and my heart SANK------it has suffered from, well, erectile disfunction..Ha! That is not a problem for those who cannot envision the old, of course, but for me it was a deep disappointment...... The "Grandiosity" of the old one MATCHED the creator of it-----why they decided to do this, must clearly have been the fear of poor sales, but the "larger-than-life" clips were, to me, a necessity. Still, I will buy the SHRUNKEN one (why did I give that book away???)....So let me not SOUR it for you.......The paper is now glossy, which is lovely, while the old thing was a thick, rough kind.......
Oh well, go get it.... Mrs. Vreeland deserves your purchase!

This is an essential of style by one of the seminal figures of fashion, Diana Vreeland.

Granted, some of the print qualities aren't exceptional; however, the visuals compensate.

The late Diana Vreeland , who has seen every garment you could imagine, and met everyone you could imagine has bequeathed her perspective on what possesses the power of "Allure". As she toured the world she knew ( Europe, the U.S., the U.K. and, effectively, the World of Fashion ) there would come moments of revelation when she was struck by an image or a moment that had more than just beauty or visual appeal. It had a gravitation pull that seduces the observer and reveals that it has more than the mere beauty of its subject or the ability to conjure day-dreams of distant lands where Shrangri-La has an all-night convenience store. These images possesses the power of "Allure".

allure |''lo'r|
noun
the quality of being powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating :

Every image has that intangible quality but it arises from many unexpected sources. How fortunate we are to have Diana, whose nose for the next big thing is undefeated. She gives us more than just the images, however, and that is the gift of her philosophies in life of how joy and beauty can be seen in all things whether they be simple and even commonplace. She also gives her secrets for establishing one's own personal style.This is more than mere dressing tips..No Ma'am! This is the beginning steps to becoming a world-wide icon without even knowing that it was happening. Diana never rushed cameras and begged people to photograph her but her image is one of the most readily recognizable in 20th century fashion. It wasn't her beautiful face that got her there. It was the sirens song that played just below the ability of humans to hear that
swelled as she entered a room, a restaurant, or a taxi-cab. Truly one of the most fascinating women of the century but also the one we might miss the most.

I am very pleased that those of us can't afford the first edition can now own this classic!