BACKGROUNDER - DIANA VREELAND
RUTH LEON'S THEATREWISE
They called her “The Empress of Fashion”, the woman who changed our perception of what we wore. But before that, Diana Vreeland was an international aristocrat born to a life of privilege and leisure far from the commercial world which, almost by accident, made her the most significant figure in fashion of the 20th century.
She was born Diana Dalziel (Gaelic for “I dare”) in Paris in September 1903 to an American socialite mother, Emily Key Hoffman, who was a descendent of George Washington and a cousin of Francis Scott Key (who wrote the poem which became The Star Spangled Banner). Her father was a British stockbroker, Frederick Young Dalziel. Their life in Paris on the Avenue Foch was very ‘Belle Epoque’ except when Emily took off to Africa on one of her big game hunting trips, alone or with her daughters. From one trip she brought home an elephant, two rhinos, seven lions, and three hippos as trophies.