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DIANA VREELAND She had a little dance step in her walk; she was so happy with the world. She was charming. She suggested springtime and freshness. She was very clean and clear, and her hair was pulled back, almost Alice in Wonderland. Freshness and proportion and a sense of rollick of life, you know, the fun of life. She was a Youthquaker, wasn't she? - one of the true personalities of the Sixties. Youth came through; the language changed; the music; the humor. The writters and painters produced something totally different from the years before. The two eras have a lot in common. In the Fitzgerald era, Prohibition was on; everybody was as wild as a March hare; everybody had a great Stutz Bearcats, and Mercedes - great enormous cars roaring through the night; youth was wild, rich, extravagant, and marvelous... though, unfortunately, it added up to very little... I think the Sixties will add up to much more.
I don't it a violently sex period. You might say, "Well, everybody slept with everybody like kittens." It was just possible. Don't forget, the Pill changed the world. Certainly, though, it was a very intensive moment of the beauty of the body. No question. Every girl thought every other girl was beautiful; every boy thought every girl was beautiful; every girl tought every boy was beautiful.
But if you're an honest-to-God model, you go to the gym before you come to work; you have one boyfreind who buys you your dinner. You go to bed good and early. No nonsense. You'd never see one in a night club.
That wasn't Edie, tough Edie had a wonderful look about her. Lovely skin, but then I've never seen anyone on drugs that didn't have wonderful skin. There must have been some frustration. She was after life, and sometimes life doesn't come fast enough.
EDIE An American Biography
Copyright Jean Stein and George Plimpton 1982
