Vogue always did stand for people's lives. I mean, a new dress doesn't get you anywhere; it's the life you're living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later.
Diana VreelandRead
All my life I’ve pursued the perfect red. I can never get painters to mix it for me. It’s exactly as if I’d said, ‘I want rococo with a spot of Gothic in it and a bit of Buddhist temple’—they have no idea what I’m talking about. About the best red is to copy the color of a child’s cap in any Renaissance portrait.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The pursuit of perfection in creative expression is often elusive and difficult to communicate to others.
Diana Vreeland's quote reflects the challenges of conveying one’s artistic vision and the frustration that can arise when seeking an ideal that remains just out of reach. Just as she expresses a desire for a specific shade of red that others struggle to understand, many artists face difficulty in articulating their unique creative ideas to collaborators, highlighting the gap between personal vision and collective interpretation in the art world.
Themes
ArtCreativityFrustrationExpressionPerfection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an art class to inspire students about the challenges of finding their unique style.
More from Diana Vreeland
All quotes →Don't look back. Just go ahead. Give ideas away. Under every idea there's a new idea waiting to be born.
Diana VreelandRead
I wasn't a fashion editor. I was the one and only fashion editor.
Diana VreelandRead
Allure is a word very few people use nowadays, but it's something that exists. Allure holds you, doesn't it? Whether it's a gaze or a glance in the street or a face in the crowd or someone sitting opposite you at lunch... you are held
Diana VreelandRead
There’s only one thing in life, and that’s the continual renewal of inspiration.
Diana VreelandRead
You gotta have style to get up in the morning
Diana VreelandRead
Similar quotes
Don't look for obscure formulas or mystery in my work. It is pure joy that I offer you. Look at my sculptures until you see them. Those closest to God have seen them.
Constantin BrancusiRead
I've long believed that good food, good eating, is all about risk. Whether we're talking about unpasteurized Stilton, raw oysters or working for organized crime 'associates,' food, for me, has always been an adventure
Anthony BourdainRead
When you pose for a photograph, it's behind a smile that isn't yours. You are angry and hungry and alive. What I value in you is that intensity. I want to make portraits as intense as people.
Richard AvedonRead
To write tragedy, a man must feel tragedy. To feel tragedy, a man must be aware of the world in which he lives. Not only with his mind, but with his blood and sinews.
Bertrand RussellRead
I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.
Frida KahloRead
If something comes along that is totally outside of horror, fine, but I find there's an immense amount of freedom within the genre.
Wes CravenRead