Lisa Immordino Vreeland discusses the insprational icon

Ahead of it’s DVD release, The Fan Carpet had the pleasure of sitting down with Lisa Immordino Vreeland for the StudioCanal release of Diana Vreeland: The Eye has to Travel.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye has to Travel is a look at the life and work of the influential fashion editor of Harpers Bazaar, Diana Vreeland.

For the uninitiated, why should Diana Vreeland be immortalised on film?

Well because Diana Vreeland was the real thing in fashion, she invented the fashion editor and went onto do so much more; she made Vogue what it is today, she revolutionised dress and costume in museums worldwide – not just at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but her vision transcended fashion – and that’s really the important message.

Was it important to you to have those that don’t know her name, to get to know her?

Well, it was kind of to define her for the younger generation because I think there are a lot of people out there who do know who she is and others that had a misconception of who she is, I myself had a misconception because I only knew the extravagant Mrs. Vreeland but now we know so much more and it’s a lot more interesting.

When did you decide you would make a film about her?

I had started my project on the book three years ago, so it was pretty much at the same time – I started first with the book and then a month or two I started on the film, and I was lucky to have such a strong team working with me.

How did you get so many great talking heads involved in the film, particularly Joel Schumacher, who people wouldn’t necessarily associate with high fashion?

You know what, Joel Schumacher was working at Henri Bendel’s at the time – he was doing windows, and this is when he claims he was doing some drinking and some drugs perhaps and he would love to hang out with Mrs. Vreeland – where they would have long discussions about life and they were great buddies.

But you know, I think she got all these great people, I just happened to be the person behind the microphone asking the questions – these are all of her friends that wanted to talk about her.

Was it hard to sort of corral them?

It was, but I was just very patient. I just went after it, but it was all about patience.

One of my favourite parts of the film is the Ali MacGraw screen, has she seen the film?

She has! We were kind of dreading her seeing the film, but she’s so smart and she’s so elegant and she’s in the film three times, and we couldn’t help but put that little bit into the film.

And Fred who is one of the co directors – there are two of them – did that scene and I was thinking how much trouble will we be in, she’ll never do another yoga class with me again.

People were just so generous with their time, and I sent her a screener and I got this beautiful email back and… she loved it!

Can you discuss what Diana’s legacy is today… she almost makes Anna Wintour seem lazy in comparison, did things like The September Issue and The Devil Wears Prada help you?

No, The September Issue did absolutely nothing for me, neither of them did, this isn’t about inspiration, Mrs. Vreeland is about inspiration and I think the main figure in The September Issue is Grace Coddington who is about inspiration and fantasy.

So no I didn’t look at them, but I think what’s great is that these fashion centric films is that they paved the way, but there’s such a cross over of art culture with fashion, that it’s just very natural for it to go in this direction.

Grace is more about the inspiration than the commercial aspect…

Yes, totally and Anna Wintour’s doe an amazing job with Vogue and how it is today, but it’s a very different thing. There’s a reason why Diana Vreeland just stays a part of everyone else in fashion, and that’s where the inspiration comes and it’s nice to have that.

Why do you think that Carmel Snow warned Bazaar’s higher-ups that Vreeland was a brilliant fashion editor who should never, ever, be editor-in-chief of a magazine?

You know, I think it was because she was always competitive with Vreeland, and Carmel Snow had great vision of being able to pick out people, she had the vision to pick out Alexey Brodovitch as the art director of the magazine, and he’s one of the great great art directors of the world.

In the film you avoid telling the audience until the end that she was a bit of a fantasist, was that a conscious decision?

Yes. Definitely a conscious decision because we wanted that ending, I wanted her to leave on that plane, for me it was for us to go on that journey with her, to go out and live our dreams, and there was only one way to achieve that, I couldn’t come up with another way, and we touched upon this who sense of fantasy, but you kind of had to hold out the fantasy until the very end.

Diana Vreeland: The Eye has to Travel Film Page

DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL IS OUT ON DVD ON MONDAY OCTOBER 29