Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel

Extensive research and a thorough review of family files and magazine archives contribute to this showpiece dedicated to fashion icon Diana Vreeland. The introduction by Immordino Vreeland (wife of Vreeland's grandson) sets the stage, briefly describing Vreeland's tenure at Harper's Bazaar, where she worked for 28 years, as well as her career at Vogue in the 1960's, where she shook up the fashion world. At Vogue, she featured the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on fashion pages, making the magazine "younger and more happening." The book provides some quick fashion history lessons, explaining, for example, how the advent of commercial plane travel changed fashion coverage forever, bringing women of color into fashion spreads for the first time. Most readers will love the book simply for its images, with timeless words and works by Richard Avedon, and memorable covers and people (Sophia Loren and Gloria Vanderbilt, among others). A must-have and the perfect addition to anyone's holiday gift list, the book begs to be displayed on a coffee table and leisurely reviewed from the corner of a comfy couch, when there is ample time to savor Vreeland's pioneering five decades in fashion. (Oct.)