

She cropped her black hair and wore it back to reveal her severe profile and set off her pale skin with rouged cheekbones and scarlet fingernails.

Instead of concealing her so-called flaws, as she grew up, Vreeland transformed them into a mark of her elegance by emphasizing them. And so, at a very young age, Vreeland realized that only her taste and vision could set her apart. "I was always her ugly little monster," said Vreeland. A gleeful iconoclast and daringly original thinker, she cultivated a striking sense of personal style in response to the damning verdict of her beautiful and reckless socialite mother, Emily Hoffman Dalziel.

Without it, you're nobody." So said legendary BAZAARĮditor and fashion arbiter Diana Vreeland.
