Posted by Eric Stumpf
"Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel" plays at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 13and Friday, Dec. 14 at the Saratoga Film Forum at 320 Broadway. The film will also be shown at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 16.
The student body will take great pride in the fact that one of the season's hottest documentaries was written and directed by Skidmore alumna Lisa Immordino Vreeland. This week, the Saratoga Film Forum will bring the documentary downtown.
"Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel," explores the legacy of one of the fashion industry's most prolific icons. A woman who singlehandedly created and promoted modern fashion in many ways, Diana Vreeland (1903-1989) discovered countless fashion models and made an enduring mark on women's fashion.
Vreeland was the fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar for twenty-five years, after which she became the editor-in-chief for Vogue. In addition to holding these high profile jobs, she also cultivated an image of celebrity. Vreeland's friends included notable figures like Jackie Kennedy, Cecil Beaton, Cole Porter, Coco Chanel and Lauren Bacall. Nicknamed the "The Empress of Fashion," Vreeland was regarded as a visionary, and the trends she launched then are still popular today. Her passion and philosophy about art and fashion remain unparalleled.
Skidmore art history major Lisa Immordino discovered the inner world of haute couture when she married Diana Vreeland's grandson. Her newfound family tie enabled her to get incredible firsthand accounts that give this documentary an insider's immediacy and vibrancy.
"But it's not the access that mattered for me," Immordino Vreeland said. "It was the openness of the people of Cond?? Nast, Harper's Bazaar and the Costume Institute. Just people wanting to tell their stories, being generous with their time and really wanting to embrace this."
This film is lively, well imagined and informative. Viewers don't have to be a fashionista to enjoy it. More than a story about Vreeland's singular career, it will appeal to anybody interested in the workings of drive, passion and nerve. As Sandra Hall of the Sydney Morning Herald says, "She wanted you to look and look again, and this film is full of images which make you do just that."
Relevant Majors: Art History, Business, English, Dramatic Arts, Fashion, Philosophy, Psychology and Studio Art.