Diana Vreeland? Christopher Hemphill? Eleanor Dwight? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: A powerful fashion maven was asked about blue jeans, and the response was surprising:
They’re the most beautiful things since the gondola.
This remark has been attributed to Diana Vreeland who worked at “Harper’s Bazaar” from 1936 to 1963 followed by a job at “Vogue” from 1963 to 1971 where she became the editor-in-chief. Is this comment about blue jeans genuine?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1980 Diana Vreeland with Christopher Hemphill published an over-sized fashion photography book titled “Allure”. The work included extensive commentary from Vreeland. She stated that during interviews hostile journalists asked absurd questions and attempted to get her to say that fashion was dead. Boldface added to excepts by QI:1
“What do you think…of blue jeans,” they say.
Of course, they expect me to release myself and say, “Oh, they’re terrible! They’ve killed fashion!” Whereas, actually, blue jeans are the only things that have kept fashion alive because they’re made of a marvelous fabric and they have fit and dash and line…the only important ingredients of fashion.
So I always say the same thing. I say, “They’re the most beautiful things since the gondola,” and leave it at that.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In September 1980 “The New York Times” published a piece about Vreeland’s book “Allure”:2
They are accompanied by a text best described as Vreelandesque — impressionistic, elliptical, sometimes cutting, often irreverent: “As you know, a well-kept invalid lasts forever.” There are impressions of the titans (Garbo, Bernhardt, Nijinsky) and the epigrams on fashion for which she is famous: Blue jeans are “the most beautiful things since the gondola.”
In March 1981 the “Sunday Telegraph” of London discussed Vreeland’s opinions presented in “Allure”:3
She enthuses about what she likes (diamonds, Sarah Bernhardt, Paris); offers … epigrammatic statements of her views of blue jeans, that they are “the most beautiful thing since the gondola”.
In 1981 Vreeland spoke about the stylishness of blue jeans in the “Los Angeles Times” of California:4
She explained: “I walk down the street and can see a woman in blue jeans that, put together with the right sweater, boots and maybe a short fur jacket, can be elegant.”
In 1988 “Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations” compiled by James B. Simpson included several remarks by Vreeland including the following two items:5
The only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it.
Newsweek 10 Dec 62[Blue jeans are] the most beautiful things since the gondola.
NY Times 14 Sep 80
In 1992 a Knight-Ridder journalist reported on a sign observed at Donna Karan’s fashion company headquarters in New York:6
The happening took place in Karan’s new DKNY headquarters, where there is a window with a hand-painted quote from the late Diana Vreeland, former Vogue editor: “Blue jeans are the most beautiful thing since the gondola …”
Karan obviously agrees.
In 2004 the “Palm Beach Daily News” of Florida published a piece about a new biography by Eleanor Dwight titled “Diana Vreeland”. The article included quotations ascribed to Vreeland:7
And she continued to spout her opinions, such as: “Elegance is innate—it’s not to be sprinkled like salt,” and, when asked about the effect of blue jeans on fashion at the time: “They’re the most beautiful thing since the gondola. Leave it at that.”
In 2024 the remark continued to circulate. The “Akron Beacon Journal” of Ohio printed the following:8
The late fashion icon and magazine editor Diana Vreeland once said, “Blue jeans are the most beautiful thing since the gondola.”
In conclusion, Diana Vreeland deserves credit for the statement she wrote in the book “Allure” in 1980. Vreeland used the pronoun “they” to refer to blue jeans in the expression: “They’re the most beautiful things since the gondola”. Now, the statement is often presented as “Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola”.
Image Notes: Painting titled “The Gondola” by Frederick Walker circa 1868. Image posted to Unsplash by the Birmingham Museums Trust. This image has been resized.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Eli Burnstein who inquired about a different quotation: “Elegance is refusal”. This led QI to the book “Allure” by Diana Vreeland with Christopher Hemphill which contained the entertaining blue jeans remark.
- 1980, Allure by Diana Vreeland with Christopher Hemphill, Quote Page 202, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1980 September 14, New York Times, Section: The New York Times Magazine, A Vision of Style by Francesca Stanfill, Start Page SM69, Quote Page SM69, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1981 March 22, Sunday Telegraph, Section: Sunday Magazine, What Is Alure? by Jennifer McKay, Start Page 16, Quote Page 24, Column 4, London, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1981 May 29, Los Angeles Times, Opinions on Elegance or Formality — A New Trend? by Patricia Moore (Chicago Sun-Times), Quote Page F4, Column 1, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1988, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Compiled by James B. Simpson, Section: Fashion, Person: Diana Vreeland, Quote Page 272, Column 2, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
- 1992 April 16, The Ottawa Citizen, Karan offers complete second line by Mary Gottschalk, Quote Page H3, Column 3, Ottawa, Canada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2004 November 19, Palm Beach Daily News, Author: Life of style woven in fabrication (Continuation title: Vreeland) by Robert Janjigian (Daily News Fashion Editor), Start Page A1, Quote Page A4, Column 2, Palm Beach, Florida. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2024 February 16, Akron Beacon Journal, Denim earns a place in our homes by Jill Sell (Akron Beacon Journal), Quote Page 1C, Column 1, Akron, Ohio. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎