Diana Vreeland’s Pop Star Great-Granddaughter Wants to Create a Fashion Line for Busty Women
Caroline Vreeland at the M.A.C Cosmetics x Giambattista Valli party in Paris. Photo: Courtesy of M.A.C
To be or not to be a diva? Where better to debate such a topic than Paris’s majestic Palais Garnier opera house, the venue for Monday night’s Flower Obsession Ball hosted by M.A.C Cosmetics and Giambattista Valli to mark their soon-to-be-released lip color collection and a decade as partners in beauty and fashion. “Oh my god, I’m not a diva. I don’t think I’m a diva…I don’t like things that start with a D; I like everything that starts with an F: fashion, fruit, flowers…” said Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz mounting the opera’s stone staircase. With the glamorous offspring of several major families in attendance, divaness was a slightly delicate question, with the divine Charlotte Casiraghi (she is the granddaughter of Grace Kelly, after all) deferring with a limp cough and diva-ish wave of the hand. For Delfina Delettrez, part of the Fendi fashion dynasty - who swept in wearing a dramatic black coat by Sicilian designer Marco de Vincenzo covered in colored fringed circles - there was no denying. “Am I a diva? I mean, somehow yes, I love to be a diva. A diva is someone who wants to have attention on herself, wants to live on a stage even if she’s not living on a stage.” Delettrez, a jewelry designer known for her Surrealist statement pieces, will present her first fine jewelry collection on Thursday. But who better than singer Caroline Vreeland, great-granddaughter of the formidable Diana Vreeland to expound on the matter. Sporting a Mary Katrantzou romper teamed with towering Barbara Bui heels, she struck a pose on the opera’s stone staircase and poured forth.
Yahoo Style: We’re at the Palais Garnier. Are you a diva?
Caroline Vreeland: Well, not in the sense of asking for crazy things, but in the sense that I’m very dramatic and over the top and the way I speak and my personality, maybe.
YS: What about your great-grandmother, Diana Vreeland, was she a diva?
CV: She was a little scary, I think. People were afraid to cross her. Or if she had a strong opinion about something, you’d better get out of the way. So in that regard, I’d say yes. But I think it made her the marvelous creature that she was.
YS: Could you detail a couple of examples?
CV: Hmmm. Well, I was reading in the Visionaire Memos that she was getting fed up when the interns were coming and going so she just decided that everyone needed to wear a little bell round their neck, like a little kitten, so she could hear them coming. So, that’s a diva move I’d say.
YS: And were you raised to be a diva?
CV: I was raised knowing that whatever I felt was right and wanted to do was okay; from that, I’ve kind of developed courage. And with my music it’s the same, I don’t really conform to what other writers want me to do. So in that sense, growing up, I was given the freedom to become the diva that I am.
The outside of the Palais Garnier Opera House. Photo: Courtesy M.A.C
YS: So when you’re performing, what are you like when it comes to backstage requests?
CV: Well, my new thing is a vitamin called B17. It’s illegal in the States but I heard that it can cure cancer and has all kinds of great qualities. It’s found in the pit of the apricot seed. So when I went to perform at Calvi on the Rocks in Corsica I asked for six of those. And they were like, ‘Actually all the artists are eating in the cafeteria and that’s where you’re going.’
YS: So you don’t ask for anything unhealthy, like Coca-Cola?
CV: No, no, no, no. I’m not into soda. For me, it’s like Scotch, red wine and room temperature water. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for, do you?
YS: What are you working on next?
CV: My EP is coming out July 28.We’re kind of keeping the name a secret, but it’s going to be called Glasshouse and it’s going to be the first bulk of work that I have out; it’ll be eight songs. I’m excited to hear what people think of it.
YS: And what about fashion collaborations?
CV: I’m looking to do something for larger breasted girls, such as myself. I have a lot of girls asking me what I wear and how I find stuff that fits. I’ve been so fortunate to come to these things and have these fittings with cool designers and then it’s always a struggle to have it fit over the boobs. I think that would be my first thing, it’s really true to my heart. I want girls who have that situation to feel like they’re still chic, and nothing’s popping out.
YS: Coming back to where we are tonight, did you see the roses projected onto the façade of the opera house?
CV: I did indeed. It’s simply divine.
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