Description
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1979. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Fair. Alex Gotfryd (Jacket photo). [14], 305, [1] pages. Illustrations. Thirty chapters. A Few Biographical Facts. Answers to Some Questions. Nora's Miscellany of Household Tips. Menus and Recipes. Inscribed on fep with drawing. Minor smudge to part of signature. Inscription reads: To Dora Greene with Love Gloria Vanderbilt. Scarce signed copy, rare with drawing Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (February 20, 1924 - June 17, 2019) was an American artist, author, actress, fashion designer, heiress, and socialite. She was a member of the Vanderbilt family of New York and the mother of CNN television anchor Anderson Cooper. In the 1970s, Vanderbilt launched a line of fashions, perfumes, and household goods bearing her name. She was particularly noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans. Vanderbilt began her career as a fashion model when she was 15 years old, appearing in Harper's Bazaar. During the 1970s, Vanderbilt ventured into the fashion business itself, first with Glentex, licensing her name and a collection of her paintings for a line of scarves. In 1976, Indian designer Mohan Murjani's Murjani Corporation proposed launching a line of designer jeans carrying Vanderbilt's signature embroidered on the back pocket, as well as her swan logo. Her jeans were more tightly fitted than other jeans of that time and were an immediate success with customers. In 1978, Vanderbilt sold the rights to her name to the Murjani Group and re-launched her own company, GV Ltd, which she had founded in 1976. With her company, she launched dresses, blouses, sheets, shoes, leather goods, liqueurs, and accessories. She became known for her artwork, with one-woman exhibitions held of her oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels. Her first exhibition was held in 1948. This artwork was adapted and licensed, starting about 1968, by Hallmark Cards and by Bloomcraft (a textile manufacturer), and Vanderbilt began designing specifically for linen, pottery, and glassware. In 2001, Vanderbilt returned to art and opened her first art exhibition, "Dream Boxes," at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester; it was a critical success. Derived from a Kirkus review: . Not autobiography but, noblesse oblige, secret-sharing by the artist/ designer who figured out how to find herself. Her top secret is our power to change--yet the real secret may be her own uncertainty. Memory, collage, fantasy, and dreams are Gloria Vanderbilt's secrets to self-discovery, a precondition for the goal of self-expression--in dress, home, even work. She writes interchangeably about her wardrobe-philosophy and her commitment to painting that has survived "the conflict society sets up between being a woman and being an artist. For example, it is almost impossible for me to work with make-up on." Not so outside the studio, according to the chapter in which she records her daily cosmetic routine. Also recorded: the decor of every house, the designer of every dress, the motif and guest-list for every party, some tips on housekeeping, and some typical menus and recipes.
