Gloria Vanderbilt has lived 90 years in the eye of the public—and in the camera’s lens—all the while exhibiting a signature grace and courage that has turned her name into a synonym for American style. The photographic record of her life amounts to a public performance, a kind of silent-movie role, played across time. In concert with hundreds of photographers, Gloria has given image to perseverance, enigmatic glamour, and a unique visual vocabulary of color and pattern.
I spoke with Gloria this past May when she visited me in my downtown studio. A camera crew filmed us for an upcoming———GLORIA VANDERBILT: Cats are so interesting—endlessly fascinating. I got one and then I got her brother a week later. When I brought him home, she had a nervous breakdown. She went under the sofa.VANDERBILT: She’s absolutely devoted to me. She follows me around. It’s unconditional love.
WILCOX: I thought that we might go back to the beginning, a little bit. The first line in the film I made about you,is, “When she was born in 1924, Gloria Vanderbilt’s first cry was the last gasp of New York’s 19th-century tycoon aristocracy.” You were born into a culture and society that was being eclipsed—times were really changing, it was the modern world.
WILCOX: There’s a photo of you that comes to my mind, the photo taken of you with Dodo, your beloved nurse, in 1925. WILCOX: There are lots of pictures of you aboard ocean liners in the 1920s. And there are pictures that document your mother’s glamorous life. WILCOX: By the early 1930s, your Vanderbilt relatives were getting very nervous about this life you were leading.
WILCOX: It’s very painful to look at the images of you having to shove your way through crowds to the courtroom in those days. I wonder if people thought that because you inherited wealth, you were somehow more resilient than other children. WILCOX: She gave you a small room to decorate, didn’t she? And you’ve done a lot of interior decoration in your life. Has that kind of practice informed your drawings and paintings?WILCOX: In a way, you were an early installation artist because you were so involved with the construction of your interiors as complete artistic environments.
VANDERBILT: When I was photographed, I didn’t feel I was acting. I just felt I was being photographed. It sort of taught me things about myself that I didn’t know and was trying to find out. VANDERBILT: First of all, when I went out there, it was like I was going to the Land of Oz. It was so exciting. I was wearing a big hat on the plane. It took nine hours then to fly out there. I thought my mother was going to meet me, but she didn’t. But then on the other hand, Aunt Gertrude didn’t take me to the airport to say goodbye [], so fair enough. My mother was not in good shape at all that summer, so I didn’t see much of her. But I flew out with a chaperone named Constance.
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