DV

When I hear the letters D and V put together, it just makes me want to stop on my tracks and say "what about?"! I mean DV can stand for Divisoria, a favorite shopping haunt for fabrics, ribbons, laces, wrapping paper, and what nots. Oh I still remember 168 at its hypest! People were just crazy about going there! After all, going to Divi is like an adventure. You never know if you'll find parking, you don't know what fabulous goodie is lurking at each corner, you can't be too sure that your wallet or purse is safe from pickpockets, but you go anyway and just take your chances.

DV could also mean Diana Vreeland, a style icon, former Vogue editor and just a wonderful, colorful personality who had a gift for gab, and an innate talent for describing scenes and telling stories that you can't help but be enthralled. Never mind if she was passing of fiction for fact. Yes, she coined the word "faction". As Mary Louis Wilson, who wrote the foreword for the 1997 run of Diana's book DV, "Realities were simply not important to Mrs. V. as the imaginative life."

I just had to ask my fiance to order this book for me from Amazon. So when I got the package yesterday, I couldn't wait to get my hands on her magic. Mrs. V. was an extraordinary woman. Her stories were spellbinding and her witty quips were a riot. "Never fear being vulgar, just boring" she said. Her Harper's Bazaar column entitled "Why Don't You?" was a showcase of her originality and a hint of being out of touch with reality (i.e., Why don't you have a private staircase from your bedroom to the library with a needlework carpet with notes of music worked on each step - the whole spelling your favorite tune?.")

But then again, this book is not meant to be taken literally. It is a fun read, a modern day fairy tale whose stories about glamorous socialites, lithe and sultry dancers, jewel encrusted maharajahs and the British royalty were spun by a woman with a magical spinning (like crazy) wheel.