15 Wise Quotes From Fashion Icon Gloria Vanderbilt About Life, Love And How To Be Truly Happy
The fashion pioneer and household name's life was certainly eventful.
Instagram: @gloriavanderbilt Last month the fashion world lost an icon in Gloria Vanderbilt. Dying at the age of 95, she accomplished a lot during her long life. From acting to art to writing and of course her iconic work in fashion, Vanderbilt went on to become a household name in many industries.
Born on February 20, 1924 in Manhattan, she was the daughter of an equestrian millionaire. When her father died, Vanderbilt and her half-sister each were awarded $5 million ($70 million in today’s money). Gloria was still pretty young when the inheritance was paid out, so her mother took control of the trust fund and spent a lot of it for years.
Concerned that Gloria’s mother wasn’t fit to be in charge of her, Gloria’s aunt stepped in, setting off what became at the time one of the most controversial trials in history. Ultimately it was decided that Gloria would live with her aunt and the mother was forced to live on a drastically reduced amount of the trust fund.
Beyond her childhood, Vanderbilt went into acting in 1954, primarily starring in plays and even made Broadway in the show The Time of Your Life. She eventually made her way to television, however, most of her appearances were on talk shows such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and CBS Sunday Morning News.
In the 70s, Vanderbilt began to get into the fashion industry as a designer, putting her art skills to use and applying their designs to a new line of scarves. After joining the Murjani Corporation, Vanderbilt’s signature was sewn onto a new line of designer jeans which is what Vanderbilt would be remembered for. But it wasn’t long after that she left Murjani and made her own company, GV Ltd, where she made a variety of clothing and luxury products including dresses and liqueur.
Gloria Vanderbilt was a mother of four children: Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski, Christopher Stokowski, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, and American journalist and CNN anchor, Anderson Cooper.
Through the years Gloria Vanderbilt did a lot with her life and with those experiences comes wisdom. So, here are some of the best Gloria Vanderbilt quotes from this fashion icon.
1. How to find happiness.
“To be happy--one must find one's bliss” — Gloria Vanderbilt
2. It’s all about helping others.
“We are not put on this earth to see through one another. We are put on this earth to see one another through.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
3. One’s success can be another’s.
“I've always believed that one woman's success can only help another woman's success.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
4. There’s a price for everything.
“Death is the price you paid for being born.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
5. Who cares what people think about you?
“I've never let myself dwell on what other people think of me......You can never change their minds so why waste time trying? Why agonize over it? Better to concentrate on more important things.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
6. On matters of the heart:
“The heart of another is a dark forest.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
7. Money can be evil.
“Remember whenever money is involved, it brings out horrific things in people. It has the power not only to split families apart, but to destroy the foundations of one's life. Never lose sight of this. Take time and be certain you place your trust in those whose interests and goals mirror your own.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
8. Always dream big.
“You must always have great, secret, big fat hopes for yourself in love and in life. The bigger, the better.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
9. Sometimes you already know loss.
“Some of us are born with a sense of loss. It is not acquired as we grow. It is already there from the beginning, and it pervades us throughout our lives.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
10. Nothing is ever easily found.
“Everything in life is elusive.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
11. It’s always someone.
“Why not me? Suffering, she understood, is, in fact, random, universal.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
12. Don’t exempt yourself.
“When anybody says, 'Why me?' Why is 'me' exempt?” — Gloria Vanderbilt
13. Everything has two sides to it.
“In anything there has to be dark and light. There's a lot of joy in my paintings and a lot of darkness.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
14. Eventually it does get easier.
“You breathe in and out; you breathe in and you breathe out, and you live one moment into the next moment, and then time goes by, and you find you're able to put one foot in front of the other.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
15. Find a love for life.
“I do take very good care of myself, and I'm always in love. And by that I mean I have an appetite for life. I'm in love with beauty and things and people and love and being in love, and those things I think, on the inside, show on the outside.” — Gloria Vanderbilt
Jesse Oakley is a writer who writes about love, relationships and self-care.