MM6 Maison Martin Margiela Vest dress
Caroline’s own jewelry and shoes
Caroline Vreeland is the type of person who naturally draws people in. From her piercing blue eyes to her fearlessness in sharing her vulnerability with the world, she’s someone people want to know or wish they knew. As the great-granddaughter of legendary fashion editor, Diana Vreeland, Caroline is living up to her family name with her own dynamic mark in music and fashion. She’s a singer-songwriter and well known “It” girl in the fashion circuit who has worked with some of the biggest names in the music and fashion industry. Her singles Wasteland and The Mauling have made waves with her sizeable following, and she’s currently working on releasing new material with Galactic Marvl. In the meantime, the budding fashion icon continues to wow the world with her mesmerizing style and empowered, shame-free attitude. Vreeland is proving boldness runs in the family, all while setting herself apart as the child that’s got her own.
I know that artistry runs in the family with your great-grandmother, Diana Vreeland. Did your family, including Diana, have a role in your musical pursuits at all?
In my early twenties, I kind of shied away from using the Vreeland name. I always wanted to establish myself on my own musically before jumping on the bandwagon of having a famous last name. I didn’t want that to be my identifier. I came from a single mom situation, living in a one-bedroom apartment with my mom and my sister. But when I started to embrace my love of fashion, then I realized I’m a fool if I wasn’t honoring this woman. The idea that she was told “you’re hideous” by her own mother and then she decided to make her own life for herself, made me realize how much of an honor it was to be related to a woman like that. In that way I would say she has helped my music career because she helped me to have a lot of courage.
In your music videos, you seem very comfortable in your skin, and there’s also a sense of vulnerability. Did this play a conscious role in bringing across the messages in your music?
It was and I talk a lot about the video for Wasteland, because it is on the suggestive side, but the story behind that video is that we never decided for it to be nude originally. My producers and I put ourselves to the test and we said we’re going to designate a twelve-hour time period, and we’re gonna see what we can do in those twelve hours. We didn’t have any make-up artists, stylists, anything like that, so we didn’t even know what would become of it. I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and I just said, you know what? Let’s strip it off. I stripped it all away to make it more about the music, about the voice, about the experience of the song. I want to be strategic about sex appeal, but in my heart, I am a wild thing and being naked is the most beautiful state to me.
What do you want people to feel when they listen to your songs?
There’s a common thread in that I want people to feel safe. Especially for me, leaving home at a young age and coming out here to pursue my dreams hasn’t been an easy ride for me. I realize we’re all looking for a way to feel understood, to feel like we can be who we are, and not change who we are. And my whole thing is encouraging people to feel their feelings. If I can give anyone sense of feeling connected to something, then that’s the most important thing for me. That’s really what I want to achieve.
Text by Zee Chang
Photography BY Darian Zahedi
Styling by Ami Lasser
Hair by Michael Quinn
Makeup by Yasuko Shapiro
Photo Assisstant Eduardo Whaite
