It's great advice - to open your eyes, have a little humility, and let go of ego. I think that instills in you a sense of responsibility. I also think you have to feel like you want to enrich your life, and you want to keep your eyes open, and you want to listen and be a good listener.

Polly Allen Mellen

Categorized in : Letting Go Humility Eye

I love street, adore street. Life is about mixing things and to be divine in the streets. Voila!

Polly Allen Mellen

mixing divine life-is

You have to want to dare being a model. You have to dare or you don't go that step further. You have to be willing to stretch - and to not only be willing to stretch, but to want to stretch.

Polly Allen Mellen

dare

You can squint and see something else, or something will come forward in the paint. You'll always see something else.

Polly Allen Mellen

paint

I was surrounded by talented people. I always remember Mrs. Carmel Snow, saying to me, "You know, Polly, if one person thinks they're a big star, then we're all stars. You just go out there and always do your best. And always have time to see any designer - no matter how big or how small, have time to see them. You don't have to just see the big shots. You never know what's coming around the corner and the talent that is going to be important. That is your job."

Polly Allen Mellen

snow people thinking

One day, Sally Kirkland said to Diana Vreeland, who was the fashion editor of Harper's Bazaar at the time, "I have a young woman I want you to meet. She's very young, but I think you should meet her." When Sally Kirkland told me this, I said, "I can't possibly do that! I'm going to throw up! That's the scariest thing I've ever heard! I can't do that, Sally. I'm not ready to do that!" But Sally said, "You let them make that decision." I was absolutely terrified.

Polly Allen Mellen

fashion decision thinking

I cannot imagine what an influence a five-week trip to the Orient had on me. I mean, the culture, the absorption of the Japanese way of life, the Japanese way of thinking, the discipline. The entire thing was an extraordinary experience. So these were more than memorable things to me.

Polly Allen Mellen

memorable mean thinking

Style doesn't have seasons.

Polly Allen Mellen

vogue seasons style

Happy family gives you a brick-by-brick foundation that you build on for the rest of your life. And then it teaches you so many things that are important in your life, like being a good sport, and not thinking negatively, and always having a good feeling for your fellow man. We went to wonderful schools. We just had a great life and I'm ever grateful for it.

Polly Allen Mellen

grateful sports school

I hate grunge. It was the worst period of my life.

Polly Allen Mellen

grunge divorce hate

I think Diana Vreeland recognized the passion and the energy I had. I stayed at Harper's Bazaar for two years, until I met my first husband and moved on to Philadelphia in 1952. But they were incredible years - wonderful, wonderful years. But, anyway, my career sort of took off from there. I was really blessed.

Polly Allen Mellen

passion husband blessed

I loved the masculine style of dressing of Katharine Hepburn, who came from the same town that I came from. I was fascinated by the way she wore trousers. So I think the romanticism of the movies also influenced my life and my interest in fashion greatly.

Polly Allen Mellen

style fashion thinking

Helmut Lang is an amazing man - always striving, always moving forward.

Polly Allen Mellen

moving-forward men moving

They were enormously chic. My father was very chic. My mother was a heavy woman and she wore wonderful, bright colors, and pajamas, but when she was in town or in New York City or in Paris, she would wear navy blue or black. But there was a flamboyance to both of them.

Polly Allen Mellen

black mother father

I thought Fred Astaire was the most chic man. I loved the way he dressed. Never mind his dancing, which was beyond - he was just so elegant and had this freedom of body.

Polly Allen Mellen

dancing mind men

A lot of women say to me, "Polly, why aren't there more clothes out there that we can wear?" And I don't agree with them! There are clothes out there that they can wear - it's just that they don't dare to wear them.

Polly Allen Mellen

agree dare

I think that some people have wonderful spots. I think that Karl Lagerfeld has a wonderful spot designing for Chanel. They really just let him go. I think John Galliano is a huge talent. Marc Jacobs is also a huge talent - and a very interesting one to me.

Polly Allen Mellen

people interesting thinking

I think Alexander McQueen was very, very special. When I went to his first show, I couldn't speak because I was so enthralled. I was saying to myself, "What am I looking at here? What's going on here?" Because, I'm really a loner. I've been a loner for a long time, because I guess I prefer that. For me to get the best out of myself, I have to trust my judgment. And so while watching an Alexander McQueen collection, I would feel isolated. Even though I was surrounded, I would still feel isolated by what I was looking at, if that makes sense.

Polly Allen Mellen

special long thinking

I think that there are people who go to the best stores, and they have money, so money is no object, but they can't find a pretty dress - and I think that's their problem because the dresses are out there somewhere. So I think the answers to these questions lie somewhere in there.

Polly Allen Mellen

lying people thinking

I do think there is a lack of modernity at the moment - and I don't even like that word, modernity, anymore. There aren't enough designers today anyway - there are more stylists.

Polly Allen Mellen

moments today thinking

There are certain people who hang onto nostalgia and I wish they wouldn't. I wish the young beautiful actresses and other people - I wish they would not hark back to clothes that look more like they've dressed in their mother's clothes.

Polly Allen Mellen

wish beautiful people