Longevity is thankfully becoming more important than novelty âElegancy is refusalâ: Diana Vreeland in New York in 1974. Photograph: New York Times Co./Getty Images âElegancy is refusalâ: Diana Vreeland in New York in 1974. Photograph: New York Times Co./Getty Images Sun 4 Apr 2021 02.45 EDT Last modified on Sun 4 Apr 2021 03.12 EDT The problem with a lot of fashion writing is that it is just a shopping list fleshed out with adjectives. Its engine, noisy and restless, is acquisition. It couldnât give a damn that the single most precious item in your wardrobe is not the modish dress on which you lavished far too much cash only the other week, but the square-cut shirt with a jungly pattern and buttons the size of dinner plates that your granny stitched for your mother in the 1950s.