Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt passed away on Monday at home in New York City at 95. An artist, socialite and heiress, among other things Vanderbilt crafted designer jeans so popular that they built her a $100 million empire.
Vanderbilt led a wildly eventful life. She became a millionaire as an infant when she inherited a $2.5 million trust fund ($37 million in 2019), which she used to build her eponymous fashion brand, which started in denim and branched into fragrances, outerwear, and more.
She was often called a “poor little rich girl” by the press. Her alcoholic father, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, died when she was a baby, after blowing through his own $25 million inheritance.
Her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, left her with a nanny while she traveled and caroused, using her daughter’s trust fund to support her jet set lifestyle.
A young Gloria ended up living with her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (the Whitney Museum is named after her late husband), but only after an intense custody battle.
When she left school at 17 after dropping out, she went to Beverly Hills to spend time - and party - with her mother.
The socialite had an impressive list of lovers, said to include Errol Flynn, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Howard Hughes and Marlon Brando. Her friendship circle was equally envy-inducing, including Charlie Chaplin, Diane von Furstenberg and Truman Capote (Audrey Hepburn’s iconic character Holly Golightly is said to be based on her). Little Orphan Annie was even said to share similarities.
Now, her legacy lives on. She penned multiple memoirs about her life and loves, and her son, Anderson Cooper of CNN, commemorated her by saying, “Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman who loved life and lived it on her own terms.”
To honor the iconic socialite, designer and original “It” Girl, Insider has compiled some of her most famous quotes.
On love: “I’m always in love. If it’s not with a man, it’s something else. I love beauty. I love the sky I see outside your window. There’s so much beauty in the world.”
On the LGBTQ+ community: “It has nothing to do with whether it’s two men or two women, it’s love. And it’s just like being married, it’s what it is.”
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On grief and the suicide of her son Carter: “Some people…who knew Carter will start to talk about him and then say, ‘Oh I’m sorry.’ And I say, ‘No, I love to talk about him. More, more more.’ Because that brings him alive and it brings him closer and it means that he hasn’t been forgotten.”
On money: “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 site of this. Take time and be certain you place your trust in those whose interests and goals mirror your own.”
On female empowerment: “I've always believed that one woman's success can only help another woman's success.”
On optimism: “I like the idea of showing that you can go through a lot and still be on your feet, still be working, and still be positive about life. And that you can still think that the best thing is around the corner, which I really do. I think something wonderful is going to happen to me. Maybe tomorrow. The phone can ring and your whole life can change.”
On life: “Death is the price you paid for being born.”
On hope: "You must always have great, secret, big fat hopes for yourself in love and in life. The bigger, the better.”
On surviving: “I had an image of myself that at my core there was a rock-hard diamond that nothing could get at, nothing could crack.”
On sex: "Sex was something that really saved me. I mean, it gave me a sense of self. I had very low self-esteem. No confidence at all. And the minute boys came into the picture, it absolutely changed my life."
On fame: “The craving to be famous is like an insidious disease, no matter how well known you become it's never enough, it never satisfies.”
On supporting others: “We are not put on this earth to see through one another. We are put on this earth to see one another through.”
