Babe Paley

Diana Vreeland, the editor at Vogue, profiled the freedom quilting bee in her magazine, and the New York Times also covered the bee.

Babe Paley, a socialite who was married to a CBS executive, commissioned the bee to make a 75-foot-long quilt in the chestnut bud pattern for her summer home.

You may not know who Babe Paley is, but you have probably seen an example of her style.

She was the first person to tie a scarf to a handbag.

For this enormous project, Lucy Mingo made sample blocks to show Paley's decorator, a well-known interior designer called Sister Parrish.

Deborah Singer, the curator there, said that the Freedom Quilting Bee changed the quilts into commodities, making them accessible to any American family.

This was patently false.

Babe Paley was quite far from being any American family.

Tabloid culture has changed a lot.

Like, how was everyone knowing about Babe Paley back in the day? I guess the tabloid.

It

was

And that world ceased to exist almost 40 years ago.

That's the world of Jackie Kennedy and Babe Paley.

Now it's the world of Hollywood.

But, you know, the actresses don't generally buy the dresses.

Was it Ryan Murphy? Created a show called the Swans, obviously.

Um, it was based on Babe Paley, Lee Radziwill, a group of ladies in the '60s, super affluent, sup- s- you know, all best friends with Truman Capote, and I'm obsessed with that time, obsessed with that entire story, and Lauren is sort of our modern-day Swan.

She is Babe Paley, Lee Radziwill.

She is that combined.

And before r- Lauren and I left, I ran into her, and she said, "I'm gonna have people over.

There aren't any more socialites.

Babe Paley's dead.

That's it.

Okay.