She Inherited a Name. Then Made It Her Own.

Imagine being born with a name the world already knows.

Before you have achieved anything.

Before you have discovered who you are.

Before you have even had the chance to decide what kind of woman you want to become.

Vanderbilt.

For Gloria Vanderbilt, that famous name came with wealth, privilege and extraordinary opportunity.

But it also came with expectation, scrutiny and a childhood played out painfully in public.

She could have spent the rest of her life simply being a Vanderbilt.

She didn’t.

She painted.

She wrote.

She acted.

She designed.

She created beautiful homes.

And then, when many women might have thought the most interesting chapters of their lives were already behind them, Gloria Vanderbilt entered the world of fashion and helped turn women’s designer jeans into a phenomenon.

She took the name she had inherited…

and put her own signature on it.

Literally.

This is The Gloria Vanderbilt Effect.

And it might just be one of the greatest Claiming Life lessons of all:

It doesn’t matter what name, history or circumstances you were handed.

What matters is what you create with them.

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The Little Girl Who Belonged to Everyone

Gloria Laura Vanderbilt was born in New York City in 1924 into one of America’s most famous families.

Her great-great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt had created an enormous fortune through shipping and railroads.

But wealth did not guarantee Gloria an uncomplicated childhood.

Her father died when she was very young, leaving Gloria with a substantial trust fund. Then, at only ten years old, she became the centre of a sensational custody battle between her mother and her paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

Newspapers followed the proceedings obsessively.

A little girl’s family life became public entertainment.

She was labelled the “poor little rich girl.”

Imagine growing up like that.

Everyone knowing your name.

Everyone having an opinion about your life.

Everyone seeing the Vanderbilt before they saw Gloria.

Perhaps that explains something about the woman she became.

Because throughout her long life, Gloria Vanderbilt kept creating.

Again.

And again.

And again.

As though she were continually answering the question:

Who am I when I decide for myself?

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She Was More Than an Heiress

It is easy to reduce Gloria Vanderbilt to money, society and famous relationships.

But that misses the most interesting part of her.

She was profoundly creative.

She studied art.

She painted and exhibited her work.

She designed textiles.

Her artwork found its way onto scarves and household products.

She designed and licensed patterns for linens, china, glassware and other objects for the home.

She wrote memoirs and novels.

She acted.

And she created wonderfully individual interiors.

Gloria understood something that has always been at the heart of Claiming Life:

Your surroundings can become an expression of your inner life.

A home doesn’t merely need to be fashionable.

It can tell your story.

The books you’ve read.

The places you’ve travelled.

The colours that make you happy.

The objects you’ve inherited.

The things you’ve collected.

The life you’ve lived.

Gloria didn’t appear interested in making everything look like everybody else’s idea of good taste.

She created a world that looked like Gloria.

And perhaps that’s the beginning of creating your own effect.

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Then Came the Jeans

This is the part of Gloria’s story I particularly love.

Because her greatest commercial success did not arrive when she was twenty-five.

Or thirty-five.

It came later.

In the 1970s, Gloria Vanderbilt entered the fashion business in earnest.

And then came the jeans.

Working with Murjani, Vanderbilt became associated with a new kind of jean designed specifically to flatter a woman’s body.

And on the back pocket was something wonderfully significant.

Her signature.

Alongside it appeared the Vanderbilt swan.

The jeans became enormously successful and helped turn Gloria Vanderbilt into one of the defining names of the designer-jeans era. Fashion historians regard her as one of the pioneers who helped transform jeans from utilitarian clothing into desirable women’s fashion.

Think about that for a moment.

The little girl whose famous surname had once defined her was now deliberately putting her own signature onto something she had helped create.

That is the Gloria Vanderbilt Effect.

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How Gloria Vanderbilt Claimed Life

Gloria’s life was certainly glamorous.

But it wasn’t protected from pain.

There were marriages and divorces.

Her beloved husband Wyatt Cooper died in 1978.

Then came the unimaginable loss of her son Carter in 1988.

She experienced financial problems later in life as well.

Yet creativity kept appearing throughout her story.

Painting.

Writing.

Making.

Decorating.

Designing.

Starting again.

That is what interests me about Gloria Vanderbilt far more than the fortune.

She kept participating in her own life.

She didn’t decide that one identity had to last forever.

Heiress.

Model.

Actress.

Wife.

Mother.

Artist.

Designer.

Writer.

Businesswoman.

She allowed herself to become many women during one lifetime.

Why shouldn’t we?

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The Gloria Vanderbilt Lesson for the Modern Woman

We live in a world obsessed with beginning young.

The young entrepreneur.

The young designer.

The young influencer.

The young success story.

And sometimes, without even realising it, women begin absorbing the idea that opportunity has an expiry date.

It doesn’t.

Your next extraordinary chapter may begin at 42.

Or 52.

Or 62.

Or 72.

You don’t know.

And that’s rather wonderful.

Gloria Vanderbilt’s fashion success in her fifties reminds us of something enormously important:

You are not late.

You are simply still becoming.

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Stop Allowing Your Past to Introduce You

Perhaps you didn’t inherit a Vanderbilt name.

But we all inherit something.

Expectations.

Family roles.

Mistakes.

Responsibilities.

Other people’s opinions.

Perhaps you’ve spent decades being introduced primarily as someone’s wife.

Someone’s mother.

Someone’s daughter.

Someone’s employee.

Someone’s caregiver.

Those identities can be precious.

But they aren’t necessarily all of you.

Ask yourself:

What would I create if nobody had already decided who I was supposed to be?

Gloria inherited a name.

Then she made that name mean something different.

You can do the same with your own life.

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Put Your Signature Somewhere

No, I don’t mean literally embroider your name across your bottom.

Although Gloria managed to make that rather fabulous.

I mean:

Make something unmistakably yours.

Write the book.

Create the garden.

Start the business.

Redecorate the room.

Learn photography.

Make the dress.

Start painting.

Take the trip.

Begin the blog.

Cook the dinner and invite everyone you love.

Create something that wasn’t here before you made it.

It doesn’t have to make millions.

It doesn’t have to impress anyone.

It simply has to contain a little of you.

That is your signature.

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Create Your Own Gloria Vanderbilt Effect

Start with one question:

What part of me have I not explored yet?

Perhaps you’ve always wanted to paint.

Paint.

Perhaps you secretly love fashion.

Wear it.

Perhaps you want your home filled with pattern and colour when everyone else is decorating in beige.

Do it.

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about starting something and telling yourself you’re too old.

Stop.

The Gloria Vanderbilt Effect isn’t about becoming a Vanderbilt.

It’s about refusing to believe that the woman you’ve already been is the only woman you’re allowed to become.

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Wear Your Own Name

And now we arrive at the perfect little symbol of Gloria’s story.

The jeans.

There was her signature on the pocket.

Not simply the Vanderbilt dynasty.

Gloria Vanderbilt.

Her name.

Her creation.

Her chapter.

And remarkably, decades later, women can still buy clothing carrying the Gloria Vanderbilt name.

So perhaps there is something rather lovely about owning a little piece of that story.

Not because wearing Gloria Vanderbilt jeans will transform your life.

Of course it won’t.

But because sometimes an object can remind us of an idea.

And this one says:

Put your own signature on your life.

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Walk in Her Shoes — The Gloria Vanderbilt Edit

Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans

The most obvious place to begin.

A piece of everyday fashion connected directly to the chapter that transformed Gloria Vanderbilt from famous heiress into a major commercial fashion name.

→ Discover Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans

Gloria Vanderbilt Fragrance

A wonderfully nostalgic addition to the dressing table and an easy, glamorous gift.

→ Discover Gloria Vanderbilt Fragrance

The Rainbow Comes and Goes

Gloria Vanderbilt and her son Anderson Cooper’s intimate conversations about love, family, loss and life.

This isn’t simply a coffee-table accessory.

It takes us behind the Vanderbilt name and into the woman herself.

→ Read Gloria’s Story

A Vanderbilt or Gilded Age Coffee-Table Book

For the woman fascinated by beautiful houses, extraordinary families, old New York and the vanished world into which Gloria was born.

→ Step Into the Vanderbilt World

[AMAZON AFFILIATE LINKS GO HERE]

As an Amazon Associate, Claiming Life may earn from qualifying purchases. This doesn’t change the price you pay.

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At Christmas — Give Her a Signature

This Christmas, perhaps we don’t need another generic gift guide.

Perhaps we ask a different question.

What does this woman love?

Is she creative?

Is she reinventing herself?

Does she love fashion?

Does she adore old houses and family histories?

Has she quietly begun another chapter of her own?

Then give her something with a story attached.

A beautiful book.

A fragrance.

A pair of jeans she’ll actually wear.

Something that reminds her:

There is still more of you to discover.

For the woman whose best chapter may not have happened yet.

→ Discover the Gloria Vanderbilt Gift Edit

And when Christmas is over, the section simply becomes:

A Gift for the Woman You’re Becoming

Because reinvention isn’t seasonal.

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Do You Wish to Walk in the Shoes of Gloria Vanderbilt?

Then don’t begin with the money.

Don’t begin with the mansions.

And don’t begin with the famous surname.

Begin with curiosity.

Make something.

Change something.

Try something you’ve never done before.

Surround yourself with things that tell your story rather than somebody else’s.

And above all, stop assuming you’ve already met every version of yourself.

You haven’t.

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She Created Her Effect. Now Create Yours.

Gloria Vanderbilt was born into a legacy.

But she didn’t simply live inside it.

She created.

She painted.

She wrote.

She designed.

She loved.

She lost.

She began again.

And in one of the most wonderfully literal metaphors imaginable, she eventually put her own signature on the clothes she created.

You don’t need her fortune.

You don’t need her famous family.

You don’t need her life.

Take the lesson.

Take the creativity.

Take the willingness to begin another chapter.

And put your own signature somewhere.

Because Gloria Vanderbilt created The Gloria Vanderbilt Effect.

The question is — what will yours be?

Upward, always.

Amanda Scully
Claiming Life