Icons of Style Series

Vreeland's very appearance reflected her mantra that beauty could sometimes be strange and even alarming.

MacGrawn originally began her career in fashion, working at one point as an assistant to legendary editor Diana Vreeland. Perhaps this influenced her wonderfully innovative approach to dressing.

Ms. Head's snippets of advice and witticisms were as closely heeded as those attributed to Coco Chanel, and they remain relevant today: "You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it."

Unlike our other style icons, Casati had her true heyday before World War I -- yet her occult-ish look continues to inspire history-minded fashion insiders generations later.

Today we pay our respects to the great Nancy Cunard, a heiress, activist, and provocateur who shunned a spoiled existence to wage war on the racist attitudes of her generation.

Contemporary audiences will immediately notice how comparatively mature Parker appears compared to today's supermodels. Aesthetics were very different in Parker's day: women strived to look sophisticated, rather than half their age.

Marlene Dietrich is one of my personal heroines. The epitome of Old Hollywood glamour, Dietrich also exuded sex appeal - and yet never veered into crassness. Mystery and subtext were Dietrich's forms of currency; today's bare-all stars could take a lesson or two from her.

This lavishly creative designer was once as revered and famous as Coco Chanel, who referred to her rival as "that Italian artist who makes clothes." Schiaparelli collaborated on pieces and collections with artists Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, and Alberto Giacometti.

Over the next two weeks, you will become reacquainted with some of the twentieth century's seminal tastemakers, designers, and muses -- many of whom are now unjustly fading from public memory.

*Scroll down for the full slideshow* In 2007, we launched on this site ...