Diane Lynne Naegel

Cincinnati native Diane Lynne Naegel was a contemporary woman with an eclectic love of people, the Jazz Age and burlesque.

A fashion designer in New York City, she was an entrepreneur, magazine publisher and started a popular monthly social club called the Wits End Jazz Age with her fiancé Don Spiro, a professional photographer in New York.

Ms. Naegel died Sept. 25 from complications from breast cancer. She was 31.

"She could do everything, and do it well," said Spiro, who shared Ms. Naegel's interest in fashion and burlesque.

"She loved the vintage scene. She loved the style, the clothing and music," said Spiro. "What a lot of people don't know was that she was also very contemporary. She loved the punk scene too. But everybody was doing it. She got into the Jazz Age when nobody else was doing it regularly."

New York events producer Shien Lee, who met Ms. Naegel shortly after she moved to New York about a decade ago, said, "She loved the romance, elegance and music of the era. We used to watch old movies a lot."

"Diane was strikingly beautiful, stylish and smart," said Kate Manning, a New York Jazz Age singer who performed at frequent events put on by Wits End, which met monthly at the Flute Bar, a former speakeasy in Midtown Manhattan.

The daughter of attorney Mark R. Naegel and Sarita Naegel, a fashion instructor at the University of Cincinnati, Ms. Naegel graduated from St. Ursula Academy with honors in 1998 and the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning with a bachelor's degree in fashion design in 2003.

Margaret Voelker-Ferrier, coordinator of fashion design at DAAP, said Ms. Naegel bore a strong resemblance to 1920s flapper Louise Brooks with her short hair, big eyes and high cheek bones. "She looked beautiful and fit the era," she said.

"I knew Diane was destined to be an accessory designer when, in her sophomore year, she made tiaras from old computer keyboards and showed them with her children's wear project. I told her then that accessories were her thing," recalled Ann Firestone, UC fashion instructor.

Even before graduation from DAAP, Ms. Naegel, who took up knitting, started an online custom knit scarf business called Lulette.com.

After moving to New York, she spent a year with the Gap's international division designing children's accessories and then worked for OshKosh B'gosh as a children's designer.

Ms. Naegel's interest in burlesque grew out of her love of old fashion said Jen Zakrzewski, her former roommate in New York and a burlesque performer herself.

"She was very social and could talk to anybody about anything," said Zakrzewski. "She enjoyed getting to know different types of people. She was especially interested in people who were involved in something she didn't know a lot about."

In 2009 she started and edited Zelda: Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau.

Named after author F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda, the bi-annual publication featured interviews with the last surviving Ziegfeld girl, articles about personalities such as Clara Bow, the "It" girl, and lifestyle features such as shaving with a straight razor and how to wear and care for vintage clothing.

Manning said the magazine and its vintage nouveau theme really captured the essence of the growing Jazz Age scene in New York.

"Diane really gave it a name," she said.

The Wit's End Club also began in 2009 and paired with the Art Deco Society and the Museum of the City of New York for several major events such as a vintage Fourth of July event at New York's Empire Hotel.

"She lived more life in her short time than most people do in 80 or 90 years," said Voelker-Ferrier.

Besides her parents, and finance, Ms. Naegel is survived by a brother, Mark R. Naegel Jr. of Westwood.

Memorials may be made to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Evelyn Lauder Breast Center, 1275 York Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10065; and Trinity Lutheran Church, 31-18 37th Ct., Long Island City, New York, NY 11103.

A celebration of Ms. Naegel's life will be 6-9 p.m. Thursday at the DePaul-Crisco Rey High School gymnasium, 1133 Clifton Hills Ave.

Written by Mike Boyer | mboyer@enquirer.com