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Bio

Diane von Furstenberg first entered the fashion world in 1972 with a suitcase full of jersey dresses. Two years later, she created the wrap dress, which came to symbolize power and independence for an entire generation of women. By 1976, she had sold over a million of the dresses and was featured on the cover of Newsweek. After a hiatus from fashion, Diane re-launched the iconic dress that started it all in 1997, reestablishing her company as the global luxury lifestyle brand that it is today. DVF is now sold in over 55 countries.

In 2005, Diane received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) for her impact on fashion, and one year later was elected the CFDA’s president, an office she continues to hold. She also serves on the board of Culture Shed, the new center for artistic and cultural innovation in New York City. In 2012, Diane was named the most powerful woman in fashion by Forbes Magazine. In 2014, she published a memoir, The Woman I Wanted to Be.

Portrait by Thomas Whiteside

Q&A

Why do you dress the way you do?

Design Museum

For me, fashion has always been a form of expression. I dress to reflect my mood, my state of mind, the woman I am.

Diane von Furstenberg

What is your basic 'look’?

Design Museum

I love print and colour, and it has to be practical. It has to be effortless, sexy and on the go!

Diane von Furstenberg

Do you have a preference for particular shapes, colours, fabrics or textures?

Design Museum

I like simple silhouettes with an unexpected twist. It is all about the yin and the yang - bold prints, bright colours. Silk jersey is the best fabric because it moves with a woman’s body and it doesn’t wrinkle.

Diane von Furstenberg

When did you become aware of fashion?

Design Museum

As a little girl in Belgium, I never wanted to be a little girl. I always wanted to be a woman, and I think fashion played a role in that. But I wasn’t really exposed to the real world of fashion until my early twenties when I moved to Paris and worked as the assistant to a photographer’s agent - it was all very glamorous and exciting.

Diane von Furstenberg

What are you specifically doing for women in terms of the clothes suggestions you make in your collections?

Design Museum

I am inspired by women and I design to inspire women - to empower them to be the woman they want to be.

Diane von Furstenberg

How do you want women to feel when they wear your designs?

Design Museum

I want women to feel confident and sexy, like the best version of themselves.

Diane von Furstenberg

Does fashion empower you? What outfit would most empower you and why?

Design Museum

Absolutely. Fashion empowered me quite literally as it was the success of the wrap dress that paid all of my bills and gave me my independence. It enabled me to become the woman I wanted to be and so I have tried to use fashion to do the same for other women. But it can also happen in a smaller way, when you put on the perfect dress or if you are having a bad day and you go to your closet and find a friend, and suddenly you feel beautiful and confident. I want my designs to be that friend.

Diane von Furstenberg

What does fashion in the future need to do to help women / to empower them?

Design Museum

Fashion is one of many ways that a woman expresses herself, so in a way fashion gives women a voice and it helps them discover who they are and stay true that. And that is so important!

Diane von Furstenberg

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