Diane Von Furstenberg
Fashion can have a real influence on culture and Diane Von Furstenberg is a perfect example. With her ground breaking "wrap dresses", Furstenberg became a star designer. She has gone on to enjoy a successful perfume launch and many successful designer lines.
Born Diane Simone Michelle Halfin, on December 31, 1945 in Brussels, Belgium.
Now known as, Diane Von Furstenberg, after her marriage to Austro-Italian Prince Egon of Furstenberg whom she met while studying economics at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The couple moved to New York City in 1969 where son Alexandre and daughter Tatiana were born. Divorced shortly after the birth of her second child, Furstenberg decided to start her own business, entering the U.S. clothing market selling knit dresses. As a designer, she uses von with her name instead of the proper zu used with the Fürstenberg titles.
Diane quickly established herself as a designer and entrepreneur who created one of the world's most recognizable fashion labels. She landed on the fashion scene in 1972 with a simple, yet radical, credo: "Feel like a woman. Wear a dress. “responding to a void in American fashion she introduced the "wrap dress" in 1973 which bolted her into stardom. Due to the important influence of Von Furstenberg’s “wrap dress” on women's fashion, it is on display at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 1976, five million wrap dresses later, Diane Von Furstenberg graced the cover of Newsweek and was touted as the most marketable designer since Coco Chanel - and the newest icon for liberated women.
Furstenberg ventured into all parts of the market, and started a number of successful businesses including the perfume industry with the creation of the light, romantic fragrance Tatiana, named for her young daughter in 1975, the Style for Living collection of home furnishings in 1977, and a cosmetics line. Furstenberg was ranked among the “Top 10 U.S. Businesses Run by Women" in Savvy magazine's annual survey.
Moving to Paris in 1985, Von Furstenberg concentrated on her French-language publishing house, Salvy. In 1989, she found out that her products had sold over $1 billion dollars in the 1980’s.
Come early 1990s, Furstenberg returns to the United States and ventures into the home-shopping business, which prompted her re-entrance into the fashion scene in 1992, with a television shopping channel she named “Silk Assets.” Its debut collection sold out in less than two hours. In 1993, Diane Von Furstenberg also becomes a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine.
Furstenberg re-launched her clothing in 1997 along with a full sportswear line with the help of Alexandra, her daughter-in-law. And due to its great success, it has been expanding to cities like L.A. and Paris. She was one of the first designers to make affordable clothing. Today, however, when “mass consumers have recognized the value of design” she says, and major designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney are designing for stores like H&M, which she believes is just “a way for designers to make a little money,” Furstenberg has chosen to narrow her distribution to just the best stores around the world. In 1998 she published her memoirs "DIANE: A Signature Life."
In 2001, she married American media mogul Barry Diller, and the following year she became a naturalized U.S. citizen. By 2005, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awarded her a lifetime achievement award. And in 2006, she was the council. “I want to make the membership very exciting,” she pronounces her new plans for the future of the CFDA, “it’s all about the members. I want to create a true fraternity and support system for the members. I would like to turn it into a huge, massive great network.”
Keeping busy in 2006, she appeared as a judge on several episodes of Heidi Kulm’s Bravo reality television program Project Runway which she thinks is a nice, professional show. “It’s for the public, and it gives you a good insight into what you have to do,” she says, “and for the candidates it gives them exposure.” She has also teamed up with T-Mobile to design her own Limited Edition Sidekick 3, which is currently in stores.
In a recent interview with Newsweek, Furstenberg was asked why she thinks that fashion matter in such a troubled world. Her answer? “Fashion is a very mysterious thing, and it is very much a reflection of people. We are living in such a troubled world that fashion seems completely irrelevant. Yet, it’s a huge industry. It provides jobs to a lot of people, and it makes people happy. But it’s a very, very mysterious thing. Why all of sudden do people like yellow? Why all of a sudden do people wear combat boots? It’s a very interesting way of interpreting your time, your period.”
Furstenberg: “I am getting older. [She is now 61]. The good thing, as far as my work is concerned, is that the older I get, the younger my brand gets. My customers are getting younger and younger as I get older and older. The only two disadvantages are that you have less time ahead of you and that physically you don’t look that good. But everything else is better.”
Diane splits her time between New York, where she creates a line of high-end women's apparel which is only offered in the most elite stores such as Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus, Paris, L.A. and her home in Connecticut for she is always on the go, gathering inspiration for ventures as eclectic as she is.
“The best advice is to pay attention and to be focused on what you do, to do it with your heart, and to make sure that the product is at the right price. It really is a work in progress, just day after day after day. You don’t sit on it. You can never sit on it. It’s one big dream and lots of little steps.”
Her driving force: “Life is a risk.”