Diane von Furstenberg has described turning 80 as the beginning of “my last act”, reflecting on her career, relationships and legacy during an interview in Venice.
The designer, who spends about five months of the year in the Italian city, said: “It’s my stage. It’s where I think.” She will reach 80 on New Year’s Eve and said she was “very sensitive about mortality”.
Von Furstenberg became one of fashion’s best-known names in the 1970s after creating the wrap dress, a comfortable and affordable design inspired by the tops worn by ballerinas.
The wrap dress that made Diane von Furstenberg famous
The dress was launched in 1974 after von Furstenberg saw Julie Eisenhower, the daughter of former US president Richard Nixon, wearing one of her wrap tops with a skirt while watching news coverage of Watergate.
“And oh my God, she’s wearing my little wrap top with a skirt in a snake print. And that’s when I thought, Oh, you know what? We should turn it into a dress.”
She sold one million wrap dresses by 1976. At 29, she appeared on the cover of Newsweek, which described her as “the most marketable female in fashion since Coco Chanel”.
Von Furstenberg said she had once grown tired of being asked about the garment because she had worked on many other projects. “I’d say, the wrap dress? Enough already. I’ve done so many more,” she recalled.
She was born Diane Simone Michele Halfin in Brussels on New Year’s Eve in 1946. Her mother was a Holocaust survivor who weighed about 49 pounds when she was liberated from a death camp.
Her mother later told her: “God saved me so I could give you life. By giving you life, you gave me mine back.”
Before becoming a leading figure in fashion, von Furstenberg married Egon von Furstenberg, a German-Italian prince. They had two children, although the marriage did not last.
She has spoken openly about her relationships, including brief romances with Richard Gere, Warren Beatty and Ryan O’Neal. She also recalled falling in love with a girl when she was young, at a time when sexual fluidity was rarely discussed publicly.
In 2001, she married media executive Barry Diller. She said she had never viewed Diller’s attraction to men, which he later discussed in a memoir, as conflicting with their relationship.
“When I met Barry, he was this hot guy. Magic happened. And it was passion. It was not something that I expected, at all,” she said.
Von Furstenberg described Diller as her “soulmate” and “companion of life”, adding: “He’s everything.”
A new chapter for the DVF brand
The business bearing her name has experienced financial difficulties over the years but remains in existence. Von Furstenberg remains close to the company, while a new generation leads its creative direction.
Her focus has increasingly turned to what she will leave behind, including the annual DVF Awards, which were held in Venice last week. Now in their 17th year, the awards recognise women seeking to change the world, including actress and activist Jane Fonda and Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer Lynsey Addario.
Looking ahead, von Furstenberg said: “I think that right now I am starting my last act. I hope it won’t be too short of an act, but it’s definitely my last act – the winter of my life.”
Asked how she would like to be remembered, she replied: “As somebody who loved life and tried to honor it in every way.”
