Diane Von Furstenberg On Her Life In Fashion
'I've been honest about the experience of being a woman since I was 25. I openly spoke the truth about experiences happening to me and other women related to it. Everyone talks about narrative and content now, but I was doing it even before there was social media.
'I'm extremely close with my children and grandchildren. We talk daily, and everyone is very individual. The best gift you can give them is to make them totally independent. I've become very wise, but I always spoke the truth, which was about being free and becoming the woman I really wanted to be.
'I wasn't particularly interested in fashion growing up. My mother was very elegant but she didn't discuss clothes very often.
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'As a young girl in boarding school in England, I loved cashmere jumpers from Jaeger. We would go to London once a term to visit the shops on the King's Road.
'My first real designer piece was a silk shirt from Gucci. But wearing Pucci's silk-jersey dresses had the greatest effect on me. Of course, I also loved wearing clothes by my friends Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino.
'I started my brand in the Seventies – that decade never goes out of style. Every 20 years, girls return to it. When young people tell me that what I stand for is still relevant today, it gives me enormous validation.
'First, it was a little wrap top with a matching skirt, then it became a wrap dress and then, before I knew it, it was a phenomenon. You don't control that.
'My designs take on the personality of the woman. What makes me happy is seeing them on different people. Michelle Obama once chose a wrap dress for her Christmas card, and Amy Winehouse wore the same dress soon after.
'At my age now, I am entering a new era: I'm calling it 'operation legacy'. I realised that I have a very specific place in culture that has lasted. It's about the family and the body of work you've created, but it's also the good that you have done.'
This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue of ELLE.
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