Diane von Furstenberg's Best Quotes About Life, Love, and Fashion

Harper's Bazaar

December 13, 2021 at 12:53 p.m.

Diane von Furstenberg's Best Quotes About Life, Love, and Fashion

2) "Usually, the fairy tale ends with the girl marrying the prince. But mine started as soon as the marriage was over."

3) "Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good."

4) "Fashion can be this mysterious thing that you can't explain."

5) "I've been working seriously in giving fashion a place that it deserves."

6) "I wanted to be an empowered woman, and I became an empowered woman. And now I want to empower every woman. And I do it through my clothes, I do it through my words, I do it through my money, I do it through everything."

7) "I always wanted to be a femme fatale. Even when I was a young girl, I never really wanted to be a girl. I wanted to be a woman."

8) "I had good legs, and I loved showing them off."

9) "My best friend is me, and I take good care of me."

10) "I don't like to talk about my dreams. I like to make them happen. I prefer to talk about them when they're done."

11) "Beauty is perfect in its imperfections. So you just have to go with the imperfections."

12) "I was 26 when I invented the wrap dress. It was just a nothing little printed dress made out of a jersey, and before I know it, I lived an American Dream making more than 25,000 dresses a week."

13) "I design for the woman who loves being a woman."

14) "The most important relationship in your life is with yourself. Because no matter what happens you will always be yourself."

15) "I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay her bill, a woman who could run her own life—and I became that woman."

16) "I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are."

17) "My favorite days are the ones where I deal only with my own team, design, marketing, working on the next accessories collection."

18) "I never knew what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be."

19) "The idea of being able to go into Studio 54 alone is what thrilled me the most: again, a man's life in a woman's body."

20) "I was lucky because I got so successful so early, and when you get successful early, then you can afford to be a little bit humble."

21) "I've always been inspired by women, and my mission was to inspire women. I always wanted to become a certain kind of woman, and I became that woman through fashion. It was a dialogue. I would see that the wrap dress made those women confident, and made them act with confidence."

22) "Passion and persistence are what matter. Dreams are achievable and you can make your fantasy come true, but there are no shortcuts. Nothing happens without hard work."

24) "You need, in your closet, clothes that you can use in many different ways. Clothes that make you feel comfortable, clothes that make you feel 'you.'"

25) "My mother never, ever told me about evilness. She only saw the beautiful things...she wanted to protect me from it."

26) "I was lucky enough to have it all. To be successful in business, to have children, to raise them on my own, and to travel and live my life. It was a lot of work, but it's a privilege to have been able to do it."

27) "My face carries all my memories. Why would I erase them?"

28) "Use your brains, your common sense, and do not become an object. The way you look is important, but who you are and how you project it is eventually who you will become and how you will appear."

29) "Do I believe in reincarnation? Well, let's say that I believe in karma. I think you make your own karma."

31) "There's design, and there's art. Good design is total harmony. There's no better designer than nature - if you look at a branch or a leaf, it's perfect. It's all function. Art is different. It's about emotion. It's about suffering and beauty—but mostly suffering!"

32) "I can honestly say that I understand women very well. If you understand yourself, you understand women, because, in the end, all women are the same."

33) "My definition of beauty is strength and personality."

34) "The biggest mistake a woman can make is not to be herself in public or private."

35) "Animals come from nature. They were not designed. All my inspiration comes from nature, whether it's an animal or the layout of bark or of a leaf. Sometimes my patterns are very bold, and you can barely see where they come from, but all the textures and all the prints come out of nature."

36) "The most important thing is to be healthy, to drink a lot of water, to fight gravity as much as possible. I am one of the few people who decided I wasn't going to do any invasion with my face."

37) "Women are strong. We can do it all. But not always at the same time."

38) "Simplicity and sexiness, that’s all people want. At a price that’s not outrageous."

39) "Clarity is the most important thing. I can compare clarity to pruning in gardening. You know, you need to be clear. If you are not clear, nothing is going to happen. You have to be clear. Then you have to be confident about your vision. And after that, you just have to put a lot of work in."

40) "The way I design generally is very much travel-oriented because that is my life. That's why I make clothes that are so light and so easy to pack and a little bit seasonless."

41) "The wrap dress is the most traditional form of dressing: It's like a robe, it's like a kimono, it's like a toga. It doesn't have buttons or zippers. What made it different was that it was jersey; therefore, it was close to the body and it was a print."

42) "I was terrified the first time that I had a big problem in my business. I was obviously terrified when they diagnosed me with cancer in 1994. I was terrified when my son used to drive too fast. But I do believe in the fact that fear is not an option, so I always try to face it and not be afraid."

43) "I never like to think that I design for a particular person. I design for the woman I wanted to be, the woman I used to be, and—to some degree —the woman I'm still a little piece of."

44) "If you’re not sure what to wear, if you don’t know how everyone else is going to be, then make sure you’re at your most beautiful."

45) "I used the aspects of being a woman to my advantage, but I worked for myself, not a big corporation, so I was lucky to have the freedom to behave however I liked."

46) "I was born in Belgium. I went to school in England and in Switzerland, then I came to America, so I really feel like I am a citizen of the world."

47) "The important thing is to take your time and not get stressed."

48) "My mother said that we're so lucky to be women. It's not that men are weak. Men are men. We're two completely different animals."

49) "What's important to me is to share, and being inspired, and inspiring."

50) "I never modeled myself after anyone. The person who had most influence on me was my mother, but it was really for her strength and courage more than her style, even though she had a lot of style. In a weird way, looking at pictures of me when I was 17 or 18, I was dressing the same way. I haven't changed very much."

51) "Fashion is mysterious, as a rule. Why are blue jeans a classic? You just hit on something that happens to be timeless and right."

52) "I've always liked wrinkles. When I was a young girl, I used to make lines on my face with my nails because I loved Jeanne Moreau. I always wanted to be older; I always added years to my life. For the longest time, if people thought I was older, I would take it as a compliment."

53) "I’ve never met a woman who is not strong, but some don’t let it out. Then there’s a tragedy, and then all of a sudden that strength comes. My message is let the strength come out before the tragedy."

54) "The real story is that I am very free, that I've managed to be who I wanted to be without compromising."

55) "I obviously don't feel under pressure to look young, because I have had no Botox or surgery. I don't judge people who choose to have it, but I don't want to erase who I am."

56) "What I think I sell with my clothes is confidence, so hopefully all my dresses, my accessories, are friends to the women. When you open the closet, and your eyes are swollen, and you don't like the way you look, you go to your friends."

57) "Women inspire me...so I enjoy women's stories and biographies. I am interested in all women."

58) "The older I get, the more impressed I am with women. I have yet to meet a woman who is not strong. They don't exist."

59) "If you're a good person, the goodness will continue through your descendants."

60) "I'm not tired of who I am. That would be sad!"

Diane von Furstenberg's Best Quotes About Life, Love, and Fashion

Diane von Furstenberg is one of the most inspiring fashion designers in the industry. But it wasn't an easy road to becoming the ultimate fashionista and feminist. As the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, she was taught that fear is never an option and put in serious work to build her style empire from scratch. The Belgian-born designer began crafting clothes in 1970, and hasn't looked back since.

As for her personal life, it's just as inspiring as you'd expect. While attending the University of Geneva in Switzerland, she met her first husband, Prince Egon zu Furstenberg. However, after learning royal life wasn't for her, they amicably divorced after three years of marriage—but not before welcoming a son, Prince Alexandre von Furstenberg, and daughter, Princess Tatiana von Furstenberg. She's since found love again and remarried longtime friend Barry Diller in 2001.

And then there's her wrap dress (you know the one). The legendary garment, created by von Furstenberg when she was just 26 years old, was seen as a symbol of liberation in the '70s. The inclusive fit and flattering style was exactly what the fashion industry needed, in a time where empowering women was so important.

To learn more about Diane von Furstenberg's life and her career, check out these inspiring quotes from her.

Erin Combs - Getty Images

Diane von Furstenberg is a fashion icon. Her style, often filled with bold patterns and colors, eventually inspired the famous wrap dress we all know today.

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Diane von Furstenberg's Best Quotes About Life, Love, and Fashion

Diane von Furstenberg's Best Quotes About Life, Love, and Fashion

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