VON FURSTENBERG, DIANE

DIANE VON FÜRSTENBERG, THE STORY OF A FASHION VISIONARY

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Diane Von Fürstenberg, born as Diane Simone Michelle Halfin, is a Belgian designer, founder of the homonymous fashion house. She became famous in the seventies for her “wrap dresses”: jersey dresses and dressing gowns that will drive America crazy.

She was born in Brussels in 1945 to a Jewish family of Russian and Greek origin. Her background in economics will lead her to travel around Europe where she will train in several schools in Spain, France and Switzerland.

In Geneva she will find love and her first husband, Prince Eduard Egon von Fürstenberg, whom she will marry in 1969 at the age of 24 and with whom she will have two children. The same year the couple will move to the USA where Diane will radically change her life. You frequent the international jet set and American high society assiduously; inserted in the environment, she will begin to become familiar with the world of fashion and consequently to draw inspiration to design clothes.

Portrait of Diane

FIRST COLLECTION OF 1970 AND THE DIVORCE FROM HER HUSBAND

Encouraged by many influential people, including Diana Vreeland, then director of Vogue America, she presented her first collection at the Gotham Hotel in New York City in 1970.

The same year, after just two of marriage, she will divorce. Without the financial support of her husband, she will be able to start the promising business only thanks to the help of her friend Richard Conrad and a loan of 30,000 dollars from her father.

However, the money will be scarce and in the absence of budget to pay a model she will lend her image for the first advertising campaign with the slogan: “Feel like a woman, wear a dress”.

The poster will enter the history of costume due to the dress worn that will become a symbol of an era, destined to sell millions of copies throughout the United States and for the image of Diane elected as a modern icon of freedom.

COSMETICI DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

Make them the first lines of cosmetics and fragrances, such as Tatiana, named after her daughter and, in 1979, the mantra-book  Diane Von Furstenberg’s Book of Beauty . In the 1980s, her cosmetics and perfumes were at the top of the sales, however a careful management of the 20 licenses required that the cosmetics branch be sold to the English Beecham Group. In the meantime, she opens her own boutique on Fifth Avenue, where the Diane collection is on sale, immortalized by the lens of the great photographer Helmut Newton .

Diane immortalized in Studio 54 in New York

LA LINEA “WRAP DRESS”

The line of “wrap dresses”, “wallet” dresses, revolutionary in their unique cut without zip or buttons, knew how to perfectly interpret the taste and desire for practicality of women.

Made of silk jersey, with imaginative prints, sometimes animalier and motifs also designed by his friend Andy Warhol, the “ wrap dresses ” become an indispensable item in the women’s wardrobe that enhances feminine curves. Diane von Furstenberg will thus position herself as a creative and revolutionary entrepreneur who will dress a practical and self-confident woman.

Things will change in the 1980s when the business begins to falter.

The brand was produced under many licenses and Diane felt she had lost creative control, ending up not recognizing herself in what was her company anymore. She will return to Europe for a few years, after which she will get throat cancer; she for ten years she will disappear from the scene.

THE NINETIES

In the nineties, cured of cancer, she decides it is time to return. Stronger than before, Diane takes over the reins of the company by opening her new operational base in the heart of Manhattan’s Meatpacking district. At the time an off-limits and little-frequented area, today one of the trendiest neighborhoods of the big apple. She will renew the brand, reducing it to the three letters DvF, and will appeal to an increasingly young audience that in the meantime rediscovers her creations in vintage shops, bringing back the signature.

Jerry Hall. Abito in jersey. 1973

THE RETURN TO THE CATWALK OF DIANE VON FÜRSTENBERG

In 2008 it was staged in Florence, as part of the Pitti Immagine events with the pre-Spring Summer 2008-’09 Cruise Collection fashion show. For F / W 2010-11, Diane subscribes to her strong conception of femininity. Notably, in the delicate masculine-feminine contrasts, including tailored suits with calf-length skinny pants, structured black blazers with leather inserts and deconstructed floral chiffon dresses.

Soft blouses, boleroos with chiffon roses, long evening dresses and sequin minidresses, lamé, bite drapes and flounces for skirts. A collection with metallic tones, ranging from gray palettes, to white to black, passing through multicolor.

YVAN MISPELAERE, THE NEW CREATIVE DIRECTOR

In 2010 Yvan Mispelaere, a French designer with a past from Prada, Gucci and Valentino , becomes the new designer of the brand. He perfectly maintains the taste and the line of the brand. Mixing sophisticated femininity with sport-chic, with fluid shapes, soft drapes, shorts, bermuda shorts, deconstructed skirts and blazers in shades of tobacco, beige, sand, yellow or lilac, in silk, canvas or jersey. Followed by collections made of straight tunics, leather nails and fluid knee-length sheath dresses, boots, hats, the wrap dress is revived in the evening version.

Diane built a fashion empire in her twenties. Consequently, relaunched it at fifty. Now she’s laying the groundwork for when she wants to do something else.

Since 2001 Diane has remarried to the American entrepreneur Barry Diller and since 2006 has held the position of president of the Council of Fashion Designers o America (she will be ousted by Tom Ford in 2019).

In 2010 Diane launched her first fragrance on the market. Returning to her first and true love, the beauty world that made her debut in 1975. The perfume is joined by a line of cosmetics that will be sold starting in 2011. Five years later, in 2015, Paolo Riva (former vice president of clothing and merchandising of Tory Burch) was appointed CEO of the brand. The goal is to strengthen the retailer network. The CEO will leave his position in 2016.

JONATHAN SAUNDERS AND THE CRISIS

Queen of fashion abdicates in favor of the young Jonathan Saunders in 2016. The designer, who in 2015 closes his eponymous label launched in 2003. He will fill the role for only two seasons, leaving the creative direction of the brand, in 2017 and presenting the latest pre-fall 2018 collection.

COVID-19 pandemic also marks a serious setback for DFV. Crisis of 2020 leads the brand to cut 75% of employees, or 400 employees. A disastrous situation made even more serious by the departure of Sandra Campos, CEO since 2018, and of the vice president of production, Holliday Hofstatter. Added to this is the absence of solid creative guidance (with a probable return of Nathan Jenden who left his position in 2018). According to Business of Fashion, the label is preparing to close 18 of its 19 single-brand stores. Moreover, they hope to be able to sell part of her company after the stalemate with the Gabby Hirata group. The head of the Asia-Pacific air, and the European one.

In September 2020, despite the crisis, H&M announces a capsule collection with the brand, for the creation of some furnishing accessories such as vases, cushions, blankets and candles with abstract designs, objects with animal designs, shape of lips and with the Diane logo von Furstenberg.

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