Diane Von Furstenberg's Design Signatures
Celebrate the designer's 75th birthday by remembering some of her sartorial hallmarks.
In 1969, a young Diane Halfin married Prince Egon Von Furstenberg of Germany, solidifying herself as a member of the European aristocracy. Now and forever known as Diane Von Furstenberg, even after her divorce in 1983, the designer leveraged her status and influence to create a fashion legacy that reshaped women's fashion and made her a household name.
Despite her royal status, Von Furstenberg continued to pursue a career in fashion as a form of independence. She had previously worked as an assistant to a fashion photographer and held an apprenticeship with textile manufacturer Angelo Ferretti. In the early '70s, the Belgian-born designer met with fashion legend Diana Vreeland who praised her designs, thus helping her land a spot on the New York Fashion Week calendar in 1973.
Soon, she launched her now-ubiquitous creation: the jersey wrap dress. The style combined comfort with the casual luxury of '70s-era clothing. After its debut, Von Furstenberg's innovative thinking prompted comparisons to earlier fashion greats like Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli.
After more than four decades in the fashion industry, Von Furstenberg's work has been featured across magazines, red carpet, and most fashionable closets around the world. In honor of her 75th birthday, L'OFFICIEL celebrates some of her most eye-catching design aesthetics.
Wrap Dress
Easily one of her most recognizable creations, the jersey wrap dress revolutionized womenswear when it came to fame in 1974. While the silhouette was already a common style in American fashion, the garment capitalized on the popularity of sportswear by employing jersey to give it a more elastic and curve-hugging look.
Though the dress can be seen as the answer to cries for more accessible ready-to-wear fashion as an influx of women joined the workforce, Von Furstenberg's playful remark to an interviewer in the 1980s suggests that her design was more of a response to the growing conversation about women's sexual independence. She said, "Well, if you're trying to slip out without waking a sleeping man, zips are a nightmare."
Flagship Prints
Like many '70s designers, Von Furstenberg had a knack for color, but, more importantly, she excelled at patterns. Throughout her career, she has cultivated over 15,000 prints in her archives, denoting a level of expertise that can be traced back to her early apprenticeship under Ferretti. However, there are six specific patterns, known as the Six Sisters, that the designer adopted as hallmarks of her brand's identity: Twiggs, Cubes, Chainlink, Leopard, Python, and the graphic Signature.
Mesh
Similar to her use of jersey for her wrap dress, Von Furstenberg's penchant for mesh allows her designs to highlight a women's figure in a sensual way without falling into the risqué. The continuation of '70s style with fabrics that appeal to the modern customer has allowed her business to thrive despite the changes in trends.
Leopard Print
As mentioned, Von Furstenberg knows prints. And while her signature Leopard print is one of the Six Sisters, its frequency in her designs deserves special attention. Maybe its a result of her friendship with Vreeland, who was known for her leopard obsession, but DVF's love of leopard marks another way she imbues a subtle sex appeal to her designs to create a uniquely feminine line of clothing that stays comfortably in the goldilocks zone between prudish and racy.
