Who is DVF? Everything to Know About the Legendary Designer Ahead of Her New Documentary
Diane Von Furstenberg is best known for her revolutionary take on the wrap dress, but what other fashion trends has she pioneered throughout her expansive career?
Diane Von Furstenberg has been a household name in fashion since she launched her legendary career in the early '70s. Shortly after her move to New York, Von Furstenberg presented her first creation—a knitted jersey wrap dress. Von Furstenberg did not create the wrap dress, but her unique, innovative take on women's modes of dressing instantly captured the attention of critics, consumers, and media across the world, prompting Newsweek to label her as the "new icon of female liberation and the most marketable designer since Coco Chanel." Although these were big shoes to fill, Von Furstenberg had no trouble stepping up as one of the world's most powerful women in fashion.
Celebrating Von Furstenberg's life and legacy, directors Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton have created an in-depth documentary detailing the designer's early days, status as an icon of female liberation, enduring friendship with her now ex-husband Egon Von Furstenberg, ever-evolving brand, and her relationship with her mother—who was a driving, motivating figure throughout her life. The documentary features illuminating interviews with some of Von Furstenberg's closest friends and colleagues, including Marc Jacobs, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Fran Leibowitz. Fashion-forward New Yorkers can catch a premiere of Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival beginning on June 5 at the OKX Theater but for those not able to make it, the feature-length documentary will be available on Hulu starting June 25, 2024.
Ahead of the exploratory documentary capturing the designer's fabulous life and thrilling career, join L'OFFICIEL in diving into exactly who Diane Von Furstenberg is and how she rose to prominence as one of the most visionary designers of the past 50 years.
At 18, Von Furstenberg, née Halfin, met Prince Egon Von Furstenberg of the German royal house, while studying at university, and the two married just a few years later in 1969, and she became Princess Diane Von Furstenberg. The couple had several children, Alexander and Tatiana, and moved to New York shortly after marrying. Though a representative of the crown and a princess in title, Von Furstenberg was regarded as a feminist icon for her stance on nontraditional sexual freedom and female empowerment in the business sphere. Mother, cover star, designer, and wife—Von Furstenberg did it all with ease.
“The minute I knew I was about to become Egon's wife, I decided to have a career,” Von Furstenberg told the New York Times shortly after she married. “I had to be someone of my own, and not just a plain little girl who got married beyond her deserts.”
Although the designer and the prince separated in 1973, they remained close friends until his death in 2004. Following the successful opening of Diane's New York-based brand, Egon entered the fashion industry and created his own ready-to-wear brand. “Diane and I can see each other from our offices,” Egon told People in a 1981 interview, explaining the life-long bond the two shared. “Our friendship is forever,” he said.
Although Von Furstenberg gave up her princess title following her divorce from Egon in 1983, she still reigned as royalty of the fashion world. In the years following its initial launch, the classic wrap dress was a hugely popular design in the United States, and by 1976, Von Furstenberg had sold over 1 million dresses, according to Forbes. Although she is to this day most famous for her wrap dress design, belted looks, high-waisted pants, and flowy maxi dresses also joined the catalog as some of the most iconic looks from Von Furstenberg.
With over 25,000 dresses selling per week in the '70s, the designer was already a major player in the industry and quickly capitalized on the buzz surrounding her label by expanding to cosmetics and fragrance not long after. By the end of the decade, the New York Times reported that annual sales for DVF were over $150 million—a staggering number that gave the designer the confidence to continue branching out to other business avenues, including a home-shopping business and a French publishing house after she moved to Paris in 1985.
After two decades of successful business, Von Furstenberg relaunched her brand in 1997, and the wrap dress became a sensation once again, but this time, among a whole new generation of women. The designer operated under a simple philosophy: “Simplicity and sexiness, that’s what people want. At a price that’s not outrageous," she told Vogue in 1976. 20 years later, the same was still true. The timeless vision of feminity that Von Furstenberg embodied in her personal life and in her designs is what made her such an enduring voice in the industry, and in 2024, she is still regarded as one of the most influential designers of all time.
Although she stepped back from her brand later in life, Von Furstenberg remains a powerful presence in the industry through various philanthropic projects that promote women in leadership positions, providing inspiration and support to a new generation in a way that moves beyond the clothes that they wear.
