Diane Von Furstenberg
(1946 - )
Diane Von Furstenberg was born Diane Simone Michelle Halpin in Brussels, Belgium, in 1946; to a Jewish Russian father and a Greek mother. She studied at the University of Madrid and the University of Geneva. Her introduction to fashion was as an assistant photographer and as a filmmaker’s agent in Paris.
She married Prince Egon von Furstenberg in 1969 and moved with him to New York. She opened Diane von Furstenberg Studio in 1970; and produced easy to wear polyester, cotton, and silk knit dresses in her signature prints. She is famous for her wrap dress (it had long sleeves, a fitted top, and a skirt which wrapped around the body to tie at the waist, and was made from drip-dry cotton jersey), which she designed in 1973. The wrap dress was also practical, versatile, and sexy. Von Furstenberg also prefers jersey and often uses geometric prints in her designs.
In 1975, she launched her fragrance Tatiana, named after her daughter, and partnered with Sears to create The Diane von Furstenberg Style for Living Collection. In 1977, she reorganized the company to deal solely with licensees for the fashion line, luggage, scarves, cosmetics, and jewelry. She closed her business in 1988. Following her success on the QVC home-shopping channel, von Furstenberg re-launched the business in 1997.
Diane Furstenberg received the Dallas Market Center’s Fashion Excellence Award. Her fashion line of clothing, fragrances and jewelry are sold in stores in over fifty countries.
