“Everybody told me when I came to this neighborhood that I was crazy—that it was full of drag queens, that it smelled awful because of all the butchers,” says the Brussels-born designer, who moved to New York in 1969 with her first husband, Fiat scion Prince Egon von Furstenberg. (They had two children, and divorced in 1983; in 2001 she married media mogul Barry Diller.) “All of that is true,” she continues. “And yet in a weird way the cobblestone streets remind me of Belgium.”
When I was young, I lived like an old woman,” the 65-year-old grandmother of three explains, “and when I got old, I had to live like a young person.”
Read all about the six-story, 35,000-square-foot structure comprising Von Furstenberg’s design studio, flagship store and penthouse on Architectural Digest or in their March issue.
Photos: François Halard for Architectural Digest(click here for more info, subscriptions and news feeds)
Much Thanks to Architectural Digest for images and support
archdigest.com
Diane Von Furstenberg: Fashion Designer + Artist
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The following biography contains information on Fashion Designer Diane Von Furstenberg.BIOGRAPHY
Fashion Designer Diane von Furstenberg was born in Brussels, Belgium. She studied Economics at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where she met Austro-Italian Prince Egon von Furstenberg. They married and moved to New York, where son Alexandre and daughter Tatiana were bom. Today, the children are grown, and von Furstenberg runs the New York-based design and marketing studio bearing her name. Splitting her time between homes in Connecticut, New York, Paris, and the Bahamas, von Furstenberg is always on the go, gathering inspiration for ventures as eclectic as she is.
1972 DVF responds to void in American fashion by designing easy knit dresses1975 Creates the light, romantic fragrance Tatiana, named for her young daughter; Licenses her name for full range of DVF products, from eyewear to luggage1976 Sells 5 million wrap dresses, to land covers of Newsweek & The Wall Street Journal; Opens Madison Avenue cosmetics shop and publishes DVF’s Book of Beauty1977 Introduces the Style for Living collection of home furnishings
1979 Licenses dress business and focuses on building in-house cosmetics business
1983 Sells cosmetics business to British pharmaceutical giant Beecham Group Ltd. 1984-89 Ranks in top 10 in Savvy magazine’s annual survey of “Top U.S. Businesses Run by Women”
1985 DVF moves to Paris and founds Salvy, a French-language publishing house Honored with New York Mayor’s Liberty Medal for citizens of the world who have achieved the American dream
1989 Licensed DVF products sell over $1 billion dollars in the 1980′s
1990 DVF returns to U.S.
1991 Publishes Beds, first coffee table book on the home, followed by The Bath (’93) & The Table (’96)
1992 Pioneers TV-shopping with creation & live on-air selling of Silk Assets collection
1993 DVF becomes a contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine
1997 Moves to new headquarters in 19th century carriage house in West Greenwich Village; Returns to retail with launch of Diane von Furstenberg line of signature dresses at select Saks Fifth Avenue stores; Collection soon expands to Bloomingdale’s, Barney’s, Scoop, Fred Segal, & fine international specialty stores including Colette, Joseph & Joyce Boutiques; Daughter-in-law Alexandra becomes creative director at Studio & bridge to new generation
1998 Publishes her personal & business memoir DIANE: A Signature Life (Simon & Schuster); currently in second printing;
1999 DVF elected to the board of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and named to the board of USA Networks Inc. Responding to growing appeal from a younger, more sophisticated customer, DVF focuses retail strategy on specialty stores and expands signature collection to include soft separates and accessories.
RUNWAY SHOWS
JOB TITLES
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