Podcast #60: Diane von Furstenberg on Confident Women

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Diane von Furstenberg, when asked to describe herself in seven words, provided a resounding statement on her identity: "Woman, woman, woman, woman, woman, woman, woman." Best known for popularizing the wrap dress, the designer and former princess published a memoir The Woman I Wanted To Be in 2014. This week The New York Public Library Podcast features von Furstenberg in conversation with Rhonda Garelick on confident women.

What does it take to become Diane von Furstenberg? She explained her self-realization as one part good fortune, one part vision, and another part the American Dream:

"I became my own. I went into this a little bit by accident, and I did not know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be. I wanted to be liberated. I wanted to be free. I wanted to be financially independent. Fashion happened to be my door. At that time, I don't know why, because I met this man. He had a factory, whatever. That was my door. I went into it, and I was very lucky. I came to this country and I lived an American Dream."

Perhaps because her vision of women's fashion is so lucid and identifiable, many consider von Furstenberg an artist. The designer doesn't think of herself in these terms, however. She calls herself "the friend in the closet":

"I am not an artist. I am not an artist, and I never thought I would be an artist. One day Christian LaCroix told me, he said, 'Men designers make costume. Women designers make clothes.' And I make clothes. I never, ever thought I was an artist. I never thought I was even making a fashion statement in this sense. And yet, forty years later, last year when I saw the exhibition, I said, 'I didn't make a fashion statement, but I ended up making a sociological statement.' So there was much more importance. So my goal is the woman. My role in fashion is I am the friend in the closet. You wake up in the morning. Your eyes are swollen. You have your period—not me anymore—but anyway, you don't feel well. You go for your friend, and you feel secure. You go in and you wrap it. You don't feel that great but over the day you feel better and better."

DVF has become, in many ways, more than a designer of clothes. Both her design repertoire and personal narrative have entered a larger cultural discussion, and she spoke about the way that she sees herself in a conversation with women that has mutually amplified confidence:

"Now when I talk to young women, I always say, and when my granddaughters—I have two granddaughters; one is going to be sixteen tomorrow and the other is fifteen—I say, when you go to sleep at night, first you should say thank you for what you have. And then you have to think about the woman you want to be, because if you think it, you will be it. And I really, really mean that, and I really feel that, and the older I am, the more that I feel it. And that's my message, and that's why I got into fashion. I got into fashion, and I started a dialogue with women, and as I became more confident, I was going all around the country doing personal appearances and selling confidence through that dress to other women. So they gave me confidence, and I gave them confidence. And so there was an extraordinary dialogue that started with me and women, and then because people looked at me, and they'd say, 'Who is this?' So some people would write, you know, journalists would write about how they felt about me, and so I felt like I had to say how I feel about me. And then I became very open, you know, I was then getting divorced and I talked about. A single mother and all of these things. I spoke the truth, and therefore, the dialogue continued."

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