30 Interesting Facts To Know About Diane von Fürstenberg – Founder Of DVF

Diane Simone Michelle Halfin, a Belgian-American fashion designer, world famous for her iconic wrap dress. She rose to prominence, after her marriage into the German princely House of Fürstenberg, the name she continues to use till date. Here are 30 facts to know about the designer:

1. Since 2006, Fürstenberg is the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), a non-profit association of more than 450 prominent American fashion and accessory designers.
2. Diane von Furstenberg (DVF), her fashion company, with its headquarters and flagship boutique in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, is available in more than 70 countries and 45 free-standing shops around the world.
3. She was born in Brussels, Belgium to Leon (Lipa) Halfin, and Liliane Nahmias. It was reported that around two years before she was born, her mother was held a prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp.
4. Her famous knitted jersey “wrap dress,” was introduced in 1974, which had a major influence on women’s fashion. A sample of the dress is now in the collection of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
5. It was at her Spring 2013 Fashion show, that the world popular Google Glass, made its New York Fashion Week Debut.
6. Fürstenberg was included as an Icon in the Time 100, by Time Magazine in the year 2015.
7. She studied economics at the University of Geneva, after transferring from Madrid University.
8. It was after her marriage with Prince Egon of Furstenberg, at the age of 18, that she started designing women’s clothes. She claims that just as she knew, she was about to marry Prince Egon, she wanted to have a career of her own and that to have her own recognition among people.
9. In 1976, the Newsweek magazine declared her as “the most marketable women since Coco Chanel,” and featured her on the cover.
10. Michelle Obama, a former First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, wore the DVF signature Chain Link print wrap dress, on The Official White House Christmas Card, of 2009.
    
11. She introduced the DVF by H. Stern, a fine jewelry collection in 2004. The same year, she also added scarves and beachwear to her boutique line.
12. Fürstenberg was ranked by Forbes as the 68th most powerful woman in the world, in the year 2014.
13. She started her career in fashion designing as an assistant to Albert Koski, a fashion photographer’s agent, in Paris.
14. She moved to New York, with her then-husband Prince Egon, in 1969, where she met with high-profile Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. It was Vreeland, who had her name listed on the New York Fashion Week’s Fashion Calendar, thus creating Fürstenberg’s business.
15. She served as one the project chairpersons for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's review of the future of NYC's Fashion industry.
16. She launched her first fragrance, named “Tatiana,” after her daughter in 1976, along with a cosmetic line. This led to chain of cosmetics and a home-shopping business in 1991.
17. She is the director of “The Diller – von Furstenberg Family Foundation,” which functions with the aim to support other non-profit organizations in the area of human rights, health, education, environment, community building and arts.
18. In her initial career days, she worked as an apprentice to Angelo Ferretti, a textile manufacturer and learned about the fabrics, the cut and the color. While working with Ferretti, she designed her first silk jersey dresses.
19. The E! network aired “House of DVF,” an American reality television series follows the life of Fürstenberg, in which the contestants perform various tasks and challenges with the hope of becoming DVF’s global brand ambassador. The show’s first season premiered on November 2, 2014.
20. She was honored with a star on the Seventh Avenue's Fashion Walk of Fame, in 2008.
    
21. She met Prince Egon of Fürstenberg, while studying at the University of Geneva, and married him on July 16, 1969. She was pregnant during the ceremony, and Egon’s father Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg, who was against Egon marrying Diane, boycotted the ceremony. The couple had two children – Prince Alexander and Princess Tatiana. The Fürstenbergs’ divorced in 1972. She remarried Barry Diller, an American businessman in 2001.
22. She was awarded a Gold Medal in the 2010 Queen Sofia Spanish Institute Gold Medal Gala.
23. In 1985, she found Salvy, a French-language publishing house, after moving to Paris, France, from New York.
24. Fürstenberg is one of the board members of Vital Voices, an American non-profit organization that works with women leaders in the areas of human rights, economic empowerment, women’s political participation.
25. She reportedly sold her Silk Assets collection worth 1.2 million dollars, in less than two hours on QVC, an American cable, satellite and broadcast television network, in the year 1992.
26. Fürstenberg’s first children’s collection with GapKids, was launched in 2012, alongside her famous denim collaboration with CURRENT/ELLIOTT.
27. She is said to have designed the shirts for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign during the 2016 elections.
28. She became a spokesperson for the Ban Bossy campaign in the 2014, which advocates leadership roles for girls.
29. DVF’s home collection, as well as the signature fragrance “DIANE,” was introduced in the year 2011.
30. Fürstenberg opened a very large-scale retrospective exhibition “Diane von Fürstenberg: Journey of a Dress,” at Manezh, one of the largest public exhibition spaces in Moscow in 2009. The next year, the exhibition was held in Sao Paulo, and in Pace Gallery, Beijing in 2011.