Diane Simone Michelle Halfin was born in 1946 in Brussels, Belgium. She married Prince Egon von Furstenberg in 1969 and moved to New York City. Diane established her own manufacturing business and 7th Avenue showroom in 1972, where she produced a popular sweater dress named “Angela” after the black activist Angela Davis. Her jersey “wrap dress” revolutionized American women’s apparel and sold over five million by 1976. The “wrap dress” was affordable, easy to wear and made women feel powerful and sensual. She landed on the covers of Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal. She also created a fragrance, Tatiana, named after her daughter.

In 1973 the iconic DVF wrap dress was entered in the collection of the Met Museum of Art.  Diane von Furstenberg was selling 25,000 dresses a week.

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) in 2005.

Diane Von Furstenberg (DVF) celebrated the 40th anniversary of her iconic wrap dress with an exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

For the past eight years she has honored inspirational women who use their influence to effect positive change with humanitarian awards. Diane has a monthly column called “Ask a Designer” in InStyle magazine, where she gives advice in question and answer format.

Jonathan Saunders