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Diane Von Furstenberg
In 1972, Diane Von Furstenberg first made waves with a simple yet radical directive: "Feel like a woman. Wear a dress." Five million wrap dresses later, she graced the November 1976 cover of Newsweek, touted as a new icon of female liberation and the most marketable designer since Coco Chanel. After a dalliance with her own cosmetics line and a home-furnishings collection, she stepped away from the fashion limelight and moved to Paris, only to reenter in 1992 with Silk Assets, a pioneer in television shopping (its debut collection sold out in less than two hours). In 1997, Von Furstenberg relaunched her clothing line, and the iconic wrap dress found a warm reception once again. This time, it was the daughters of the first-wave audience who welcomed the wrap into their closets. Today, the DVF empire includes sportswear, beauty, and fragrance lines, and the flagship store is a cornerstone of the meatpacking district's fashion quarter, functioning as a boutique, design studio, and pied-a-terre for the CFDA council president. In addition to the wrap, DVF hallmarks include graphic floral prints, cinch-waist skirt suits, and forties glamour by way of seventies hippie chick.
