Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Fashion Week: Diane Von Furstenberg’s Runway

Diane Von Furstenberg showed her new line at New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week yesterday. The models and Von Furstenberg wore Google Glasses, capturing footage for a video that will be produced after Fashion Week. The clothes — loose, drape-y dresses in reds, white and black — were classic Von Furstenberg.

Von Furstenberg launched her first clothing line in 1972 with a simple but bold statement: “Feel like a woman. Wear a dress.” Today she is known for her iconic wrap dress, which comes in colorful floral, hippy-esque patterns as well as softer, more elegant tones. She also creates sportswear, fragrances and beauty products. She is also the president of the Council of Fashion Designers, where she has taken bold steps to crack down on the use of underage and underweight looking models.

When Von Furstenberg entered the fashion world she was a princess, married to Prince Egon of Furstenberg. They divorced in 1972 (just as she launched her first line), which stripped away the title ‘Princess,’ but the designer continues to use the royal surname.

She was born in Brussels, Belgium as Diane Simone Michelle Halfin, to a Romanian father and Greek mother. Her mother, Liliane Nahmias, was a Holocaust survivor and was in Auschwitz just 18 months before Von Furstenberg was born. In an interview posted on the UJA of New York website, Von Furstenberg said that her mother always pushed her ahead in life, teaching her that “Fear is not an option.”

Furstenberg is also vocal Obama supporter. This year, at the Fashion’s Night Out party at her headquarters, Von Furstenberg was shooing everybody out, encouraging them to go home and watch the President’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.

“I think we’re all looking for some lightness and happiness,” Von Furstenberg said at the start of Fashion Week, according to the Associated Press. “And I hope I am bringing that to my collection.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.