Heralded as one of the most successful and influential fashion designers of the 20th century, Diane von Furstenberg P'91 P'92 spoke about her life and career last night in a filled-to-capacity List 120. If, as she says, "every woman's story is about strength," then her own story is no exception.
In a discussion titled "Turning a Passion for Life into a Penchant for Business, the Second Time Around," von Furstenberg - the famed designer of the iconic wrap dress - detailed her successes and failures in the fashion industry.
During her wedding engagement, von Furstenberg interned at Italian apparel factories, learning about fabric, cut and design, she said. When she moved to America to be with her husband, she knew it was important to take samples with her and try to sell them, she said. Even though she was married, Furstenberg explained, "I wanted to be independent. I wanted to have my own life."
After failing to find a place in several fashion firms, von Furstenberg took charge of her own company, knowing all she needed was a showroom and a sales person. She did invoicing, packaging, designing and selling all out of her living room while raising two young children, she said.
"I was an inexperienced young woman who wanted to be in the driver's seat - in charge of my life," she said.
She found almost immediate success. In 1974, Mary Eisenhower, the granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower, was photographed wearing von Furstenberg's wrap top, a ballet-inspired shirt with no buttons that was wrapped around the body.
The next shipment of these tops sold out immediately, she said. Using the same design, von Furstenberg created her most notable success: the iconic wrap dress, a jersey dress that is wrapped around the body and takes the shape of its contours.
The success of the dress, arguably, is in how it flattered the body while being versatile and pragmatic; it gave women confidence. Von Furstenberg said she "was creating something that was helping other women."
After the wrap dress, "my name really became a brand," she said. She sold five million dresses and was on the cover of Newsweek in 1976.
However, with production numbers as high as 25,000 wrap dresses a week, von Furstenberg said, "there was a point where they wanted no more."
And so at age 30, von Furstenberg said she found herself with millions of dollars worth of inventory without any idea of what to do. Through licensing, however, she absolved her obligations to sell the excess merchandise, she said.
After mismanagement by her partners, she sold her company in 1983. "I just thought I should do the creative, the designing (and) the marketing," she said. "A man with a suit should really run the business," she said.
After dabbling in several endeavors - opening a small couture shop in New York, a publishing house in Paris and writing several coffee table books - von Furstenberg decided to return to fashion.
"My brand had disappeared," she said. "It was in the hands of different companies, distribution had gone down, the product had gone down."
Yet she wished to return to fashion because her clothes had a message behind them. "A woman wears my clothes and something happens," she said. "Something special happens - you become you all of the sudden."
Noting that her old line was popular again - this time in vintage stores - she returned to fashion with her new line, the self-titled Diane von Furstenberg. Now in its sixth year, the line is still receiving accolades from consumers and critics alike and has stores in New York, Miami, London, Paris, Los Angeles and Hong Kong.
"I stopped hiring a man in a suit and hired a young woman," she said.
Von Furstenberg was brought to the University by Women in the World, a student group concerned with women's challenges of balancing family with work.
