How much is Diane von Furstenberg worth?
| Net Worth: | $1.3 Billion |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Fashion Designer |
| Date of Birth: | December 31, 1946 |
| Country: | Belgium |
| Height: | 1.73 m |
About Diane von Furstenberg
One of the most recognizable fashion designers in the world, Diane von Furstenberg, or “DvF,” shot to fame when she created the iconic “wrap dress.” Egon von Furstenberg, an Italian prince, and Diane were previously wed.
Diane Simone Michelle Halfin was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1946. Leon and Liliane Nahmias Halfin, Diana’s well-to-do Jewish parents, gave her a privileged upbringing in post-war Europe, according to Diane. Diane attributes the development of her self-assurance and strong sense of value to her Holocaust survivor mother, Liliane.
“She was extraordinary. She survived the camps at the age of 22, she taught me only to look at positive things no matter what happens. When she talked about the camps, she talked about the camaraderie. I think she was trying to protect me. She only weighed 49 pounds when she came out, but I was born 18 months later. I was her victory,” Diane told The Independent in 2008.
Diane traveled and attended finishing schools all across Europe, in places including Switzerland, Spain, and England, before enrolling in the University of Madrid in 1965. Prince Egon von Furstenberg, the heir to the Fiat automobile fortune and a fashion designer himself, was the man Von Furstenberg would eventually marry when she transferred to the University of Geneva in 1966.
After being married, relocating to New York, and having two kids—Prince Alexandre von Furstenberg and Princess Tatiana von Furstenberg—the couple divorced the previous year. Only three years later, in 1972, did they get divorced while still staying friends.
Diane began an apprenticeship with Italian textile producer Angelo Ferretti in 1970, encouraged by Prince Egon. As the new Princess von Furstenberg, Diane tried to entice prominent New York designers in her straightforward designs.
She was working on her designs in the dining room of her Park Avenue apartment at the time, drawing inspiration from pictures of Bill Blass and Dianna Vreeland’s clothing collections.
While the New York Times asked Diane in 1977 why she started designing clothes when she had no need for money because to her royal marriage, Diane responded “The minute I knew I was about to be Egon’s wife, I decided to have a career. I wanted to be someone of my own, and not just a plain little girl who got married beyond her desserts.”
In 1972, Diane started her own manufacturing company with the assistance of businessman Richard Conrad and a hefty loan from her father. Soon after, von Furstenberg set a shop on Seventh Avenue. During this time, she created her well-known sweater, which she dubbed “Angela” in honor of the celebrated black feminist who served as its model.
After seeing Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of former President Nxon, wearing a set of her wrap top and wrap skirt on television, she was inspired to create her ever-classic wrap dress. Diane decided to integrate them into a single outfit due of their combined glitzy impact.
The “wrap dress” by Diane von Furstenberg revolutionized women’s clothing in America in the middle of the 1970s. It was the first of a “modern” type of dress, one that could double as a stylish evening gown or a suit. Diane produced 15,000 wrap dresses every week in 1975 alone, and by 1976, she had sold over 5 million. It is hardly unexpected that she appeared on the covers of Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal as a result of her accomplishment.
“I had a very down-to-earth product, my wrap dress, which was really a uniform. It was just a simple little cotton-jersey dress that everybody loved and everybody wore,” she told New York Magazine in 1988. “That one dress sold about 3 or 4 million. I would see 20, 30 dresses walking down one block. All sorts of different women. It felt very good. Young and old, and fat and thin, and poor and rich.”
By the decade’s end, Diane von Furstenberg had created a dress that effectively encapsulated the spirit of the women’s liberation movement and established herself as a symbol of female sex empowerment for an entire generation.
“It’s more than just a dress; it’s a spirit,” Von Furstenberg told The Independent in 2008. “The wrap dress was an interesting cultural phenomenon, and one that has lasted 30 years. What is so special about it is that it’s actually a very traditional form of clothing. It’s like a toga, it’s like a kimono, without buttons, without a zipper. What made my wrap dresses different is that they were made out of jersey and they sculpted the body.”
Richard Gere, Warren Beatty, and Ryan O’Neal became frequent visitors to her at the popular New York party scene hangout.
In 2010, Diane realized a long-held goal by starting a job at the Claridge’s hotel in London. For the iconic hotel, Von Furstenberg created a number of rooms and suites. Diane’s love affair with the hotel, whose Art Deco motif served as the inspiration for her previous collections, entered a new phase with the cooperation.
“One of my fondest memories was when I was in London as a young, independent businesswoman and stayed at Claridge’s. I knew I had made it,” she told The New York Times. “To me, Claridge’s is the most glamourous hotel in the world; I regard it as my home away from home. I am honoured to become part of the hotel’s legacy and rich design history.”
In 2011, she debuted a brand-new collection called Diane, which included some of her most well-known vintage prints in both ready-to-wear and accessories. The Diane von Furstenberg boutiques are the only places to purchase the new line.
This year, Diane worked with Gap Kids to introduce a line of children’s clothing that included a miniature version of her wrap dress. She told her admirers, . “This collection is about celebrating life and colour,” she told her fans. “The minute a little girl is born, she is already the woman she will be. So to empower a little girl is to empower the woman she will become.”
The DVF brand lost up to $80 million between 2017 and 2019, which ultimately resulted in the layoff of 75% of the U.S. staff in May 2020. Before the 2008 recession, sales were $300 million, but by 2018, they had decreased to $150 million. In 2018, the brand outlawed the use of mohair after a PETA exposé revealed that workers were slaughtering and dismembering goats to obtain it. Future collections were also prohibited from containing any fur, angora, or exotic skins. DVF permanently shuttered 18 of its 19 USA locations in 2020.
