Diane von Furstenberg Quotes

Diane von Furstenberg (1946 - )

1981 photo of Diane von Furstenberg, Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and Barbra Streisand
1981 photo of Diane von Furstenberg, Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and Barbra Streisand. Yvonne Hemsey / Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Diane von Furstenberg, a successful fashion designer and business executive, is known for her iconic wrap dress and for her use of prints. She has also had success with fragrance, naming her first after her daughter, Tatiana, and demonstrated the success of home shopping networks when her first foray into that field sold more than $1 million in two hours.

Selected Diane von Furstenberg Quotations

• I design for the woman who loves being a woman.

• In all circumstances, I always look for the light and build around it, with little memory of pain.

• Attitude is everything.

• I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be.

• When a woman becomes her own best friend life is easier.

• The most important relationship in your life is the relationship you have with yourself. Because no matter what happens, you will always be with yourself.

• I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are.

• 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 girls who were unanimously considered beautiful often rested on their beauty alone. I felt I had to do things, to be intelligent and develop a personality in order to be seen as attractive. By the time I realized maybe I wasn't plain and might even possibly be pretty, I had already trained myself to be a little more interesting and informed.

• My clothes are great for a honeymoon: They're light and sexy, colorful and pretty, and not expensive.

on designing her iconic wrap dress: Well, if you’re trying to slip out without waking a sleeping man, zips are a nightmare. Haven’t you ever tried to creep out of the room unnoticed the following morning? I’ve done that many times.

on her wrap dress: "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. 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. (1998)

on her wrap dress: It's more than just a dress; it's a spirit. 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. (2008)

• We are living in such a troubled world that fashion seems completely irrelevant. Yet ... it's a very, very mysterious thing. Why all of a sudden do people like yellow? Why all of a sudden do people wear combat boots? (2006)

on her first marriage and career: 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.

on her second marriage: I had arranged a birthday party for him and my children, who are all Aquarians. Instead, we got married. I ran out of excuses. It was just us and my children.

on her second marriage: We met 32 years ago, lived together and fell in love, and then I left him, very abruptly. But he was always there somehow, even though I was having other relationships, and we always thought, maybe, one day, we would get married. It was something we said we would do when we got old. And then one day it was his birthday and I didn't know what to give him -- so I said, "If you want, I will marry you for your birthday." So we went to City Hall with my children and my brother and we got married. (2008)

about her mother: 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. (2008)

About These Quotes

Quote collection assembled by Jone Johnson Lewis. Each quotation page in this collection and the entire collection © Jone Johnson Lewis. This is an informal collection assembled over many years. I regret that I am not be able to provide the original source if it is not listed with the quote.

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Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Diane von Furstenberg Quotes." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/diane-von-furstenberg-quotes-3530005. Lewis, Jone Johnson. (2023, April 5). Diane von Furstenberg Quotes. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/diane-von-furstenberg-quotes-3530005 Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Diane von Furstenberg Quotes." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/diane-von-furstenberg-quotes-3530005 (accessed March 28, 2024).