In a Sept. 9, 1976, article taken from the WWD archives, DVF talked fashion and self-expression.
“I like to see the body in clothes,“ says Diane von Furstenberg, who established herself with a business based on the body-conscious print dress, plus 14 other licensee divisions, including shoes and fine jewelry.
Furstenberg sees herself as a glamourpuss. She shines bright at night. The light usually bounces from her mélange of expensive jewelry, which can be a mix of David Webb Lucite and diamond cuffs with elegant antique Victorian chains inlaid with stones to her own designs of diamonds and gold.
“I spend a lot of money on jewelry because I love it. I have a feeling for it,” Furstenberg says.
Always up front are bangles, pendants, shoulder scrapers and her favorite night accessory — an elegant 18-karat gold minaudière.
“Minaudières are my favorite type of things and I hope to design them myself someday. I love minaudières.”
Furstenberg often dashed out at night wearing fussy boas and long-haired furs over frilly dresses with too much jewelry before she gained enough confidence as a businesswoman to wear her own doggy print dresses at night events.
When she has an important date with the man in her life at the moment, she resorts to a drop-dead black slinky gown. Consistent day or night is the Furstenberg lioness mane of hair framing a face that looks as if it has minimal makeup, although it is applied with maximum detail.
Furstenberg walks through the four seasons in her favorite color of pantyhose: black. She always wears pantyhose because she sits in an unorthodox manner. She feels right at home anywhere, including her own bordello peach banquette, with her legs tucked up or her feet propped on the seat. She always feels feminine in very high, high heels. Rarely is she seen in a shoe that looks flat, comfortable or easy to walk in.
“Fantasy should come from the woman herself — how she talks, how she moves and accessorizes herself,” says the tycoon, who no longer uses her acquired-by-marriage title of princess.