AP Fashion Writer, New York
Diane von Furstenberg, a Belgian-born, Swiss-educated New Yorker, brought her jet-setter look to Italy in June, staging a fashion show in Florence that showed off her bonafide global style.
Usually June is when men’s fashion gets attention in Florence at the Pitti Immagine trade show, but the event’s organizers were looking to incorporate more womenswear.
Von Furstenberg, 61, has a full plate these days: Her brand, which put wrap dresses in the closets of millions of women in the 1970s, relaunched her company in 1997. It has since grown to include swimwear, fragrance, luggage and accessories.
Von Furstenberg speaks French, English, Italian and Spanish fluently, and can get by in Russian, German and Portuguese. She’d like to tackle Chinese. “The word `global’ is not foreign to me,” she says.
Von Furstenberg no longer thinks about clothes in the traditional four seasons because air travel, global warming and high-powered air conditioners mean you’ll probably need to wear a sweater and a tank top at some point on the same day no matter where you are and what the forecast is.
Photos courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.
