About

She was born Diana Simone Michelle Halfin in Brussels, Belgium in 1946.She is Belgian by birth, with Russian Jewish blood. Her mother Lily Nahmias, was a courageous survivor of Auschwitz German Concentration camp. Diane majored in Economics at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

At university, when she was 18, she met Prince Egon of Fürstenberg, the elder son of a German prince and his first wife, an heiress to the Fiat automotive fortune. Married in 1969 and divorced three years later, the couple had two children, Alexandre andTatiana, who were born in New York City. She is now the grandmother of three children. The Fürstenbergs’ marriage, though not popular with the groom’s family because of the bride’s religion, was considered dynastic, and Diane became Princess Diane of Fürstenberg at the time of the wedding, according to the Genealogisches Handbuch Des Adels: Fürstliche Häuser.

As Fürstenberg once explained, “The minute I knew 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 deserts.’ In 1970, with a $30.000 investment, she began designing women’s clothes. She is best known for introducing the knitted jersey “wrap dress” in 1973, an example of which, due to its important influence on women’s fashion, is in the collection of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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The Look

Using silk jersey prints she produced a line of clothes, mostly tunic dresses in varying length and bias-cut shirtwaisters. Von Furstenberg favours jersey and often uses geometric prints in the dresses she designs. Ms. von Fürstenberg is a recipient of The International Center in New York’s Award of Excellence.

Who Wears It

Kirsten Dunst, Cindy Crawford, the Hilton sisters, Diane Lane, Goldie Hawn, Brooke Shields, Catherine Zeta Jones

Perfumes

1975Tatiana
1981Volcon d'Amour
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