DIANE VON FURSTENBERG speaking at PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN

GEOMETRY OF NATURE

GRACE by GRACE CODDINGTON : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

  I listened to this audio book, read by the author Grace Coddington, with her British accent, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing her tell her own tale of leaving home at 18 and giving modeling a try.  Her first assignment was nude, though she didn't understand that was the case when she showed up, but she went with it.  Coddington is well known as Vogue magazine Editor Anna Wintour's sidekick, both included in the documentary called The September Edition. She's the red haired one, if you haven't guessed, the one who actually can speak to Anna candidly. According to Grace, it was the film "The Devil Wears Prada," a fictive account, the human devil said to be based on Anna Wintour, that brought Anna - and then Grace - to infamy.  It was that film and all the commentary, and her true relationship with Anna, that lead the normally publicity shy (OK, we'll try to believe her) Grace to go ahead and speak up for herself, her life, and her profession and write her book.

One of the things I appreciated was that she didn't do much introspection and certainly no apology for her life or rise in fashion but as I also read other audio memoir type books this past year by British women, I'm beginning to think there is something British about it. Certainly this woman must have faced competition and made some enemies along the way, but her own perspective is that she went from event to event, opportunity to opportunity, almost as if it were all fate or a done deal. But believe it: she worked her butt off.

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A MILLION TO ONE

RAGS TO RICHES

Copyright Newsweek

Used For Educational Purposes

Diane was her own best model in her twenties.

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG on THE WOMAN ACROSS THE ROOM

You know, there's a thing about the woman across the room.

You see the woman across the room, you think she's so poised, she's so together.  but she looks at you and you are the woman across the room for her...  Diane Von Furstenberg

source: a-z quotes

THE EYE HAS IT

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG - TRUTH IS HER RELIGION : HONORARY MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

BOOKS  DIANE VON FURSTENBERG - A LIFE UNWRAPPED by GIOIA DILIBERTO



and  THE WOMAN I WANTED TO BE by DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

This is going to be a Diane Von Furstenberg December as I'm, electing her as Honorary Mistress of the Month.  Long the companion and partner and wife of Barry Diller, now a woman who could be said to have everything - wealth, fame, fulfillment, love - and the will to lift other women up, Diane persisted through times in which she was unsure of her direction, overly influenced by the current main man in her life, times in which she had to admit failures, beg for help, even give some nasty business back so she could survive.  

It is especially refreshing to hear her admit as much in the audio book, The Woman I Wanted To Be. She admits to uncertainties, fears, and that bright ideas sometimes fail, while her warm and generous spirit allows her to complement others for their roles, not wasting too much time and energy on condemning. Can anyone actually control their lives totally, especially in the mercurial fashion business?  She made decisions spontaneously, sometimes deliberately, often hiring and surrounding herself by others to move her vision along, sometimes loosing that vision.  She sees life as a series and variety of events.  Her nature has been experimental, and she has reached out to help other women.

I've been fascinated with this woman who says that TRUTH IS HER RELIGION  and that ALL MARRIAGES SHOULD BE OPEN for some time.  But it was the quote in Gioia Dilberto's book that convinced me that she belongs in the posts/pages of MISTRESS MANIFESTO.

IN THIS QUOTE SHE SAYS SHE WOULD LOVE TO BE A MISTRESS... and she knows that this is an attitude that is more European, that American woman might not understand.

Diane is thought by some in fashion to not actually be a designer but more of a producer.  I credit her for figuring out what she could do well and sticking to it, though in her career she has taken departures and had to reassess several times.

Diane Helfin was born in Belgium, the daughter of Holocaust concentration camp survivor, Lily.  She considers her birth to her mother, who came out of the camp emaciated, about a year later, as a miracle. Her parents became well off enough to send her away to private boarding school and in her early womanhood she began to socialize with wealthier people than they were. Her mother also told her to never be ashamed of sex and well, she wasn't. She had love affairs and sex with both men and women as did the man she married quite young, Egon Von Furstenberg, a German and Italian Prince.  (Her daughter Tatianna had an affair with another woman and stayed friends with her, considers herself part of the tribe.) These two sexual adventurers were a hot couple around town in New York City for some time until a magazine profile made them see themselves and their lives more critically.  Diane was a huntress and has no apologies. When they split she was determined to honor the name and the allure of having been married to a Prince but also to make it on her own. 

It was the 1970's. She invented the "wrap dress" that made her rich.  She learned as she went, and the things that made her dress so important, besides capturing the imagination of women from diverse life experiences, was that it was reasonably affordable, the fine fabric manufactured in Italy on which her designs were printed, and the colors and patterns were bold.  The dress looked good on a variety of figures and it moved well and held up well after a hard day of work as a new era of feminism and the sexual revolution accelerated so that you could wear it to work or out of dinner.  She posed for her first ad on a mod white cube, the ad saying, "Be a Woman, Wear a Dress."  Her forays into cosmetics and a perfume named after her daughter went only so well, and she struggled to understand and stick to her own brand.

About her husband Barry Diller,: their relationship wasn't exactly off and on, it was sort of on in some way no matter who else was going on, and some people think he's gay but for Diane.  Unified as a couple and family with her children and grandchildren, the two of them have a fortune that is not just about fashion, but perhaps more correctly pop culture and technological innovation.

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