Diane von Furstenberg

<p>A sweeping biography of one of the most influential and controversial legends of late twentieth-century fashion an iconic designer whose colorful creations including the wrap dress captured the modern feminist spirit.</p><p>The daughter of a Holocaust survivor and wife of an Austrian nobleman Diane von Furstenberg burst onto New York's fashion scene in 1969 and within a few years became an international sensation with her colorful wrap dress in printed jersey. Embraced by millions of American women of all ages sizes and shapes the dress became a cult object and symbol of women's liberation tied inexorably to the image of youth independence and sex Diane herself projected.</p><p>In this masterful biography Gioia Diliberto brings Diane's extraordinary life into focus from her post-World-War-II childhood in Belgium through her rise to the top of the fashion world during the decadent seventies and glamorous go-go eighties to her humiliating failures both professional and personal and her remarkable comeback in the nineties. Like Coco Chanel Diane has always been her own best advertisement. Morphing from a frizzy brunette outsider in a sea of sleek blondes to a stunning pop cultural icon she embodied the brand she created--the DVF woman a model of self-sufficiency sensuality and confidence.</p><p>Diliberto's captivating balanced portrait based on scores of interviews with Diane's family friends lovers employees and the designer herself explores von Furstenberg's relationships with her husbands and lovers and illuminates fashion's evolution from rare luxury to marketing monster and the development of a uniquely American style. Lively and insightful the book also explores the larger world of the nation's elite where fashion culture society politics and Hollywood collide. <em>Diane von Furstenberg</em> is a modern fable of self-invention fame wealth failure and success that mirrors late-twentieth century America itself.</p>