THE FABULOUS LIFE OF DVF

The life and times of Diane von Furstenberg -fashion icon, designer and '70s pin-up - are the subject of a new documentary. Now 77, she recalls a life well-livedplus, the making of her famous wrap dress

- NATALIE HAMMOND

A lot of so-called legends only live up to their best anecdote. Not Diane von Furstenberg. There's the family mantra that has been passed down the generations: "Fear is not an option." The triumph of being a 20-something tycoon. Or the fact that she once turned down a threesome with two rock stars (Mick Jagger and David Bowie). But in order to fully understand the person who changed the way a generation of women dressed in America, you need to know that she arrived just 18 months after her mother left Auschwitz. In a new documentary, Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge, she explains how she was considered a miracle child after her mother, Lilly Nahmias, was informed that she would not give birth to a "normal" baby. "I was born nine months later, and in a sense, I was not normal," von Furstenberg tells the camera.

Double Oscar-winner Sharmeen ObaidChinoy, who directed the documentary with Trish Dalton, is set to become the first woman and person of colour to direct a movie in one of the biggest sci-fi franchises of all time, Star Wars. What drew her to von Furstenberg? "I make films about bad-ass women," she says.