Diane von Fürstenberg picks up on the first ring. We are speaking by phone, not on Zoom, so I start by asking her where she is at the moment. "Oh, it's very complicated," she says. A drawn-out, gravelly sigh crackles down the line. "I'm in a very contemplative place. I'm almost 77, and I have had a big life. A folkloric life. A great adventure. And now it is time to look at the balance sheet of that life."
I was actually wondering about her geographical whereabouts, not her philosophical ones, but the answer is pure Von Fürstenberg. She has always been one for the big picture, for the grand gesture, for feeling all the feels. Even the wrap dress that made her fame and her fortune - an icon that turns 50 next year - was only ever a means to an end, a way for Von Fürstenberg to get the life she wanted. As a little girl, she says, she didn't know what she wanted to do when she grew up, but she did know what kind of woman she wanted to be: a woman in charge. "I didn't know the specifics of what that meant, but I absolutely knew the feeling. And I became the woman I wanted to be, because of that dress. I created the dress, but really the dress created me?"
Von Fürstenberg is very much in charge. She can't help but take the reins of any situation, or any conversation, which makes her almost uninterviewable, but fabulously entertaining to listen to. Eventually, I find out that she is talking to me from her apartment in Manhattan, a glittering glass penthouse with a vast leopard-print carpet and views over the High Line. I'm sad not to get her on camera, because she is glorious to look at: Joan Collins-esque panache with a Bohemian edge. "It is wonderful to get older," she says. "I don't understand why people don't like it. Anyway, I always liked to look a little bit destroyed, you know?"
Denne historien er fra December 08, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra December 08, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
If kids get protected from online harm, how about the rest of us?
The Australian government has proposed a ban on social media for all citizens under 16.
'It's not drought - it's looting'
Spain is increasingly either parched or flooded - and one group is profiting from these extremes: the thirsty multinational companies forcing angry citizens to pay for water in bottles.
Life in the grey Zone
Neonatal care has advanced so far that babies born as early as 21 weeks have survived. But is this type of care always the right thing to do?
Out of tune? Band Aid under fire for Africa tropes as it turns 40
Forty years ago this month, a group of pop stars gathered at a west London studio to record a single that would raise millions, inspire further starry projects, and ultimately change charity fundraising in the UK.
Deaths shine spotlight on risks of drinking on party trail
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Different strokes My strange and emotional week with an AI pet
Moflin can develop a personality and build a rapport with its owner - and doesn't need food or exercise. But is it comforting or alienating?
Strike zone Waking up to the rising threat of lightning
When the Barbados National Archives, home to one of the world's most significant collections of documents from the transatlantic slave trade, reported in June that it had been struck by lightning, it received sympathy and offers of support locally and internationally.
Cheap pints and sticky carpets: the old-school pub is back
In the Palm Tree pub, east London, barman Alf is taking only cash at the rattling 1960s till.
Brain gain Can a radical tax scheme convince the country's brightest to stay?
In the autumn of 2018, I moved to Lisbon for a month-long course at the Universidade .de Lisboa.
Fear and sympathy in small town divided over asylum camp
A year after anti-immigration riots, a site for asylum seekers faces hostility while some locals try to help new arrivals
