What Do Women Designers Want

Women are the beating heart of fashion, but female designers remain under-represented in the industry. Here, couture legends show how their identities shape them, and how they're pushing for change.

- VERONIQUE HYLAND

Diane von Furstenberg has never forgotten what a well-known male designer once told her: "Women make clothes. Men make costumes." It was a dictum that has stuck with her for years, and one that she personally believes has some merit. After all, she says in her delicious Belgian drawl, "Madeleine Vionnet invented the bias cut. And what does bias do? It creates stretch in a woven fabric. Women understand the movement of the body; women understand body language in terms of function. In the end, fashion is not art, it's design. And design is about functionality." It's certainly true that several prominent female-led labels have helped push fashion in a more practical, comfort-oriented direction: In addition to Vionnet's bias cut, there are the flowing pants popularised by Coco Chanel, the sportswear of Claire McCardell, and the proto-athleisure of Norma Kamali. But alongside them have been women who've created elaborate, delightfully impractical fashion-as-art, from Rei Kawakubo to Iris van Herpen.

So female designers are certainly not monolithic in their approach. But they do have one thing in common: They continue to be under-represented at the highest echelons of the industry. ELLE interviewed designers at the helms of brands about their touchstones, how their gender identity informs their work (if it does), and what fashion can do to correct the imbalance.