Dressed up

IN January, Belgian designer Diane von Fürstenberg opens Journey of a Dress, a touring exhibition celebrating 40 years of her signature wrap dress.

Beginning in Los Angeles, the retrospective includes vintage and contemporary samples. Design experts have put this effortlessly sexy style on a par with such 20th century icons as the Eames chair and Chanel no.5. It is endlessly copied and originals are available in over 60 countries. In 2010, Michelle Obama wore a DVF wrap dress in her family’s Christmas card photo. The success of the dress is all wrapped up in Diane’s own. Its story began with her marriage. “Most fairytales end with the girl marrying the prince. That’s where mine began,” she wrote in her 1998 memoir.

Diane’s fashion life began at age 23 when she apprenticed to Milanese clothing manufacturer Angelo Ferretti in 1969. Ferretti had three factories, each producing a fundamental of a wrap dress: prints, cotton-jersey and garments. That year, she fell pregnant by her fiancé, Egon von Furstenberg, son of a German prince and an heiress to the Fiat fortune. She knew he’d have to make an honest woman of her quickly, so ran up some dresses to sell with a view to gaining financial independence. Their French country nuptials were covered by Vogue that summer. Diane emigrated to New York, Egon’s adopted city, with a case of samples among her luggage.