DVF Reveals Her Favorite Red Carpet Stars
In honor of Diane Von Furstenberg's new Journey of a Dress exhibition in Los Angeles, the legendary designer is looking back at creating the dress that started it all -- the wrap dress -- in an intimate interview with Vogue Contributing Editor Andre Leon Talley.
Kicking off with a launch party on January 10, 2014 -- the year that marks the 40th anniversary of the wrap dress -- the exhibition will feature a retrospective of vintage and contemporary DVF designs, chronicling the journey of the iconic dress across four decades. The exhibition also includes portraits of Diane by celebrated artists such as Andy Warhol, Chuck Close and Annie Leibovitz, which will be housed in the historic Wilshire May Company building next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) campus.
"I owe everything to that dress," she tells Talley. "It started as a little wrap top, inspired by what ballerinas wear, then it became a dress. That dress changed my life. It made me independent, it paid my bills. It made me famous. It gave me my freedom. It was everything, and it grew into something huge."
Her wrap dress recently went through another revival thanks to the critically acclaimed American Hustle, in which Amy Adams brings life to her designs in the '70s setting.
And it turns out the designer herself had some pretty wild times in the Studio 54 era!
"I had many boyfriends, and I'm so glad I had them," she laughs. "Listen -- to have been young in the '70s is a very great thing. You know, I was young somewhere in between the pill and AIDS."
As for anticipating Sunday's Golden Globes red carpet, Diane admits that she definitely has some favorites.
"Meryl Streep can do no wrong. It doesn't matter what, she can be anything," she says. "Julia Roberts -- divine. But she's divine because she's herself, because [of] that smile. .... Jennifer Lawrence is divine. Amy Adams, she is great -- she's an amazing actor."
Related: Racism on the Runway? NYFW Sparks Criticism
Check out the video to hear why the designer has never undergone plastic surgery or Botox, and why she feels red carpets are so "artificial."
The Journey of a Dress exhibition will be open to the public from January 11, 2014 through April 1, 2014.