Diane von Furstenberg Quotes

I never like to think that I design for a particular person. I design for the woman I wanted to be, the woman I used to be, and – to some degree – the woman I’m still a little piece of.

Women are strong. We can do it all. But not always at the same time.

I gave up on my looks a long time ago.

I was born in Belgium. I went to school in England and in Switzerland, then I came to America, so I really feel like I am a citizen of the world.

I used to be very insecure about my curly hair, because I lived in a country where everybody had blonde straight hair.

Animals come from nature. They were not designed. All my inspiration comes from nature, whether it’s an animal or the layout of bark or of a leaf. Sometimes my patterns are very bold, and you can barely see where they come from, but all the textures and all the prints come out of nature.

I wanted to be an empowered woman, and I became an empowered woman. And now I want to empower every woman. And I do it through my clothes, I do it through my words, I do it through my money, I do it through everything.

I never knew what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be.

Ireland is also quite nice. So is Amsterdam.

I design for the woman who loves being a woman.

My best friend is me, and I take good care of me.

The iPad! What is better designed than that? I read magazines on it, I play Scrabble. I use it for everything.

What’s important to me is to share, and being inspired, and inspiring.

Simplicity and sexiness, that’s what people want. At a price that’s not outrageous.

I don’t think we should always look at the Chinese like they’re taking jobs. They are also bring us more and more jobs. Because, they are the biggest growing consumer. I think what is going on in China is exciting.

I travel in so many different ways; I travel high, I rough it… it all depends on who I travel with.

Do I believe in reincarnation? Well, let’s say that I believe in karma. I think you make your own karma.

What I think I sell with my clothes is confidence, so hopefully all my dresses, my accessories, are friends to the women. When you open the closet, and your eyes are swollen, and you don’t like the way you look, you go to your friends.

I get ideas about what’s essential when packing my suitcase.

My mother said that we’re so lucky to be women. It’s not that men are weak. Men are men. We’re two completely different animals.

The fashion industry has a responsibility to represent a healthy image of women, but to start weighing them and putting them against a wall and making them feel like animals? No.

We need to encourage designers and agencies to be responsible. We need to make sure everyone is sensitive to the issues. But to calculate the girls’ body mass – I personally think it is demeaning.

The most important relationship you have in life is the one you have with yourself. And then after that, I’d say once you have that, it may be hard work, but you can actually design your life.

I had good legs, and I loved showing them off.

My favorite days are the ones where I deal only with my own team, design, marketing, working on the next accessories collection.

I’ve been working seriously in giving fashion a place that it deserves.

My son loves the Hotel du Cap, in the south of France.

Just don’t go to a place where everything is too expensive… it’ll put your husband in a bad mood.

Eighteen months before I was born, my mother was in Auschwitz. She weighed 49 pounds. She always told me that God saved her so she could give me life. I was born out of nothing.

Fashion is mysterious, as a rule. Why are blue jeans a classic? You just hit on something that happens to be timeless and right.

When I was a little girl, if I didn’t eat my soup, my mother would say, ‘You have to think of all the Chinese children who have nothing to eat.’ But now, for my children, Chinese people make everything, and for my grandchildren, they buy everything.

I am a traveler. I am a nomad. I rarely sleep in the same bed more than three or four nights. And I know hotel life better than anyone.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I knew the woman I wanted to become.

Bali and the Aman resorts are all very luxurious, great places to go.

I’ve always been inspired by women, and my mission was to inspire women. I always wanted to become a certain kind of woman, and I became that woman through fashion. It was a dialogue. I would see that the wrap dress made those women confident, and made them act with confidence.

Fashion Week is so important for designers.

You need, in your closet, clothes that will – that you can use in many different ways. Clothes that make you fell comfortable, clothes that make you feel ‘you.’

I was lucky enough to have it all. To be successful in business, to have children, to raise them on my own, and to travel and live my life. It was a lot of work, but it’s a privilege to have been able to do it.

When I was young, I lived like an old woman, and when I got old, I had to live like a young person.

I am not allowed to be afraid. My mother made me like that. As a child, if I was afraid of the dark, she would lock me in the closet. Things like this. And she would talk about the time she spent in the concentration camp, but not about being afraid, only about the good side of it.

When you get into a hotel room, you lock the door, and you know there is a secrecy, there is a luxury, there is fantasy. There is comfort. There is reassurance.

I obviously don’t feel under pressure to look young, because I have had no Botox or surgery. I don’t judge people who choose to have it, but I don’t want to erase who I am.

My clothes are great for a honeymoon: They’re light and sexy, colorful and pretty, and not expensive.

Harbour Island in the Bahamas is beautiful, with turquoise water and pink sand.

Women inspire me… so I enjoy women’s stories and biographies. I am interested in all women.

I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life – and I became that woman.

I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are.

The best-dressed man is an Italian who is trying to look English, or an Englishman who is trying to look Italian.

The important thing is to take your time and not get stressed.

Work and children I could have. But the husband was just too much.

There are emerging countries. I mean, there are countries, you know, China, India, and Brazil, and all of these countries that are emerging. They are building homes. They are building – so there is a new lifestyle.

Insecurity is a waste of time.

I had arranged a birthday party for him and my children, who are all Aquarians. Instead, we got married. I ran out of excuses. It was just us and my children.

Fashion can be this mysterious thing that you can’t explain.

I loved the seventies.

My biggest vice is playing solitaire on my iPad. It’s bad. I mean, it’s ridiculous.

I’m all about empowering women. And by lining them up against the wall and weighing them, surely you are making them feel more like meat than ever – even if it’s little meat, if you know what I mean.

As the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, I represent the designers. And while we can by no means take the blame for eating disorders, we can play our part in addressing this important issue.

I have always been attracted to clothes designed by women. Coco Chanel, Vionnet, Norma Kamali, Donna Karan. They have a little more – how do I put it? – understanding.

I don’t like to talk about my dreams. I like to make them happen. I prefer to talk about them when they’re done.

The real story is that I am very free, that I’ve managed to be who I wanted to be without compromising.

Everyone knows I married a prince, and then I married a billionaire.

If you like trekking, go to the Himalayas or Peru. I love those kinds of trips. But it all depends on your own life and what you like and what you expect.

I’m not the only one; most people’s mothers are the most influential person in their life. But my mother survived the camps, and she was very strong. She made me strong, but she wanted me to be strong. That’s more important.

All I can tell you is that I’ve never met a woman who is not strong, but sometimes they don’t let it out. Then there’s a tragedy, and then all of a sudden that strength comes. My message is let the strength come out before the tragedy.

The wrap dress is the most traditional form of dressing: It’s like a robe, it’s like a kimono, it’s like a toga. It doesn’t have buttons or zippers. What made it different was that it was jersey; therefore, it was close to the body and it was a print.