Vanessa Friedman and Diane Von Furstenberg, Photo by Slaven Vlasic, Getty Images for Fashion Institute of Technology
On Thursday, October 22nd, the Couture Council at FIT honored Diane Von Furstenberg, designer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist, with its prestigious Couture Council Fashion Award. The annual fundraising luncheon, held at Gotham Hall, was co- chaired by board member Anne Baker, jewelry designer at Anne Baker Collection, and Alida Boer, CEO and founder of Nolé Care and Marias.
Dr. Valerie Steele, Diane Von Furstenberg, Jason S. Schupbach, President of FIT, Photo by Laurel Marcus
About 350 attended, including cultural icons from fashion, art, philanthropy, and business. Among them: Jason Schupbach, FIT president; Dr. Valerie Steele, director and chief curator, MFIT; Sharon Jacob, Vice Chair, Couture Council Board of Directors; Linda Fargo; Fern Mallis, Bethann Hardison, Constance White, Candice Bushnell, Martha Stewart, Fabiola Beracasa, Ken Downing, Hal Rubenstein, Cathy Prounis, and philanthropist Joan Hornig.
Marilyn Kirschner, Narciso Rodriguez and Sharon Jacob, Photo by Laurel Marcus
And of course, there were numerous American fashion designers: Henry Zankov, new artistic director of Diane Von Furstenberg, Daniella Kallmeyer, Jonathan Cohen, Nicole Miller, Zane Li, the young designer who just won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award, Kokin, Marisol Deluna, Narciso Rodriguez, a past Couture Council honoree in 2018, and artist Ruben Toledo, whose late wife Isabel was a Couture Council honoree in 2008.
A guest and lunch Co-Chair Alida Boer twinning in dresses by Diane Von Furstenberg, Photo by Laurel Marcus
While there is no dress code, guests at the Couture Council lunches traditionally wear something by the designer or in keeping with the designer’s aesthetic. Unsurprisingly, many women wore a printed DVF design (Valerie Steele, who usually wears all black, was almost unrecognizable lol), and, of course, several women wore one of Diane’s iconic wrap dresses.
Still, even Diane would admit it doesn’t universally fit everyone. So the best way to honor Diane is to remember her motto: “Be the woman you want to be.” In other words, dress for the best version of yourself.
Ralph Rucci was the first Couture Council honoree in 2006. Calling this event unlike any other in its 20-year history (I’ve attended every one) is an understatement. For one thing, this lunch moved later into the fall season than past iterations, which traditionally kicked off or aligned closely with the start of New York Fashion Week.
“The Room” photo by Laurel Marcus
For the past 16 years, the preferred venue was Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater. Past locations include The Rainbow Room and Cipriani 42nd Street. This year, the venue headed to the historic Gotham Hall at 37th and Broadway, a 9,200-square-foot, column-free ballroom with 70-foot soaring ceilings, Corinthian columns, and a massive 3,000-square-foot stained-glass skylight dome.
The Couture Council had established a distinct pattern of honoring younger, actively working creative directors (the majority of whom were men) who head major contemporary fashion houses, or traditional, high-fashion avant-garde or European couturiers.
By selecting Von Furstenberg, the Council broke this streak and pivoted back to celebrating lifetime legacy influence and structural fashion history rather than current runway collections. The timing aligned perfectly with a broader revival for the Diane Von Furstenberg brand. Just one and a half months ago, DVF made a major return to NYFW under new artistic director Henry Zankov.
“There are a lot of words I could use to describe today’s honoree. We call her a designer, entrepreneur, feminist, activist, philanthropist, mother, grandmother, daughter, friend, and mentor. But I prefer the term ‘force of nature,’ which I know is three words. But that’s the point! It is impossible to reduce her to just one.” – Vanessa Friedman, Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic, The New York Times
Cat O’Neill, Sharon Jacob, Julie Lanning, Photo by Marilyn Kirschner
Vanessa Friedman presented the award to Diane during a divine fall lunch (roasted winter squash and burrata, Montauk tilefish and chanterelles with grilled corn and barley risotto). Tables featured runners crafted by FIT Menswear students from an archival DVF Ikat print first used in 1983. The walls featured imagery from throughout Diane’s career.
Vanessa Friedman, Photo by Laurel Marcus
FYI, Vanessa was not wearing DVF but looked cool in a vintage Dries Van Noten jacket. New York Times editors and reporters cannot borrow designer clothes because the paper’s strict ethics policy bars staff from accepting gifts, discounts, or other benefits of value from individuals or organizations they cover or might cover.
If you haven’t noticed lol, Vanessa isn’t one to gush automatically, but as she points out, Diane’s very existence is nothing short of remarkable. Diane’s mother, Lily Halfin, was a holocaust survivor who weighed only 49 pounds when she was liberated from Ravensbrück concentration camp (was in Auschwitz prior) and was told she would never have a child of her own. Friedman cannot help but be impressed by Diane’s Newsweek Magazine cover, scored at age 29 in 1976.
Diane Von Furstenberg, Photo by Marilyn Kirschner
Equally extraordinary to Friedman is that Diane not only changed the way women dress, but also changed the look of the city, revitalizing the Meatpacking District, playing a major role in creating The Highline, and funding Little Island (Pier 55) with her husband, Barry Diller. Known as the “godmother” of the Statue of Liberty, Diane chaired the fundraising campaign that raised $100 million to build the 26,000-square-foot Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island, which officially opened in May 2019.
Vanessa finds Diane most remarkable because she seems superhuman, yet is willing to show her human side in an image-obsessed industry. And, of course, that Diane never stops. On the eve of Von Furstenberg’s 80th birthday (December 31st), she took on a new project: Save Venice, “just a little side gig” Friedman joked.
“It was a whole new generation who came to love the wrap dress. All my life, I wanted to be the woman in charge, and then I became a woman in charge of a little dress. I have confidence that many, many generations of women wore the wrap dress while also becoming women in charge.” – Diane Von Furstenberg
Von Furstenberg ended the luncheon with an emotional, informative, and entertaining talk that felt more like watching the documentary about her life, “Woman in Charge,” than an acceptance speech. Past honorees have often made theirs short and sweet. This wasn’t short, but it was sweet. If anyone is entitled to do so, it is Diane, who leads a charmed life and knows she is fortunate and blessed. “Many people think that when you become a princess, like I did when I married Egon Von Furstenberg in July 1969, that it’s the end of the fairytale. It’s only the beginning.”
Diane’s resilience and life philosophy—that “fear is not an option”—are heavily influenced by her mother Lily, her longtime and only muse, though nowadays she also considers Venice, Italy, her muse. Female empowerment and becoming that “woman in charge” have always been Diane’s main messages, but as she ages, she has found that kindness matters most. At the end, she urged everyone to do one thing every day: connect one person with another who can change their life. “We all have a magic wand. I advise you to use your magic wand.”
