Diane von Furstenberg is the kind of person who practically qualifies as a myth.
She is the nondesigner designer who came to New York with a prince for a husband, created a company and taught a generation of women that femininity and power could coexist in a dress — and that a dress could be a springboard to realized potential. She was a Warhol muse and Studio 54 regular who became a champion of equal rights, a philanthropist and a general change agent.
But she is also, or she used to be, a brand.
That brand, likewise called Diane von Furstenberg, was once the toast of New York. But it has not had a show at New York Fashion Week in almost a decade, and it has only one store in the United States, in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. As a factor in what people wear, it has been living for decades on the fumes of the wrap dress that was its original claim to fame. Its influence is dwarfed by the reputation of its founder.
So on Thursday morning, when DVF returned to the runway for the first time since 2017 with a new designer, Henry Zankov, a rising star of New York fashion thanks to his namesake label, and Diane herself holding court on the front row, the question on everyone’s minds was simple.
Was it possible for DVF the brand to exist separately from DVF the woman, even as her spirit animated yet another reset? Or would this be simply another pallid version of what had gone before? The house had such a small presence for so long but still has such big name recognition, there was a real opportunity to make a statement.
“I’m feeling it,” said Aurora James, the designer and founder of Brother Vellies, sitting on the front row in a new DVF stretch jersey set, before the show began.
Across the runway, Nicky Hilton, in a new wrap dress printed with old DVF labels, was feeling it, too. So was Annette de la Renta, the widow of the designer Oscar de la Renta, and Pat Cleveland, the Battle of Versailles model. The sun was shining on the High Line, the park on the far western side of Manhattan where the show was being held and that von Furstenberg had helped to build. The DVF store, with DVF’s personal pied-à-terre on top, practically overlooked the catwalk.
Then the first look appeared: a jersey shirtdress, notably not a wrap dress, in an abstract leopard print with a working woman retro cool. That set the tone for the show, which may have had fewer wraps but still had lots of wrap vibes.
They came in slick 1970s suiting — flared trousers with a tuxedo seam up the side and belted safari jackets in relaxed jersey and silk — in shades of hot pink and carnelian, periwinkle and deep purple (sometimes luridly so, which is a Zankov trademark).
They came in sheer caftans and a one-shouldered silk scarf disco mini with a panther print that seemed to be slipping off the body, which was very DVF. (In fact, DVF herself was wearing a version of the look.) Everything was light and easy, which was also very DVF. It was like seeing an old friend who had spent a year jetting around the world, going to ashrams and Alpine spas, and had come back ready for action. Oh, you look awfully refreshed!
But there was one thing missing: the paradigm-changing piece that would qualify as the wrap dress of today. Something that has the ability to capture the imagination and crystallize the times but that doesn’t look like anything that has come before. Something that can bring back urgency, singularity and, most of all, desire to the house.
DVF the woman is famously good at getting people to want things (including herself). The brand that bears her name needs to be too.
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