“Until now, this brand was so much about me and my life, and all of that, which has positives and negatives. The positive is that it has a uniqueness and an authenticity. People are always saying, ‘We need authenticity.’ Well, I had too much authenticity. It’s a matter of combining it all and making sense so that it will last,” she told Bridget Foley at WWD’s CEO Summit. “I had three eras – American dream, comeback kid and now 40 years later, how do I use this and make sure it continues after me? That is what I’m doing now. It’s about really redefining the brand’s equity, being fresh because this is fashion and you need to be fresh. Jonathan is the perfect heir for this company because he’s about prints and colours.”
Von Furstenberg explained that her objective for the brand’s new chapter is to “continue to send the message — confidence for women, be the woman you want to be,” through feminine design, but with a certain twist.
“When I work with a designer, the filter always is, ‘Who gets laid in that?’ The most important thing is for a woman to feel confident,” she said. “As a guy once told me [of one particular design], ‘The guys liked it and their mothers did not mind.’ Which means it was proper and sexy at the same time.”
But whilst she is looking firmly towards the future when it comes to her brand, the see-now-buy-now model that several of New New York Fashion Week peers adopted in September is one she plans to steer clear of for now. Instead, Saunders showed his spring/summer 2017 collection for the brand as a quiet presentation, a far cry from the all-singing, all-dancing Diane von Furstenberg shows of seasons past.
“People need to digest. They don’t just go and buy. What happened was shows were always for trade. The trade would come and they would write, and everything was fine. Then, came the celebrities and what did they wear? They wear something that you can’t have for six months. Then social media and all of a sudden people were inundated with images. It’s not that they wanted it now. It was just very confusing,” she said. “Everyone was pushing, pushing, pushing — the pricing, the sales, the discounts — such a mess and everyone wants to get out of it. But then they need to make their numbers and they don’t get out of it. So everybody has to pay the price.”
“When I work with a designer, the filter always is, ‘Who gets laid in that?’ The most important thing is for a woman to feel confident,” she said. “As a guy once told me [of one particular design], ‘The guys liked it and their mothers did not mind.’ Which means it was proper and sexy at the same time.”
But whilst she is looking firmly towards the future when it comes to her brand, the see-now-buy-now model that several of New New York Fashion Week peers adopted in September is one she plans to steer clear of for now. Instead, Saunders showed his spring/summer 2017 collection for the brand as a quiet presentation, a far cry from the all-singing, all-dancing Diane von Furstenberg shows of seasons past.
“People need to digest. They don’t just go and buy. What happened was shows were always for trade. The trade would come and they would write, and everything was fine. Then, came the celebrities and what did they wear? They wear something that you can’t have for six months. Then social media and all of a sudden people were inundated with images. It’s not that they wanted it now. It was just very confusing,” she said. “Everyone was pushing, pushing, pushing — the pricing, the sales, the discounts — such a mess and everyone wants to get out of it. But then they need to make their numbers and they don’t get out of it. So everybody has to pay the price.”
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