DVF Comes to Miami

© Lauren Doyle / MFb

Late Thursday afternoon, more than twenty female students from Miami International University of Art and Design lined up outside of Sephora in Aventura Mall, all wearing iconic DVF wrap dresses. To signal the beginning of the event, the Miami launch of DVF's perfume, Diane, the students chanted the designer's mantra: "Be the woman you want to be!"

And then Diane arrived, in a flurry of cheers and camera flashes.

It's no wonder they were so excited. Diane Von Furstenberg is an icon of feminine freedom and style. Her famous wrap dress changed the way that women dress, and by extension, live. Nearly 40 years since the launch of her career in design and her much-loved fashion house, DVF now designs several complete lines a year, and has a shoe collection, a bag collection, and even a housewares collection. I sat down with DVF inside Sephora to talk about how it all comes together.

You're known for your iconic wrap dresses, but you're also known for your prints. Can you talk about the process of creating your prints? Are they printed in-house?

© Lauren Doyle / MFbOh yes, and actually I design a lot of them myself. I always have a camera in my bag. I could do prints with my eyes closed, it's now such a part of the way I look at things. I also spend a lot of time with nature - because I'm a hiker - and a lot of the that I've done were inspired from nature. A very close up of the bark of a trunk, or a leaf or a petal...

Can you talk a little about how a collection evolves from beginning to end. How does something that large come together? 

Well it starts with a mood, and then because we design the fabric we work very much in advance, and then decide on a color pallet and then it's deciding what prints we're going to use. And then the designs themselves...

You do a lot of traveling. What about your travels inspires your collections?

You don't even know! Today I'm in Miami, on Tuesday I go to Brazil, and then I have a trip to Hawaii, and then it's China.

So when you come to Miami, what are some things that you throw into your overnight bag?

You know, I pack very well. I am a very good packer. I don't bring much. But when you pack for promotions you have to change a few times...I always say that my best design ideas always come when I pack. The art of packing is the art of living really. Because life is a journey.

Earlier today I was talking with local womenswear designer, Julian Chang, and I mentioned that I would be speaking with you. When I asked him if there was anything he wanted to know, and he said, 'How does she do it? She's always so ahead of the curve!' So...

Oh really? That's nice of him. I don't know...ahead of the curve? I'm a woman, and when I started I was in my early twenties, and I was so much younger than everyone. And of course now I'm so much older than everyone. I just, you know, I didn't know what I wanted to do but I knew the woman that I wanted to be, and I became that woman...Now that I am in the Fall of my life, I look back at my life and I realize that my mission is to empower women, and I do it through my work, by giving women beautiful things to wear; I do it through mentoring; and I do it through philanthropy. So... it's kind of nice because it all says the same thing. And it's the message that I give through the fragrance. I say, "Be the woman you want to be." And that speaks to everybody, you don't have to explain it. You can say it to any woman of any age, any nationality, and it immediately makes you dream.

DVF's new fragrance, Diane, is available at Sephora and Nordstrom. Tonight, Saks Fifth Avenue at Bal Harbour Shops is hosting a DVF meet-and-greet from 6:30 to 8:30.