Diane von Furstenberg Is Encouraged by 2018’s Activism, “But We Have to Fight”
Keri Russell was not expecting fluffy couches at the United Nations. “I was expecting a stuffy sort of . . . I was like, ‘what’s going on?’ But there’s drinks, there’s music, what’s happening?”
The only person capable of transforming the U.N. into a glorified fancy living room, of course, is Diane von Furstenberg. On Friday night people like Russell, Cleo Wade, Nicky Hilton, and Tina Brown joined von Furstenberg for the ninth annual DVF Awards, honoring a group of women including Misty Copeland and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
While the room was filled with an inspiring energy aimed toward uplifting women and encouraging activism, von Furstenberg acknowledged how much work still needs to be done, admitting that she feels worse about the state of the country than she did a year ago.
“I think it’s more chaotic [today],” she told Vanity Fair. “The good thing about that is it’s going to provoke things and there’s a lot of activism and I think that’s good. I want people to be in charge. I want people to speak and be more active. I think what happened to women is great, but I think we can’t let go. I think what happened to young people is great, but we have to fight.”
Delaney Tarr, a survivor of the Parkland shooting in Florida and one of those “young people” von Furstenberg made reference to, was in attendance Friday. On Saturday, Tarr will be speaking at the Women in the World Summit, two months to the day since the shooting.
“It’s definitely bittersweet to know that we’ve come this far, we’ve done so much in such a short period of time, but we’re still grieving and we’re still mourning,” Tarr told VF. “We haven’t had much time to process this. Two months may seem like a while, but it’s really not in terms of all this. It’s a lot to take into consideration because while a lot of people treat us like hot commodities, we are still grieving teenagers who just went through a tragedy. And that’s something that we’ve been trying to bring to light recently because we’re people. We’re teenagers. We’re not celebrities.”
Though Gloria Steinem, a former honoree, was at the event as only a guest, she still spoke eloquently on feminism in conversation. With the Time’s Up and Me Too movements in full effect and women being heard and believed en masse, her hope for the future, as she simply put it, is that “we won’t have bad things that need to be believed.”
“People will begin to understand that bodily integrity, whether we’re men or women, is our right. We control our physical selves and our voices. It’s actually the basis of democracy, and the only reason that women have it so much less is that systems of patriarchy, or whatever you want to call it, try to control reproduction, and so they try to own women’s bodies. And that’s the beginning of hierarchy, the beginning of violence.”
Friday night was a slightly different experience than last year’s DVF Awards. Whereas last year had torrential rain, security problems, and take-charge Seth Meyers guiding people inside the U.N., Friday was warm, sunny, and seamless (though Seth Meyers was missed). Still, there’s always room for improvement according to DVF herself.
“If only the podium was a little taller,” she said while addressing the crowd with a smile, “I’d be happy.”
See Gloria Steinem, Scarlett Johansson, and Tamika D. Mallory at the Women’s March on Washington
