Diane von Furstenburg's Double Life
Diane von Furstenberg doesn't just run a fabulous fashion empire.She's helping train 100,000 female moguls-in-the-making.
Atop a sweeping staircase - its handrails shimmering with 3000 Swarovski crystals - Diane von Furstenberg is perched in her pink-walled private studio in New York City, describing the "miracle" of her life.
"So my mother, she was in her early 20s; she was arrested and went to a concentration camp - she went to Auschwitz and other ones for 14 months. And when she came back, she weighed 49 pounds," says the fashion designer, dressed simply in a black sweater and short checked skirt, with no apparent makeup, on a weekday afternoon. "Then six months later, she had gotten much better, and my father married her. But the doctor said, 'You cannot have children.' Nine months later, I was born."
Von Furstenberg, who grew up in Belgium and later married European aristocrat Egon von Furstenberg, was 35 when she first spoke publicly of her mother's past - and it became a defining moment. "I was accepting an award, and then I heard myself saying something I'd never said, and everybody started to cry," she says. "I realized that my life is just a miracle, and therefore, it's my duty to share it."
Since then, von Furstenberg has made it her mission to empower women. She's actively involved with Vital Voices, a nonprofit group that has trained 5000 emerging women leaders and entrepreneurs in 150 countries, and these women in turn have mentored 100,000 more. As a board member, von Furstenberg finds imaginative ways to raise funds and awareness. Take her most recent endeavor: a Wonder Woman - inspired comic book she wrote for DC Comics called Be the Wonder Woman You Can Be, with proceeds going to Vital Voices.
To donate time or money to Vital Voices go to VitalVoices.com. To buy von Furstenburg's comic book, which benefits Vital Voices, go to dvf.com
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Reprinted with Permission of Hearst Communications, Inc.
