Strong Women Series – Part 2
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Diane von Fürstenberg: The Woman Who Wrapped Freedom in a Dress
In the first part of Smiling Maria’s Strong Women Series, we looked at Coco Chanel and how she helped free women from corsets and rigid rules.
In Part 2, we move a few decades forward.
This time, our spotlight is on Diane von Fürstenberg – the woman who created the iconic wrap dress, built a global fashion brand, and turned her own life story into a manifesto of female strength and freedom. Her philosophy is simple but radical:
“I wanted to be an empowered woman, and I became an empowered woman. Now I want to empower every woman.” BrainyQuote
Diane didn’t just design clothes. She designed a feeling: the feeling of being in charge of your own life.
1. Born from Survival: “Fear Is Not an Option”
Diane von Fürstenberg was born Diane Simone Michele Halfin in Brussels in 1946. Her mother, Lily, was a Holocaust survivor who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz and weighed only around 49 pounds when she was liberated.TIME+1
Growing up with a mother who had literally survived the unimaginable, Diane was raised on one core message:
fear is not an option.TIME+1
This background shaped everything:
She did not see herself as fragile.
She did not wait to be saved.
She understood very early that life is uncertain, but courage is a choice.
For a girl in post-war Europe, with a Jewish background and a mother marked by trauma, becoming a global fashion icon was not an obvious path. It was something she built, decision by decision.
2. Becoming DVF: A Young Woman Designing Her Own Life
As a teenager and young woman, Diane studied in boarding schools in England and Switzerland.wunderlabel.com She was drawn to a cosmopolitan, international world – the kind of life where you travel, meet people, and move between cultures.
In her early 20s she met Prince Egon von Fürstenberg, a German aristocrat. They married when she was very young and had two children. After moving to New York, Diane found herself in a city where fashion, business, and culture were exploding.TIME+1
Most women in her position at the time might have chosen a quiet life: social events, charity, comfortable privilege. Diane chose something else:
She wanted her own money.
She wanted her own career.
She wanted a name that stood for something she built herself.
In 1972, she launched her own label in New York: the Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) brand.MasterClass
She wasn’t just “Princess von Fürstenberg” anymore. She was DVF – a woman designing for other women like herself: independent, ambitious, and unafraid to be feminine.
3. The Wrap Dress: A Simple Shape, A Complex Freedom
In the mid-1970s, Diane introduced a simple jersey dress that crossed over in front and tied at the waist: the wrap dress.TIME+1
On paper, it was nothing complicated:
No zippers, no buttons.
Soft, stretchy fabric that followed the body instead of fighting it.
A flattering V-neck, waist tie, and knee-length skirt.BrainyQuote+1
But in real women’s lives, it was a revolution.
Why the wrap dress was so powerful
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Made for working women
The wrap dress appeared at a very specific moment: when more and more women were entering offices, boardrooms, and professional spaces that used to belong only to men.The Guardian+1It was:
Polished enough for meetings.
Comfortable enough for long days.
Feminine without being fragile. -
From day to night – in one move
You could wear it to the office with a blazer and then go straight to dinner, drinks, or a date by just changing your shoes or lipstick. That flexibility made it the perfect uniform for the new, urban, multi-tasking woman. -
You control the fit
The dress doesn’t control you – you tie it. You can adjust it after lunch, tighten it before a meeting, loosen it at home. This small physical gesture – wrapping and tying your own waist – carries a psychological message:“I am the one in charge of how I present my body.”
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Femininity as strength, not weakness
In a famous 1974 ad for the dress, Diane appeared wearing it herself with the line “Feel like a woman, wear a dress!”TIME+1The message was clear:
You don’t have to look like a man to be powerful. You can be soft, printed, curvy – and still be the boss.
Very quickly, DVF was reportedly selling tens of thousands of wrap dresses a week.BrainyQuote+1 The dress became a uniform for a whole generation of women, and it has been worn by everyone from Michelle Obama to Kate Middleton, Oprah Winfrey and more.TIME+1
4. Rise, Fall, Reinvention: Strength Beyond Success
Like many strong women, Diane’s story is not a straight line of success.
By the mid-1980s, fashion tastes had changed. Power suits and minimalist looks took over, and the wrap dress declined in popularity.ikrush.com
DVF’s business went through difficult years; the era of the first wrap dress seemed to be over.
For some people, this would have been the end of the story.
But Diane is not “some people.”
In 1997, she relaunched the wrap dress with new fabrics and prints, positioning it as a timeless classic rather than a 70s trend.ikrush.com+1
And it worked. A new generation of women discovered the dress, and DVF became once again a global symbol of effortless femininity + real-life practicality.
Diane often says that the most important relationship in life is the one you have with yourself. Once that is strong, you can design your life the way you want.BrainyQuote
Her own life is proof:
She built, lost, and rebuilt.
She changed directions without losing her core identity.
She refused to let one “era” define her.
5. Beyond Fashion: DVF Awards and a Life Spent Lifting Women
Diane von Fürstenberg did not stop at clothing. She moved from “designing a dress” to designing a platform for women’s voices.
In 2010, she created the DVF Awards, in partnership with the Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation. The awards honor women who show strength, courage, and leadership in making life better for other women and communities around the world.MasterClass+1
At the 16th DVF Awards in 2025, honorees included:
Activists working on maternal health,
Indigenous leaders protecting the Amazon,
Advocates fighting gender-based violence,
Public figures using their platform for criminal justice reform.Vogue+1
In other words: Diane now uses her fame and resources to spotlight other strong women and give them both visibility and financial support.
Even today, in her late 70s, she continues to:
Shape her brand’s future (for example, by regaining control of DVF and partnering with digital-first platforms to reach a new generation),Marie Claire UK+1
Speak openly about aging without fear,
Celebrate her family and especially the young women in it,
Use her voice to show that power, kindness, and vulnerability can coexist.
6. What Modern Women Can Learn from Diane von Fürstenberg
For women reading Smiling Maria’s blog, Diane’s story is not just “fashion history.” It’s a practical handbook for everyday courage.
Here are a few key lessons we can borrow from her:
1. Design your own life
Diane once said that once you build a strong relationship with yourself, you can “design your life.”BrainyQuote
That does not mean having everything figured out. It means:
Choosing your own direction,
Allowing yourself to change careers, cities, partners, or style,
Saying “this is my life, and I am the one drawing the lines.”
2. Femininity is not the opposite of power
The wrap dress is soft, printed, body-hugging. It is the opposite of a stiff suit of armor. And that is exactly the point.
Diane proved that:
You do not have to hide your curves to be respected.
You do not have to erase your sensuality to be taken seriously.
You can walk into a room in a colorful dress and still be the one who leads the conversation.
3. Comfort is a form of respect for yourself
The jersey fabric, the easy tie, the light weight – all these choices say:
“Your comfort matters.”BrainyQuote+1
And when you are physically comfortable:
You think more clearly,
You move more freely,
You show up more fully.
Whether it is a dress, lingerie, loungewear, or your favorite pajamas – what you wear at home or outside should support your life, not restrict it.
4. Fear is not an option – but honesty is
Coming from a mother who survived Auschwitz, “fear is not an option” was not motivational fluff for Diane. It was survival wisdom.TIME+1
For us today, this can mean:
Feeling fear, but not letting it decide everything,
Being honest about when we are struggling – and still moving forward,
Allowing ourselves to start over, relaunch, or reinvent, just like she did with her brand.
5. Lift as you rise
Through the DVF Awards and her public work, Diane shows that real power is not only about “making it” yourself, but also about bringing other women with you.Vanity Fair+1
You do not need a global foundation to do this. You can:
Mentor a younger colleague,
Recommend a woman’s business,
Share opportunities instead of competing in silence.
7. Strong Women, Soft Fabrics: How This Connects to Smiling Maria
At Smiling Maria, we deeply believe in this paradox that Diane embodies so well:
A woman can be soft and strong at the same time.
Every product we curate – from lingerie and activewear to self-care and spa pieces – is meant to support that feeling when you look in the mirror and think:
“I feel like myself.”
“I feel comfortable in my body.”
“I am ready to own my day.”
Just like the wrap dress was created for women running from subway to office to dinner, our collections are built for real lives:
The woman who starts her day in cozy loungewear and ends it in a killer dress.
The woman who prioritizes self-care not as a luxury, but as fuel.
The woman who wants her lingerie, skincare, and outfits to be a daily reminder that her body and her story belong to her.
You can pair this article with links such as:
“Explore our [Lingerie & Loungewear] collection”
“Create your own wrap-style moment with pieces from [Dresses & Everyday Chic]”
“Build your evening ritual with [Self-Care & Spa Essentials]”
(You can insert the actual Smiling Maria URLs when publishing.)
Closing: A Dress, A Life, A Legacy
Diane von Fürstenberg’s story starts with survival, moves through courage, and arrives at a place where her clothes and her voice both say the same thing:
“You are already strong. Dress like you believe it.”
As you scroll through Smiling Maria, choosing the pieces that will live closest to your skin – lingerie, homewear, self-care – maybe keep this question in mind:
What would I choose today if I saw myself as the main character of my own story?
Because in the end, the real “wrap” is not the dress.
It is the way you wrap yourself in your own power, every single day.