In January 1970, she slipped three copies of her modern and sensual dress into a trunk, and went knocking on the door of the high fashion priestess herself, Diana Vreeland, legendary director of American Vogue. “She didn’t come to see me with an idea,” recalls Diana Vreeland. “She came with a global offer, a product, a project carried out from A to Z.”
Diane explained that the idea came to her naturally, after seeing Julie Nixon Eisenhower wearing a wrap-style top with a wraparound skirt on TV. “Why not pair the two to make a dress?” The post-68 years, in search of practicalness, were kind to this wrinkle-free dress, washable in the blink of an eye, made with a bright and modern print, like an antidote to all the pomp of haute couture. The first wrap dress, sold in 1973, became an instant phenomenon. Without any buttons or zippers, able to be slipped on in the morning to go to work, it carries on throughout the day without breaking a sweat, paired with high heels and accessorized with jewelry for a more dressed-up evening. The wrap dress: just as sexy as it is practical, has become an emblem for the liberation of women.
At the height of its success in 1976, Diane von Furstenberg sent out 25,000 dresses per week to her various American depositories; back then Diane’s wrap dress barely cost $75. After briefly falling out of the limelight, a new generation of clients brought the wrap back into action. These young women grabbed every 70s vintage style they could find off of thrift store racks. Suddenly, they would rediscover the joys of the perfect cut, of jersey just tight enough to flatter the silhouette. And so, the wrap dress by Diane von Furstenberg continues to respond to the needs of the active woman. Like Kim Cattral once said in Sex and the City: “She’s just so, so… Diane!”
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