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I reinvent myself every day every day. I mean every day every year everything you have to so for me this whole thing is the practice. I can't live any other way many days I wake up today now in this time and I feel like a total loser. Everybody feels like a loser. So then you just go on with it, you know and
That's why I say the most important relationship in life is the relationship you have with yourself. Once you have that any other relationship is a plus and not the most.
I'm Carly's a chicken. I'm Danielle Weisberg. Welcome to skim from the couch this podcast is where we go deep on Career advice from women who have lift it from the good stuff like hiring and growing a team to the rough stuff like negotiating your salary and giving or getting hard.
We started the skin from a couch. So what better place to talk it all
out, then where it began on a
couch.
Hey everyone. We are so excited for you to listen to this episode before we dive in we should note dvf is a fashion icon and you might hear the mic picking up her bracelets and some other jewelry throughout this episode. It is safe to say she is still a fashion icon even during work from home. Okay, let's get into it.
Our Guest today is the one and only Diane Von Furstenberg she is a legendary fashion designer who became a force in the industry after she created the iconic wrap dress in the 1970s decades later. She's remained a leader in global fashion having led the Council of fashion designers of America for 13 years, and she's inspired and empowered women around the world with her books podcasts and philanthropic work her newest book own it the
To life is on sale now Dion. Thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to skimmed from the couch know how nice to be there. I'm going to jump in because obviously you are someone who's been in the public eye for so long now, but what is something that we can Google about you?
Oh, I have no idea, you know very early on I realized that it's better to always say the truth and it also is better like when you negotiate,
She ate or you're trying to get a job. I always thought that if you know that the person that you're talking to may have reservation about something about you. I always think it's the best advice to bring it up yourself. So I don't know that there is anything about me that you could not find on the internet because I have always been quite vocal about everything.
All right. I'll take that. You have a remarkable.
Both story that is quite legendary at this point and I want to take it back to the beginning which you can talk about you without talking about your mom. I want to hear a little bit about her and what she taught you
well talking about anyone's mother is always very insightful for everyone and for everyone's personality, but my mother story of my mother's probably even more poignant and much more dramatic at age 22
My mother was in occupied Belgium and she was doing resistance work. She got caught she got shipped to Germany. She went to concentration camps. She went to Auschwitz birkenau and then as they were losing the war she was pushed into another Camp Robbins Brooke and another one. So for 13 months, she was a prisoner of war in the absolutely worst condition. She was a slave labor, but she did survive.
And when she survived she weighed 429 pounds Which is less than her bones and supposed to way but she did survive. She was shipped back to Belgium her parents could not believe that she was their existing and her mother fed her a little bit of food every 10 minutes and my mother used to say that she she could feel that she was blowing up like a balloon six months after her Liberation. She was almost normal and her fears.
Say who had been hiding in Switzerland came back. They got married and the doctor told them. It's an it's okay to get married, but you absolutely cannot have children because if you are pregnant, you will not survive and the chances are your child will not be normal. Well sure enough nine months later. I was born. My mother was a miracle her survival was a miracle. My birth was a miracle. So I already had one in the big.
Is just being born, you know, but my mother was very strict. She would never allow me to be afraid. She never wanted me to be a victim. I could not complain. I could not blame. I could not shame. You know II really had to be responsible for myself. And for example, she always said fear is not an option. So if I was afraid of the dark, she'd put me in the dark closet. The chances are today she would get arrested. But as a result, she
Made me, you know Fearless so yes, that's that's what I was born from and a lot of my character and a lot of the person that I became. I realized much later was a result of where I had been born
you talk about fear is not an option and obviously as you said your mom and therefore you are a complete miracle for overcoming fear and against every odds in the entire world. I could be against her.
But when you think about it, I'm going to look at this through a purely professional lens of fear is not an option in the workplace. How did fear not as an option play out as your career became what it is. I mean everyone naturally has moments of fear.
I think the word fear is I mean you have moments of hesitation will I fail will I succeed but I think the word fear is something that you should take away and you should put it in the basket and
In Waste Paper basket because if you don't deal with that you already ahead of the game like when people ask me what did you want to do when you're growing up and then my I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be I wanted to be a woman in charge and I was lucky. I became a woman and child to her little dress and at 28. I basically became the woman I wanted to be so I mean being in charge for me.
Is a way to live. I mean, it's not a matter of career being in charge is a commitment to ourselves. It's only who we are it's owning our imperfection and realizing they become asset
the movement your movement to be in charge became that much more interesting after you got married because you didn't just get married you married a prince which most people don't just marry a prince and you had to fight that much harder.
Our to show people that like you were still going to be in charge of your own destiny.
My mother used to say I was lazy, but at age 22, I stop being lazy and I got pregnant. I got married. I went I moved to America. I started a business. I had two children. I really had no time to worry about what was ahead of me. I just I just went on I just went in and I had a husband who was very supportive. He wanted me to succeed introduced me to a lot of people.
But at the end it was me. I mean there are
thousands
of difficulties of obstacles on a daily base, but you just deal with it, you know, you just deal with it. So yes, I did marry a prince, but I didn't really use my name of Princess very much. And what I really wanted to be is to be an independent woman a woman in charge and I was lucky because I became that woman because of little
dress.
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The wrap dress became synonymous with the independent woman like living her life and I have to tell you as a side note my first you summer getting a paycheck. I went to the outlets and I got my wrap dress because I was like, I need to have one to meet to be a working woman. Was it lucky? I think so ended up here. What is it like to have your name front and center of
Of a company of a movement of something that became so much bigger than you as an individual. I
didn't even think of it. You know when I made my first dresses I registered a company and it happened without me thinking about it. I wrote my name and that became my label. I became and name of my company, but what I remember more clearly is how frontally I wants it for me. It's always the woman first, you know, so as I became the woman in charge because of a little dry.
Yes, I was more and more confidence and I was selling that confidence to other women while I was traveling wrapping them in fitting rooms and so on so I from the beginning and it's really probably by accident. Like I had no money to have a model. So I used to model. So I was very much the woman I designed for so I was extremely fragile in everything. I was sharing my experience sharing my insecurities and that's how I kind of
I have the whole thing. Everything goes back to this book. This book is called own it the secret to life because own networks for everything you own your imperfection. They become your asset you own your vulnerability. It becomes your strength. So I owned who I was, you know, by talking the truth and by explaining what I was going through the good the bad and then that's when I realized that to show your vulnerability.
It's a sign of strength
when you're in those moments of stress or criticism or challenges. Whatever those might be. It's sometimes very hard to see it through the lens that you just reflected on. When you look back at all of the things that you've been through and how you reinvented yourself and the brand many times what has been the hardest moment in that
I reinvent myself every
day every
day. I mean every day every year everything you have to
So for me this whole thing is the practice I can't live any other way many days. I wake up today now in this time and I feel like a total losers, you know, only losers don't feel like roses. Everybody feels like a loser, but then you just go on with it, you know, and that's why I say the most important relationship in life is the relationship you have with yourself. Once you have that any other relationship is a plus
And not that much and therefore you need to be alone you need time for yourself. You need to be critical with yourself. You need them to be delusional. But you also need to like yourself. And in that moment when you
wake up, which I can't imagine making up as you and being like, I feel like a loser but everybody does your I have those moments walk me through your process of like, okay Dan snap out of it. That
is Zach who is a very famous French writer of the 19th century. He said,
Something that was wonderful. When you doubt your power you give power to your doubts you say that in front of the mirror and you understand what I'm
talking and I'll tell you a story that my team has no idea. I'm about to tell you when I was in high school. My mom went to a lecture that you gave and I was a bratty teenager. She would like to say I don't think I was and she I think you were signing a book afterwards and she went up to
You and said I was such a big fan and could you call me and tell me to be nice to my mom? Oh, no, and you did you with my standing with my mom called me from your cell phone. And you said Carly I'm sitting with your mom. She's very nice. Be nice to her and I have the voicemail saved on my phone somewhere. I saved the number because I was like, huh? Never know if I'm going to need dvf's number one day Flash Forward to I started the skin when I
In my late 20s and Danielle my co-founder and I are sitting or like how do we get this in front of people and you were one of the people we wanted to meet and I said, I think I have her cell phone number.
Oh, no.
I called you and we will never forget Danielle and I are sitting on the couch and I called you and you picked up your cell phone and I froze and I was like, oh my God. Hi, this is Carly my mom that you 10 years ago. And like I don't even know what I said, and you just said I don't understand email me.
And I can you gave me your email address and I emailed you and you responded and sent me to someone on your team to meet and then fast forward a few years later. We actually did meet in person. And I remember what you told me when we met was that every morning you wake up very early and you send out one or two emails and I want you to tell our audience what those one or two emails are about because I think it's a good explanation of why you gave me even the time.
Day
first of all, I love that story. So I want you to I mean we have to to record that I want that in my archive It's a Wonderful story. It is true that when I realized as I became more successful and more, you know, I spoke more in public and everything. I realized that I have a voice right? So when you realize that you have a voice it's a big it's
It's a it's a real privilege because you could really use that voice to do all good. Right? So now that I am at the sunset of my life if I'm lucky because I'm an older woman. My major. My major focus is how can I have a Maximum Impact using my voice my connections my experience my knowledge my resources in order to in order to help other women to be the women.
Want to be okay to connect is when I started to do the in-charge movement and it's still at the very beginning. I'm still drafting it, but when I started, you know and being the in charge movement or someone who was working with me at the time say well, if you have a movement of a mission statement, you have to have my / steps so I say oh micro steps. Yes. That sounds great. Connect is the first one. What does it mean? It means using your voice using
Whatever power you have whatever connections you have in order to help others, right? So I love technology. I'm one of those people that I love technology. My iPad is my best friend. I have absolutely no shame of saying it because through the technology I have access to everything I could read anything. I can learn anything and and all kinds of very very clever young women.
Like you have created communities and done all these incredible things. So with the technology what I can really do is connect people right connect people. So every morning amounts my first emails I will pick at least two or three emails that don't benefit me at all, but I will try to make one Miracle happen every day and that
Miracle is about connection because I have a lot of people that I know I have a good reputation because I've been a good person in my life. I know how to reach people and I know they will pay attention to what I say. So this is a huge power that I can actually help to benefit
others.
I want to talk about approaching challenges in business obviously being in business for decades. It's amazing that dvf is still as iconic as it is, but of course like 2020 has been a difficult year for every business and and all of us and all different ways and it's exposed a lot of challenges for your company you talked about reinvention and how you're always Reinventing yourself and it sounds like you're Reinventing the business in many ways.
So I had different generation.
Right. I started at 24 and I live the American dream. Wow, huge success so fast, I wasn't prepared. I wasn't whatever whatever and then I started licensing and then I ended up selling it. I went back to Europe and in any case to make a story short the people who had my name destroyed it, right? So 20 years ago I started again, but I started again with a bunch of young girls and we started again and
We were successful and we expanded it first generation. I call American Dream second generation is Comeback Kid and so in 2014 when I was celebrating the 40th anniversary of the wrap dress. I thought okay. Well now it's time for the Legacy. And so I look for shortcuts or I looked for people who I thought I knew better than I did and this man came in and he expanded too fast too much too cheap to
Whatever and it wasn't right and it made me lose a lot of money. Okay, a lot of money. So the last few years my business was suffering the business was suffering because we expanded too much and so on but it was getting better already. But so when covid happened and all of a sudden, what do you mean the entire world has staff? How could that be? I mean then I just said wow.
I I thought I
would I don't
I said take advantage because take advantage of the bad thing is not good. But this is the opportunity for me to just figure out since the world has stopped. I need that stop to re-evaluate everything to go back to the core to do things. Right and that's what I did and I think I think that 2020 may end up being the most productive year of my life. I stay still.
Then I moved this I had to re-evaluate revalidate everything I could have sold the company but they would have owned everything the name the archives the library of prints that the bank of colors. I couldn't let
that happen. You know, it's interesting when I think about the longevity of the brand the fact that it has your name on it the fact that your granddaughter tvf is now, you know working so closely with you on it. Do you think about the brand as a family business? Yes.
It's completely is owned by the family. It is personal. It is me. This is my legacy my Heritage and because I was so associated with everything because I put myself for in the front always it is very personal thing and that's why I had to go back, you know, no more license go back to the core and that's what I started to do. The inventory of what we have, you know, fifteen thousand prints all these cut all the silhouette site.
Iconic silhouette that has still surviving and now all of a sudden I have a very young team. I am the old thing right the founder. This is the story and so on. I'm putting everything in this world and I have a young team. Everyone is really young man. The woman who is now running it. She's 31 and and all the designers are young and it's such a wonderful thing to see an established brand a brand.
That has, you know Cade to so many generations over the years but be seen Through The Eyes of young people and Technology because clearly technology and the digital is going to be very important. So you just watching the next few months how our rebirth will be today. You just happen to find me in a very exciting mood.
Everyone has challenging moments in their career and
When you talk about owning it and you talk about your owning your Independence and you talk about the first relationship you have to have is with yourself. How do you leverage all of that to give somebody advice or on how to navigate the challenging moments? They might have in their career.
First of all, everyone has Brand your life is a bread. Okay. So your life is a brand and you can design your brand you can design your life. Listen, we don't have control of everything clearly enough. I mean terrible things happen and all of that but you never lose your character. I remember that your character. You could lose your health your wealth your beauty your family your
everything your freedom, but you never lose your character. Your character is the little house inside yourself you shelter and it's is even under torture. You could look at that you're torturing her in the eyes and you keep your character that you have control. The only thing you have control of so remember
that I I think that's a perfect way to go into our next and last segment the lightning round. This is going to be rapid fire questions.
Advisor answers ready? Are you a morning person or a night owl. I'm a morning person last TV show. You streamed or binge-watched.
Call my agent.
Are you a good cook?
No, not really. I mean like I used to cook for my children. I don't cook anymore. But I appreciate a good coat
worst professional mistake. You've made hiring the wrong people favorite memory from Studio 54
the entrance Studio 54 was all about the
Entrance first of all you had to wait to get in because you are, you know, it was a queue and isn't it and then you went in and there was a disco music and there was this long Corridor with mirrors on both sides and you just I was wearing my cowboy boots and I just felt like you know, and so what I remember the most about Studio 54 is the entrance
how do you unwind I go for a walk? All right. What is your Shameless plug
my book own it the secret to
life.
Dvf sweat and honor to sit down with you and congratulations on everything.
You are so sweet. Will you tell your
mom I will tell my mom.
Thanks for hanging out with us. Join us next week for another episode of skin from the couch. And if you can't wait until then subscribe to our daily email newsletter that gives you all the important news and information. You need to start your day sign up at the scam.com. That's the SK IMM.com two M's for a little something extra.
