Life Lessons from Diane Von Furstenberg

Welcome to Life Lessons. This week, to mark the start of Women’s History Month, we’re looking back at one of Diane Von Furstenberg’s two Interview cover stories. In our Fall 1981 issue, the fiery designer speaks with Iris Love, “the enfant terrible of archaeology,” about everything from her mythological inspirations for perfume to her musings on mortality. 30 years later, Furstenberg’s vision and thirst for novelty still resonates. So sit back, grab a pen—you just might learn a thing or two.

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“For business, I speak English. You talk business much better in English. French for gossip. Italian for gossip. Portuguese is definitely for love.”

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“My ultimate ambition is to be a very lucid and outrageous old lady and for my children just to be healthy, mentally and physically.”

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“I know women. I love women. I know what they want, and when they’re going to want it. Every one of my products should wink at women.”

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“What I like about fashion, makeup and accessories is that they allow you to project what you want to be when you want to be it. Once upon a time, you had one style only, but today you can be many different people.”

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“Well, if you give love, then you get it back.”

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“That’s what I am, a mother. I am that more than anything else.”

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“It’s important to have goals, but I don’t think it’s important that goals be specific. I think one should always have an open mind about what could happen, because the most wonderful things in life are not necessarily expected.”

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“Alexander, my son, gave me the biggest lesson ever. One day, we were walking and he said, ‘Mommy, what are you thinking about?’ I said, ‘I’m thinking about life and the future and what’s going to happen.’ He said, ‘I know what will happen. The leaves will fall and winter will come and then it will be spring again.’”

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“Every day of my life I think of death. I don’t like surprises, any surprises. I like to know. I like to control. I don’t like saying that, but I know that’s the way I feel.”

“I was just in Java and it has about 350 active volcanoes. I’ll end up throwing myself in one. I think that would be very glamorous.”

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“I think fashion and beauty are really projections of either who you are, or what you want to be. There is very little necessity involved.”

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“I’m going to start painting. I want to carve, I want to do things with my hands. I think it’s very important for people to do things with their hands—other than masturbate.”

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“If I had to be anything other than a person, I’d be a tree because they’re stable and so much happens underneath them. If I had to be a flower, I’d like to be a flower nobody picks. I don’t know, a hidden flower.”