Diane von Furstenberg's "family approach" to her 13-year run as CFDA president

Diane von Furstenberg, who served as president and then president of the CFDA from 2006 to 2019, said her most important role was to make the CFDA a family.

"I'm a mother, I'm a Jewish mother and I wanted to make it a family and that was very important to me. That was my number one goal," von Furstenberg said. She added that even though CFDA members are competitive, they also support each other.

According to von Furstenberg, when she took office, the CFDA was not so powerful on a global scale. "I really amplified what it meant and what it was. Because I'm European and I speak Italian, I speak French, I met the English, I met the French, I met the Italians, I made the CFDA more important and gave it more recognition,” she said.

She said that the most important mission of the CFDA is really to promote creators. It was started by Eleanor Lambert, who was a publicist. She couldn't understand why in Europe designers were being showcased, but in America the designers were all from Seventh Avenue firms and they were down the hall and no one was pushing them.

Lambert did it and she believed in it, von Furstenberg said. “His spirit was just what the mission was. I made it a family where the designers wouldn't necessarily compete and be part of a family, and share prizes, opportunities and trips,” von Furstenberg said.

A key initiative that grew under his leadership was the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. It started three years before he came on board. “We amplified it and that was really important because it highlighted opportunities for young creators,” she said. Von Furstenberg said Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, was really supportive of the CFDA. "She realized it was important to her, and she was important to us, and the CFDA/Vogue collaboration was extremely important," von Furstenberg said. They created a Parisian showroom for fund participants during Paris Fashion Week, increasing their profiles and businesses.

Von Furstenberg said one of the things she and the organization's president, and now chief executive, Steven Kolb, did was go to Washington, D.C., to try to get protection. copyright for the designers' creations. They met lobbyists, who told them they couldn't see anyone. “We've seen all the senators, we've seen Hillary Clinton, we've seen Nancy Pelosi. Our efforts to protect the designs completely failed, but because we made so much noise to get the bill passed, we caught the attention of mass merchants who would normally copy designers' designs, and we said: 'Engage the designers.' Our efforts were not wasted. After that, H&M, Kohl's and Target started hiring the designers.

"CFDA's raison d'être is to enhance the value of designers," she said. "That's what we're supposed to do."

Discussing how the endowment grew under her watch, she said, "It was Steven. He said we need to raise more, and I said, 'Let's take an American flag and sell every star for $50,000" and we raised $2 million. Steven is a good fundraiser; before him, we never had any money.

“I had the idea of ​​the American flag,” she said. It hung in the CFDA office.

When asked if she forged the partnership with Swarovski while she was president, von Furstenberg replied, "No, but I kept it alive." She also went to Geoffrey Beene's executor and forged this purse. "They give a lot of money." The CFDA doubled its membership during his tenure.

"I wanted it to be a lot more inclusive," she said.

Describing how she and Kolb worked together and what the ups and downs were, she said, "I love Steven. The first thing he knew about fashion. We went to Washington together , we went to Paris together, we had a lot of fun,” she said.

In January 2007, the CFDA formed a health initiative to address concerns about unhealthy thin models and whether or not the industry should impose restrictions. The CFDA expanded the initiative with Bethann Hardison and her Diversity Coalition in 2013 to improve diversity in fashion, and evolved it with Sara Ziff and the Model Alliance i...