WEBVTT - Diane von Furstenberg 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Diane von Furstenberg may be best known to women around 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:09.520 the world as the creator of the iconic rap dress, 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.080 but in addition to running her fashion company, she's been 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.280 deeply involved in philanthropy. With her husband Barry Diller, she 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.840 helped to create the high Line and also Little Island 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.000 on the West Side of New York. She's also now 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.960 leading the effort to raise money for the Ellis Island Foundation. 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.639 Had a chance to sit down with her recently to 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.960 talk about her extraordinary life and her dedication to philanthropy 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:31.640 and to her family. So let me ask you about 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:33.760 something I can say I'm not an expert on which 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.960 is fashion. Nobody's ever considered me a fashion plate. You 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:44.159 invented something called the rap dress about forty plus years ago, 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.120 almost fifty years, and it's one of the most famous 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.040 designs in the last fifty years, and women are still 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.480 wearing it. So tell me where you surprised that after 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.280 almost fifty years, women are still wearing the same design. 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.480 Obviously different dress, but same design as something that was 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.440 popular almost fifty years ago. Yeah, I mean it's you know, 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.520 people say I created the rap dress, which is true, 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:14.280 but really the rap dress created me because because of 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.360 that dress, I became the woman I wanted to be. 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:23.480 I became independent. I by being an independent it paid 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.920 for my children education, It paid for my house in 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:31.600 the country, paid for my apartment. So it made me free, 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.320 and it made me liberated. And it was the time 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:40.199 of the women's liberation. So and because it was a dress, 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:44.640 the more confident I became, and the more the more 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:49.680 confidence I was, I was passing on this confidence to 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.200 other women through this little dress that I would go 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:57.760 around and wrap around women's bodies. And so in a 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:01.480 sense now that I look back that I'm an older 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.400 woman and so on I looked back, it's almost like 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:07.960 I was a conduit, you know, I was a conduit 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.760 for confidence for many generations of women. So how long 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:16.320 did it take to develop the rap dress? Was it 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.440 something that came to you like that or was it 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.280 many years? How did it develop? When I was twenty, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.360 I went out of college and I didn't know what 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.400 I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:27.720 woman I wanted to be. I wanted to be a 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.440 woman in charge. So how which though, is going to 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:35.079 be my door? So I thought maybe fashion? So at 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:40.519 first I worked in Paris for a fashion um photographer's agent, 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:46.119 and that got me wow. I discovered the world of fashion. 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.360 And then I met the father of a friend of 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.640 the broad of my boyfriend whatever in Italy, and he said, 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.400 you know, you should come and discover the other side 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.919 of fashion, where we make fashion. So and I discovered 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.120 how you know all about printing. You know how you 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.360 buy artwork and how you put it in repeat, and 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.840 how you printed, and you worked with the colorist and 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.600 and learned how to do a color palette. So it 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.320 was really a craft. And so I didn't think that 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:21.600 any of this was going to be useful to me 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.239 at all, but it was very interesting. I then went 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.120 to America for the first time to visit my boyfriend. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.000 My mother gave me a ticket to go to New 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.640 York and visit him, and I discovered New York and 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:39.000 I couldn't believe it. It was ninety yeah, I mean 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.280 I couldn't believe how. I said, I have to come 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:46.200 back here. And also while I was in New York 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.680 because my my boyfriend then he was a young, very 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.360 attractive prince, so he was very much, you know, in 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.160 demand in New York. He was very good looking and 0:03:57.280 --> 0:03:59.520 because he was in the man and I came as 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:02.640 his girl friend. All the designer wanted to lend me 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.840 close and blah blah blah, and and so while I 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.600 was here here, I mean I stayed about a month. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.360 I think I discovered so much. I discovered New York. 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:19.479 I discovered all these young designers. And when I went back, 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:21.880 all I could think about is how do I get 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.240 back to New York? How do I get back to 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.200 New And when I went back to work in the factory, 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.320 all of a sudden, I looked at everything there and 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:37.120 I said, oh, there is my door. There's an opportunity. 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:42.560 Let me try to make some easy, easy, little dresses 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.520 that I can then go and sell in America. And 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.240 that's how I started. So I would stay late at 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.240 night with a pattern maker and make some samples and 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.720 so on. But for those who are watching, who may 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.920 not be fashion experts, what exactly is a rap drop? 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.200 You know what was so unique about you wrap your body? 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:08.279 So it started from these little sweaters that ballerinas where 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.520 you know when they when they get cold, and it's 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.599 it's it's wrapped. It's like a kimono, right again, Japanese 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:20.000 kimono but it's very tight. And because it was jersey, 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.640 you wrap it very tight. That was the difference. And 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.279 it was just a rap dress and it was printed 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.200 because I was in this print factory, so it was 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.520 a wrapped first. It was a wraptop with a rap 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.440 with a skirt, and it did really well, and then 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:39.880 I said, I've got to turn it into a dress, 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:44.560 and then it became addressed. And before I knew, at 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:50.440 the age of twenty six, I was making twenty five 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:54.719 thousand rab dresses a week. And you became very famous, 0:05:54.880 --> 0:05:58.000 and I became n There's a story that Newsweek was 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.479 going to put Gerald Ford President Night's States on the 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:05.800 cover and they for winning his primary. Yes, but then 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.960 I discovered that it was the month of March, and 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:14.800 the months of March is usually when they want subscription renewals, 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.679 and so they would think that maybe I would be 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.919 but atractive woman might be better. Okay, so let's go 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:27.440 back a moment um. You grew up in what country, Belgium? 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.960 And your mother was a survivor of of Auschwitz? Is 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.160 that right? Yes? And how did she survive Auschwitz? He 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:39.640 weighed only fifty nine pounds when she came. How do 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:43.960 you survive. I don't know, I don't know. I mean 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.440 very very, very few people survived. She survived. She was 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:53.280 twenty two. I mean she got arrested, she was one. 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:59.080 She stayed, she stayed fourteen months, um and she she 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.240 got she really got arrested very late. It was May 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:08.520 forty four. And but she worked while she was there. 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:12.000 She worked at the group factory. So while you know, 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.120 when you were working, they wouldn't kill you. So that 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.960 that's the first thing. And then after that there was 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.960 the famous death March, and they went and they walked 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:27.000 and to another camp, Ravens Brook. A lot of people 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.320 died on the march. She thought she was going to 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.600 die on the march, but she didn't. And then after that, 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.240 as they were losing the war, they pushed back more 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.280 and and then she ended up in another camp. And 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:44.320 then one day the Germans had gone, then the Russian 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:49.240 came and raped every girl and uh, and then after 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:53.040 that the Americans arrived. Now, your mother had a tattoo 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:58.240 that Alschwitz two. So do you ever asked her when 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:01.640 you were a little what? Yeah? She everybody asked. And 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.720 then she had removed she had one number and then 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:07.640 crossed and then the number. I mean, for me, it 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.040 was you know, it wasn't odd because I had always 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.600 seen it like that. I knew she had been to 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.679 the camp. I mean, you know, there was a little 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.120 talk about it, but she shielded me from it all 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.080 without making it a big mystery. So you come to 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:25.440 New York. You're the queen of New York because you're 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:27.720 the princess of New York is you're very young, you're 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.360 in your twenties, You're made a lot of money by 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:34.080 any normal standards, and you're the queen of the fashion world. Right, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.120 let's say, right, so how do you top that? There 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.840 had no such thing as going to the top, top 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.680 top and continuing to go to the top. Also, I 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.200 think it's really important. I always make a point to 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.920 tell people that sometimes when you are at the very top, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.960 that that that time I was on the cover of 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.760 Newsweek and on the front page of the World Street Journal, 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.480 and everybody was buying my dresses, and I was acclaimed 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:05.240 as the big success. I myself already knew that things 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.479 were so easy because in the way I had saturated 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.040 the market. You know, everybody had a rap dress and 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:15.280 nobody needed to buy another rap dress. Everybody had many 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.840 rap dresses. Okay, so did your business go down every Yes? 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.000 Then I licensed that, you know, and uh, and then 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.720 I like, you know, I mean, life is like it's 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.439 you know, you go as you go. So I licensed 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.439 my dress business to a company that I thought had 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.480 more experience than I did, and they continued to develop it, 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.720 and I decided, now I'm going to be a studo 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:40.880 and I started acus Many company. But while you were 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.000 doing that, you led the very interesting life of a 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.120 socialite in the seventies in New York. You're meeting with 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.720 Andy Warhol and other people. What was that life? Like? 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.920 Everybody famous who was young was a friend of yours. 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:57.680 New York City in the seventies was many things. For 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:01.679 one thing, it was very dirty, it was very dangerous, 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:07.040 and it was very cheap, and therefore a lot of 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:11.760 artists were here. It was very exciting time. It was 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.960 a time that people wanted freedom. We we thought our 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:21.280 generations ought we invented freedom, which of course we didn't. Uh. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.480 And it was it was fun and there were a 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:29.280 lot of creative people, and Andy Waholl was everywhere, and 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.920 there was a lot of other people and and it 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.640 was fun. But I mean, it's always fun when you're young. 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:37.800 So Andy Warhol said, hey, I'll paint the picture of you. 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.160 Was that happening a lot? Uh? Andy Warholl did my 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.520 first portrait one night, very late in the anybody was 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.120 looking for a white wall because he would take a 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.400 polaroid and then he would use the polaroid and and 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:54.320 and and paint from there and then and he was 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.120 he needed a white wall. And in my office, in 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.720 my home, they had no white wall. So we went 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.840 the kitchen and because the white wall in my kitchen 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:07.560 was so tiny, I lifted my arm and that was 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.360 the first time he painted me. And then he painted 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.640 me later for a show that he was planning to 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.880 do in the eighties called Beauties. And did he did 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.839 he give you the paintings or he he gave me? Okay, 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.920 the first one he gave me one, I bought two. 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.080 The second time he gave me one, I bought none. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.120 And when he died, I bought them all. So let 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.600 me ask you. Your business is moving forward. You're in 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.319 the cosmetics business, You're getting another businesses fragrance and other things. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.400 Life sounds like it's great. Everything is going well. Did 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:46.120 at some point all the businesses go down, and I 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:50.400 for a whilington wasn't so good? Were they always ups 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.880 and down and ups and down? I had the first 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:58.720 phase of my life is very much American dream. Okay, 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.559 I lived a true American dream. Really. I was young, 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.960 I was inexperience, and I became very successful after that. 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.760 You know, I had difficulties. I had enough, and then 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:17.280 finally I ended up selling the cosmetic and uh. And 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.080 then of course by then my children are teenagers, so 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.000 they went to board in school. At that time I decided, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.000 I went back to Europe. I lived in Paris for 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.319 a few years, and then I came back here and 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:33.760 then I decided. And then by then my brand was 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.640 really wow. It was like bad. It was in discount 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:42.200 stores and everybody had done everything. And that was difficult. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.720 That was a difficult time for me to see because 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:50.679 everything until then was great and wonderful. Even when it 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:54.160 wasn't great and wonderful, it was still exciting. But then 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.240 coming back, I mean and seeing the brand and the 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:00.760 people who were in charge of the brand, and they 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.080 didn't care. I mean, there was no spirit, there was 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:08.200 no there was no messenging, there was no nothing. It 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:12.720 was that was really difficult, and as I don't know 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.360 if it's as a result of that, but at the 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:21.240 same time, I also had a cancer. I had a 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:25.200 cancer at the at the at the bottom, at the 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.800 base of my tongue, and uh, and I think it 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:31.840 has something to do with the fact that I couldn't 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:36.600 express myself anyway. So I dealt with that, and I 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:42.240 also then dealt with taking back my name and starting again. 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:45.280 You started all over the company now I guess known 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:49.240 as DVF your initials, right, And so that company then 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.559 began to recreate some of the things you've done before, 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.079 including the rap dress, and it turned out the rap 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:56.920 dress was more popular than even had been before practically, 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.160 So was that a surprise to you that the rap 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:04.400 dress was still so popular? You know, when it's your life, 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.720 I mean, you know, it's just one day after another 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.440 day after another day. It's only when you look back 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.600 that you are surprised. When you like back that you 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:16.480 have time to say, oh, that was great. When you're 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.640 living it, you just you know, survive. I mean, you know, 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.840 a young woman, two children. I separated so quickly from 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:27.640 my husband, and then you know, there's a lot to 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:31.920 do running a company. Um, you know, so I didn't 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.240 have the time to think, I'm I surprised and I 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.880 what what does DVF now do? Well? Actually, DVF as 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:43.200 has been many, many, many products over the years after 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:47.760 COVID and after all of the change. You know, COVID 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:56.360 was also a moment of resecting, right, So I I 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.120 don't want to take it. I can't say take advantage 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:03.160 of something as negative as COVID, but we were forced 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.520 to look at the business model and reset the business 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:11.960 model because under COVID, people weren't going out in fashions, right, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:15.320 they weren't wearing fancy But also stores were closed, we 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.720 had to close. So, I mean it's a lot of 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.520 different things at the same time. And of course the 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.760 business online and so it was it was a moment 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:28.480 to reset. So how was the business today, Well, it's 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.200 being resetted and it's actually very interesting. You know. I'm 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:37.160 a very positive person. My mother, my mother was a survivor, right, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:43.000 so as a survivor, life is what matters, right As 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.360 as a daughter of a survivor. The minute I was born, 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:50.200 I mean she wasn't supposed to survive. I wasn't supposed 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.480 to be born, and yet I was born, So I 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:58.600 realized that the moment of my birth was already a victory. 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.840 So anything that happened after that was a plus. So 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.640 the company you run today is a privately own company. 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:08.760 Have you ever thought of taking your company public? No? 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.000 But you know right now it was important for me. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.320 Now is the legacy moment of my life. Right now 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:19.040 is the time that you look back at your life 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:24.359 and you I'm happy to see that somehow it's coherent. 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.960 I was born on New Year's Eve, so every year 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.200 I make resolution, so I divine my life in three columns. 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:37.520 One is my family, one is my business, and my 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:41.560 my my my brand, and one is me. So looking 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.080 back now in my life, I look at my family. 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.360 You know, my two children, my five grandchildren, and I'm 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.600 very proud of them. I'm very proud of who they are. 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.800 I'm proud of the people they are. I'm proud that 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:02.240 they are not banal, they are fun, they're interesting, they're generous, 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:07.000 and they care. Then there's my brand. So there also 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:11.439 I had to reset the brand and make sure it 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:16.040 was closed because sometimes when you grow, you lose your 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:21.800 initial spirit, your initial reason to be, and then the 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:27.360 third part me is about the impact is about today 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:32.840 using all the things I have, my voice, my experiences, 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:42.840 my knowledge, my memories, my experiences, my resources, and using 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:47.520 that in order to make other women be the woman 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.439 they want to be. Do you think people who are 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.400 CEO should speak out on public issues if they think 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:55.840 that something bad is happening or something good is happening. 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.360 Do you like to speak out on public issues? I 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.000 I like to speak in general. I speak to myself 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:07.280 and I like to speak and I like to use Yeah. 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.280 I do believe. I think words are very powerful and 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.080 I think that if you have a voice, you should speak. Yes. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.960 So from reading your books, and you've written eight books, 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.160 I think it is it's a lot of books. Um. 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.719 You um said in one of the books that what 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:25.320 you wanted to do was to live a man's life 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.520 and a woman's body. What you meant by that was 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:33.639 what oh? Men? By that mean that I wanted to 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.560 be able to do everything a man does and yet 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.879 being enjoying being a woman. Yeah, because men could start 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.040 businesses and could do other things that traditionally didn't do. Yes, 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:48.600 so men can call a woman and I mean doing 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:52.360 all kinds of things. So why can't a woman do that? 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.080 That was the most important thing for me, to be 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.159 a liberated woman. But I was part of that generation 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:02.200 as a feminist. You will admire a Gloria Steinem. Gloria 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.320 Steinem for me as a feminist, she was my idol. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.680 She was my idol. Now she's a friend and and 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.840 but and I remember she created that magazine called ms 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:21.040 MS and which means you, we're not either miss or missus. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.080 And I remember when I separated and then eventually divorced 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:29.840 from my husband, the Prince. I joked and I said, 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:34.480 I gave up. So when her husband separated, that's a 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:37.000 long time ago, a long time ago. And you married 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:41.720 Barry Diller. After I separated from my the father my children, 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.480 I met Barry and we fell in love and we 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:49.800 were together for five years. But I guess that again, 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.400 it was the seventies and it was important for me 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:59.600 to experience. And so we separated, and I, you know, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.159 I lived my life, but Barry and I we kept 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.480 very close. I also kept very close to my first husband, 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.480 and somehow Barry and I think we both knew somehow 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.360 at some point we would end up together. And then 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:18.320 about twenty years ago, yeah, twenty years ago. Um, we 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.640 got married, okay, and both of you together have been 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.600 extracted freely successful in the business world and also in 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.120 the philanthropy world. Let me ask you about your philanthropy 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:31.399 for a moment. You and your husband helped to create 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:35.840 the Highline. Well, when I started the company again in 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:42.520 when I was I came here, n uh, I say, 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.879 why am I runting those expensive offices uptown? Let me 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:51.160 buy a little building downtown. And I came in this neighborhood, 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:56.919 meetback and full of butchers. They were only butchers. And 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.719 I bought a little carriage house and I decided to 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:04.359 make that my showroom and my office. And everybody said, 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:06.440 what are you doing there? Who wants to go and 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.439 work there? Smelled so bad, blah blah blah. But I 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.439 did it anyway. And then when you moved to a 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:17.160 new neighborhood, you meet your neighbors. And I met these 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.919 two young guys who had a dream. And the dream 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:28.240 was to transform this elevated railroad railway that went from 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:31.920 Gunsberg all the way to Dravid Center. It was abandoned, 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.399 and to turn it into a park. And it was 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:39.200 going to be knocked down Anyway, those two guys had 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:43.480 this dream and they saw my studio and they said, 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:45.960 you mind, you think you could do it? We could 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.639 have We could do a fundraising in your studio. And 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:54.560 that's how my relationship with the neighborhood and where the 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:58.520 highlights started. For one thing, we made it, we turn 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:06.800 this neighborhood into m historical preservation. Then somehow we turned convinced. 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:11.000 We turned around the high Line, and it was very 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.840 difficult because all the developers wanted the real estate. Those 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.479 same developers, by by the way, now are so proud 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.400 to be on the high Line. The high Line became 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.440 the number one destination for two tourists. You are now 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.879 involved in helping to repair the others island buildings. Is 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.199 that right? Well? Yes, first I was. I'm on the 0:22:33.280 --> 0:22:35.800 board of and of the foundation of the Statue of 0:22:35.800 --> 0:22:38.679 Liberty Ellis Island, and the first thing I did was 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:43.000 raised money for to create the museum form the Statue 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:46.800 of Liberty. So I got very close to her, Lady Liberty. 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.240 I didn't want to do it. I really didn't want 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:51.399 to say if I go on another board, my husband 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.000 would be so upset. And then he read my book 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:57.800 The Man who wanted to get me. And in my 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:00.960 book he read that my mother had written me a 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:05.880 note saying, God saved me so that I can give 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:09.479 your life. By giving you life, you gave me my 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:14.399 life back. You are therefore my torture of freedom. So 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.280 he underlined that and he said, you see, you've got 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.199 to come and help the statue of liberty. So the 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.639 hardest thing in life, I've often said is to be happy. 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:26.160 But you seemed like a very happy person. It's like nature, 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:30.240 nothing ever stopped, so you could be super happy one 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:35.320 minute and then something happens. So it's just it's just 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:38.879 living is the joy of life. For any young woman 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:41.800 that's watching this wants to be the next Diana von Fursterburg, 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:44.800 what would you recommend? I think the most important thing 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:50.040 in life is the relationship you have with yourself. Once 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:54.240 you have a good relationship with yourself, any other relationship 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:57.760 is a plus and not the most And the second 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:01.280 advice is to be as true to yourself as you 0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:05.600 possibly can. And it's not easy, and you have to 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:09.119 accept and own things you may not like. But the 0:24:09.200 --> 0:24:12.000 more you could be you, the happier you would be. 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:15.439 Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You 0:24:15.480 --> 0:24:19.560 can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:20.440 wherever you listen