It takes a woman to know what other women really want.
Maybe that’s why I feel more comfortable in the hands of a female fashion designer (no offense to the extremely talented male designers out there). They know your body. They intuit the flaws you’d like to hide. They understand what makes you feel beautiful.
Which is why Diane von Furstenberg had a bona-fide hit on her hands when she created the wrap dress in the ’70s. The simple jersey garment, which you slipped into and tied around yourself like a robe, was so easy yet flattering it became the uniform of a generation — five million dresses sold — and put DVF on the map as a designer worthy of note. The eminent Diana Vreeland, who back then was editor in chief of American Vogue, became such a fan and she introduced Von Furstenberg to the people who helped launch her clothing line. Newsweek even compared DVF to Coco Chanel.
Like Chanel, Von Furstanberg empowered women through ease in dressing, all while leading the life of a woman who had it all: the Belgian beauty was married to a prince, Eduard Egon Furstenberg, with whom she had two beautiful children, she was designing her own collection, and was a fixture at glamorous parties with luminaries like Andy Warhol.
DVF established itself as an international house of style, expanding its collection to include lingerie, cosmetics, perfumes, and coffee-table books.
Through the years, DVF never really left, but she made an official comeback 10 years ago with the advent of the vintage craze. She charmed the fashion world’s current doyennes Anna Wintour and Suzy Menkes, and best-dressed It girls rediscovered “the wrap,” hunting them down at thrift shops and fighting over rare pieces.
DVF’s trademark dress invaded the catwalks once again, and was spotted on the backs of Madonna, Renee Zellweger and Paris Hilton. The Observer noted that the wrap was the most copied dress of the past decade, inspiring a consistent trend in many designer collections. While it was being touted as the “perfect garment,” Von Furstenberg saw that a new generation of women wanted to feel beautiful and powerful again.
But while the wrap was having its day once more, DVF had moved on to another preoccupation: jewelry.
“I always dreamt of creating a jewelry collection,” she said. “All my life I have collected fine jewelry — I am passionate about it. It was always a dream to be involved in designing jewelry but it had to be with the right company.”
She discovered H.Stern over 20 years ago and fell immediately in love with their designs, fine-quality stones, and workmanship. Unsuccessful at first in convincing chairman Hans Stern to partner with her, almost 20 years later, the idea still fresh in her mind, Diane tried again. This time she approached Hans’ son Roberto Stern and jokes that she managed to “finally seduce” him.
Roberto, H.Stern’s creative director, meanwhile, said, “What attracted us to Diane is her personal style and her many accomplishments in the fashion world over the years. She’s a great womenswear designer but above all, she’s a self-made woman who started at a time when self-made women didn’t exist. She is also a businesswoman with a powerful yet feminine aura surrounding her; her style is timeless and forever young.”
What I like about DVF’s pieces is their boldness and oh-so-modern chunkiness. Large in scale, they look like they might be heavy but once worn are surprisingly light and universally flattering … just like DVF’s wrap dress.
As with many H.Stern pieces, they can also be worn in a number of ways, giving the wearer an outlet for her creativity, personal style, and letting her play with her investment.
Once again, DVF has proven that she knows what women want. After a particularly turbulent period in her life — both personally and professionally — Diane went to India to renew and heal.
While author Elizabeth Gilbert may have come away from India with Eat Pray Love, DVF emerged with the inspiration for H.Stern’s Sutras jewelry collection.
Diane’s sutras — or mantras — are engraved on the jewelry using characters based on her own handwriting. The eight-piece collection features bracelets, pendants, earrings and rings.
The Sutra pendants, for example, can be worn on both sides, either showing the mirror-like crystal or the side with inspirational words such as “love,” “laughter,” “freedom,” “harmony,” “confidence,” truth,” and “life.”
The bracelets, meanwhile, are made of gold links to which you can add charms or that can be connected to one another to create necklaces. You can also add Talisman charms to the hoop earrings and necklaces to mark special occasions and events.
Another chapter of the collection, “Love Knot,” uses the Tibetan symbol of everlasting love in its 18K yellow-gold chains, bracelets and earrings.
In the “Rock Crystal” chapter, the large crystals set into the 18K gold bracelets, rings and earrings are faceted in a triangular brilliant-cut shape similar to the cut of the legendary “Blue Diamond of the Crown,” one of the famous gems found in the historical Golconda mines in India.
Von Furstenberg also liked that the rock crystal was a symbol of purity believed to bring good luck to the wearer, or provide her the ability to see into the future. As with the Sutra bracelets, you can connect two or more of the rock-crystal bracelets seamlessly to create necklaces.
For the first time DVF also inspired the Sutra Watch Collection, a line of jeweled timepieces that evolved directly from the jewels in the Diane von Furstenberg by H.Stern collection.
Created for the modern woman on the go, each watch is equipped with the latest-generation Swiss quartz movement and features a signature watch case of clear sapphire crystal, multi-faceted into an asymmetric design and polished by hand using the same artistry and techniques used in jewelry making.
DVF by H.Stern has become such a success that stars like Drew Barrymore, Sienna Miller and Sharon Stone proudly flash the gold and crystal pieces on red carpets everywhere.
Perhaps what’s most amazing is that DVF has stayed in vogue without ever having to reinvent herself. If the motto of DVF’s early career was “Feel like a woman, wear a dress,” now it could be “Feel like a modern woman, wear DVF by H.Stern.”
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H.Stern is available only at Adora, 3/F Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center Makati, tel. no. 217-4029.