Diane von Furstenberg on Loving Her Wrinkles
Photo: Chuck Close/courtesy the Pace Gallery, Beijing
Diane von Furstenburg, photographed on 8x10 Polaroid by Chuck Close
At 64, Diane von Furstenberg is still the gorgeous fashion icon she was when she inspired an Andy Warhol painting in the Studio 54 era. But as a leader in an industry that’s obsessed with youth, she’s not interested in looking back.
“I gave up on my looks a long time ago,” the designer said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar. “Beauty is perfect in its imperfections, so you just have to go with the imperfections.”
That’s not to say she doesn’t love her looks. After suffering a skiing accident in January, DVF emerged with a broken nose and bruised face.
“When the accident happened, I said, ‘Oh no, my cheekbones! They’re my best asset,’” she recalled.
Regardless, von Furstenberg, whose exhibition, “Diane von Furstenberg: Journey of a Dress,” opens at the Pace Gallery in Beijing on April 2, insists that plastic surgery isn’t for her.
“I’ve always liked wrinkles,” she said. “When I was a young girl, I used to make lines on my face with my nails because I loved Jeanne Moreau. I always wanted to be older; I always added years to my life. For the longest time, if people thought I was older I would take it as a compliment.”
A portrait of von Furstenberg—taken weeks after her aforementioned injuries—runs with the story, as does a conversation with the photographer, artist Chuck Close.
“To erase is the horrible thing,” she told Close, “because if you erase things in your face, you basically erase souvenirs, you basically erase memory, you basically erase pieces of you that made you. And it’s the layers of your life that give you character.”
