Diane Von Furstenberg Quotes

When you come to a hotel room, you want it to be grand, functional and beautiful. But you don't want things that are not useful. Sometimes you go to hotels and there are all these frames and pictures of people you don't know, and you end up hiding everything in the drawer, and then housekeeping come and put it out again.

Prepare your food attractively and serve it nicely.

I'm not someone who calculates things.

Italy will always have the best food.

A challenging economy is always good for design. It unites necessity and functionality. You are forced to be creative with poor materials.

I have always been a nomad and I have mastered the art of packing! I always say: pack lightly, live lightly.

I am not allowed to be afraid. My mother made me like that. As a child, if I was afraid of the dark, she would lock me in the closet. Things like this. And she would talk about the time she spent in the concentration camp, but not about being afraid, only about the good side of it.

You can actually be intimate with the universe.

Ireland is also quite nice. So is Amsterdam.

Fashion can be this mysterious thing that you can't explain.

I was terrified the first time that I had a big problem in my business. I was obviously terrified when they diagnosed me with cancer in 1994. I was terrified when my son used to drive too fast. But I do believe in the fact that fear is not an option, so I always try to face it and not be afraid.

It's more than just a dress; it's a spirit. The wrap dress was an interesting cultural phenomenon, and one that has lasted 30 years. What is so special about it is that it's actually a very traditional form of clothing. It's like a toga, it's like a kimono, without buttons, without a zipper. What made my wrap dresses different is that they were made out of jersey and they sculpted the body.

Resisting a beautiful chocolate cake or a wonderful foie gras is as difficult as (the idea of) saying no to Paul Newman.

Don't talk about your diet. It's just boring, and the last thing you need when dieting is to be considered boring.

Women never cease to impress and inspire me.

My face carries all of my memories. Why would I erase them?

Clothes can hide you from yourself but a bikini sure can't.

Fashion Week is so important for designers.

I always wanted to be a femme fatale. Even when I was a young girl, I never really wanted to be a girl. I wanted to be a woman.

If you're trying to lose weight, you just have to eat less. I mean that.

It is more important to be pretty as a woman than to be fashionable.

Water is life is love is life is water.

No one should notice how your eyes are done or the color of your eyeshadow. They should just notice you and notice that you're beautiful, that you have beautiful eyes.

I have always been attracted to clothes designed by women. Coco Chanel, Vionnet, Norma Kamali, Donna Karan. They have a little more - how do I put it? - understanding.

I always was fascinated with China, because I was born in Europe, and for us, China had this fascination and mystery. The first time I came here was in 1989. They were on bicycles, and the speed of the growth has been incredible.

There are emerging countries. I mean, there are countries, you know, China, India, and Brazil, and all of these countries that are emerging. They are building homes. They are building - so there is a new lifestyle.

I really have fun making up. I have a good face for making up, good bones. I do the shapings, then the eyes. Then I put on mascara and I do something else. Then I put on mascara again and do something else. Then I put on more mascara and my whole face is completely made up.

As the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, I represent the designers. And while we can by no means take the blame for eating disorders, we can play our part in addressing this important issue.

When I was young, I lived like an old woman, and when I got old, I had to live like a young person.

Fashion is mysterious, as a rule. Why are blue jeans a classic? You just hit on something that happens to be timeless and right.

The success of every single woman is the inspiration for another.

Bali and the Aman resorts are all very luxurious, great places to go.

If you pay attention, everyone is a novel. The most boring person, if you sit down and really listen, is someone interesting.

We all have a Wonder Woman inside us.

The whole point about beauty is its imperfection.

I always wanted to live a man's life in a woman's body

I've been working seriously in giving fashion a place that it deserves.

If you like trekking, go to the Himalayas or Peru. I love those kinds of trips. But it all depends on your own life and what you like and what you expect.

Go to a place where you're not going to be stressed, because a honeymoon itself can be a stressful thing.

We are living in such a troubled world that fashion seems completely irrelevant. Yet ... it's a very, very mysterious thing. Why all of a sudden do people like yellow? Why all of a sudden do people wear combat boots?

We need to encourage designers and agencies to be responsible. We need to make sure everyone is sensitive to the issues. But to calculate the girls' body mass - I personally think it is demeaning.

Clarity is the most important thing. I can compare clarity to pruning in gardening. You know, you need to be clear. If you are not clear, nothing is going to happen. You have to be clear. Then you have to be confident about your vision. And after that, you just have to put a lot of work in.

As my mother told me, if you save one life, it begins a dynasty. The life you save can save another, so one life is never too small.

I've always liked wrinkles. 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.

I had good legs, and I loved showing them off.

The most important relationship in your life is the relationship you have with yourself. Because no matter what happens, you will always be with yourself.

I'm not the only one; most people's mothers are the most influential person in their life. But my mother survived the camps, and she was very strong. She made me strong, but she wanted me to be strong. That's more important.

I think living is serious. Living well, accepting yourself, using your talents to the fullest, enjoying yourself, that's all serious and important ... But I think makeup and fashion should not be taken that seriously ... You should have fun making up for a party. You should have fun wearing a sexy dress. When you're beautiful it should give you pleasure.

I was lucky enough to have it all. To be successful in business, to have children, to raise them on my own, and to travel and live my life. It was a lot of work, but it's a privilege to have been able to do it.

The girls who were unanimously considered beautiful often rested on their beauty alone. I felt I had to do things, to be intelligent and develop a personality in order to be seen as attractive. By the time I realized maybe I wasn't plain and might even possibly be pretty, I had already trained myself to be a little more interesting and informed.

Being attractive for a few hours some evening is hardly worth being that unattractive all day (in hot rollers). Being yourself and being natural with a man is wonderful, but being downright unattractive with him is foolish.

Confidence. If you have it, you can make anything look good.

Everyone knows I married a prince, and then I married a billionaire.

What's important to me is to share, and being inspired, and inspiring.

Taste is acquired. You may have to unlearn a taste for chocolate or ice cream.

The most important relationship you have in life is the one you have with yourself. And then after that, I'd say once you have that, it may be hard work, but you can actually design your life.

New York seemed as young as I was and infinitely hospitable.

I said that Mrs Obama has been extremely supportive of American designers, but clearly we were disappointed that she chose to wear a British designer for the state dinner ... From there, I was so embarrassed that I am definitely going to write to her. She has been super supportive to American designers.

My mother never, ever told me about evilness. She only saw the beautiful things ... she wanted to protect me from it.

I loved the seventies.

When you get into a hotel room, you lock the door, and you know there is a secrecy, there is a luxury, there is fantasy. There is comfort. There is reassurance.

You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.

Fashion is a mysterious energy, a visual moment-impossible to predict where it goes,

The older you get, the more you should learn to love life and appreciate the beauty that comes with age.

My biggest vice is playing solitaire on my iPad. It's bad. I mean, it's ridiculous.

Be the Woman You Want to Be ...

I've never met a woman who is not strong, but sometimes they don't let it out. Then there's a tragedy, and then all of a sudden that strength comes. My message is let the strength come out before the tragedy.

What I think I sell with my clothes is confidence, so hopefully all my dresses, my accessories, are friends to the women. When you open the closet, and your eyes are swollen, and you don't like the way you look, you go to your friends.

It's not about going to a party. It's life as a party.

Aging is out of your control. How you handle it, though, is in your hands.

What I have learned is that when you are sick, much of healing is in the hands of doctors and science, but part of it is finding and using your own power.

The trees at Cloudwalk have been my friends for forty years. I'm sure if I were sawed in half, our rings would match.

Harbour Island in the Bahamas is beautiful, with turquoise water and pink sand.

Fear is not an option." "Don't dwell on the dark side of things, but look for the light and build around it. If one door closes, look for another one to open." "Never, ever, blame others for what befalls you, no matter how horrible it might be. Trust you, and only you, to be responsible for your own life.

I wanted to be an independent woman, a woman who could pay for her bills, a woman who could run her own life - and I became that woman.

I had a very down-to-earth product, my wrap dress, which was really a uniform. It was just a simple little cotton-jersey dress that everybody loved and everybody wore. That one dress sold about 3 or 4 million. I would see 20, 30 dresses walking down one block. All sorts of different women. It felt very good. Young and old, and fat and thin, and poor and rich.

I had arranged a birthday party for him and my children, who are all Aquarians. Instead, we got married. I ran out of excuses. It was just us and my children.

So as a founder, you have an authenticity and a human factor that is really special and that gives an enormous amount of energy and fuel. But as a founder, you're also not as cold, maybe, or as pragmatic.

I sit in the sink (while applying makeup). I do. I've broken more sinks ... I sit in the sink, on top of a big square sink in my bathroom with my feet in the basin so I'm very close to the mirror with the good light, and I'm very comfortable. I also manage to put my two phones in the sink so that nothing, but nothing, could get me out of there.

Don't be afraid of your own strength.

I design for the woman who loves being a woman.

My son loves the Hotel du Cap, in the south of France.

My definition of beauty is strength and personality.

I never modeled myself after anyone. The person who had most influence on me was my mother, but it was really for her strength and courage more than her style, even though she had a lot of style. In a weird way, looking at pictures of me when I was 17 or 18, I was dressing the same way. I haven't changed very much.

The iPad! What is better designed than that? I read magazines on it, I play Scrabble. I use it for everything.

Now is the time to become a myth.

The real story is that I am very free, that I've managed to be who I wanted to be without compromising.

You can learn a lot from my mistakes more than my success.

Love is life is love. There is no way to envision life without love, and at this point in my life, I don't think there is anything more important - love of family, love of nature, love of travel, love of learning, love of life in every way - all of it. Love is being thankful, love is paying attention, love is being open and compassionate. Love is using all the privileges you possess to help those who are in need. Love is giving voice to those who don't have one. Love is a way of feeling alive and respecting life. I have been in love many times, but

I travel in so many different ways; I travel high, I rough it ... it all depends on who I travel with.

For me, traveling and living are the same. How you travel is a symbol of your life.

I'm not tired of who I am. That would be sad!

I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be.

The little black dress is the true friend ... she travels with you ... is patient and constant ... you go to her when you don't know where else to go and she is ALWAYS reliable and timeless.

In Sardinia one summer my best friend Marisa Berenson and I ironed each other's hair. We used a hot laundry iron and took turns putting our hair on the ironing board, literally ironing it. That's a recipe for straightening that may be highly successful, but is definitely not recommended.

I get ideas about what's essential when packing my suitcase.

It's important to leave your face without makeup for a while after waking up ... Let your skin breathe a while before applying your makeup, even if it means waking up a bit earlier.

I believe that all women should have children. I think women are made to have children and to be mothers. I also think women have to have an identity outside the home.

You're always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.

I never like to think that I design for a particular person. I design for the woman I wanted to be, the woman I used to be, and - to some degree - the woman I'm still a little piece of.