Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Listen Again: Julia Gets Wise with Diane von Furstenberg
Wed, 14 May 2025
Listen back to this fascinating interview from season one, where Diane von Furstenberg talks about the relationships in her life – and who she believes the most important one of all is. Today on Wiser Than Me, Julia sits down with 76-year-old fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg. In this conversation, Diane tells Julia why she’s always looked forward to getting older, the one piece of clothing she thinks every woman should have in her closet, and how she says her mother made her fearless. Plus, Julia and her mom Judith debate a questionable fashion choice Julia nearly made. Follow Wiser Than Me on Instagram and TikTok @wiserthanme and on Facebook at facebook.com/wiserthanmepodcast. Keep up with Diane von Furstenberg @DVF on X and @DVF and @therealDVF on Instagram. Find out more about other shows on our network at @lemonadamedia on all social platforms. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For exclusive discount codes and more information about our sponsors, visit https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: Who is Diane von Furstenberg and why is she iconic in fashion?
She is the founder of the Diller von Furstenberg Family Foundation, the DVF Awards, an incredible supporter of the Women's Cancer Research Fund, and is the former chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, and so much more. She has the brains, the beauty, the confidence, and the skill to make it in an industry that caters mainly to women but is still most often run by men.
She's willing to share herself with us as an author, designer, and philanthropist. So please welcome a woman who is wiser than me, Diane von Furstenberg. Hello.
Wow. That was quite an entrance.
Yeah, that's quite an entrance you've just made. So are you comfortable if I say your real age, Diane? Yes.
Oh, yes, I'm 76. But I really, really should be 300. Why? Well, because I've had a very full life. I've done a lot of things, lots of travels, lots of people, lots of... So I feel like there's no way I can make myself even a day younger because I feel like I have lived... Very much every moment.
Oh, that's so nice. But how do you feel inside? What age do you feel? Do you feel 300? No way.
No. Well, I feel my age. I feel that I have lived every single day of my life. In that life, in that short life, even though I'm 76, I have piled up so much that I certainly could not feel any younger. I am who I am. So I get the sense you love being your age. Well, I love being alive. Yeah. That's how long I have been alive. So, yes.
Yeah, yeah. Got it. Of course, I'm going to join the millions of people who want to talk about the wrap dress. So indulge me for a second. There's such a universality to the wrap dress. It changed my life completely. That wrap dress. What's your story? Okay, here's my story. I was born in the early 60s.
So by the time I became a teenager in the, you know, 70s, being super thin was the only way to be. And I was not. I was a little bit heavyset, but I had a small waist. OK, and I'm going to tell you honestly that your dress was, I think, the first sort of fashion thing that I wore that made me feel like, oh, I don't mind my body so much.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Diane von Furstenberg to create the wrap dress?
I had a successful business. I bought my house. So I did basically everything before I was 30. So I used to think that that would be the end. And then it turned out not to be.
Yeah. Wow. I love that framing. How long have you lived? I'm really going to apply that to the way I speak now. I think it's brilliant, actually. Yeah. Well, then I'm going to rephrase this question for you. Do you think there are things that women who have lived a long time should not wear? And here's why I asked you this question. Let me tell you something. So I was on a vacation, right?
And you know how when you go on vacation and you go into a You get sort of caught up in the culture of where you are and maybe and what people are wearing and maybe it's in a different country or whatever. Anyway, long story short, I was in this shop and they were selling these cute culottes.
And I put them on and I'd forgotten how, because I wore culottes when I was a little girl, but I had forgotten how unbelievably comfortable culottes were. And I was like, oh my God, I think I've got to own these. But I wasn't sure. And I thought, oh, maybe this is just a moment. I'm going to put them on hold. I'm going to go have some lunch. So I put them on hold and then I went to go have lunch.
And I was thinking about, should I buy them or not? And as I'm thinking about that, one of my teeth fell out of my mouth. Wow. I don't know why, but all of a sudden my tooth fell out. And I thought that was a sign that perhaps I had lived a little bit too long to start running around in culottes.
Actually, I think you could wear culottes until you're 90.
What if you don't have any teeth in your mouth? No, I'm kidding. You think you can wear culottes until you're 90? Yeah.
I mean, it depends how short they are. I mean, I don't think you should try to look sexy because that looks ridiculous.
You mean in culottes or generally speaking? What are you talking about?
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Chapter 3: What are Diane von Furstenberg's fashion staples for women?
What would be a vulnerability that you would own that would then somehow become an asset?
I mean, you know, I mean, I was very successful, extremely young, right? By 26, 27, I was on the cover of all the magazines. I mean, I was an entrepreneur. But you go up, you go up. What goes up must go down. You face difficulties. You go through all kinds of things. And what is important is not to pretend you're not.
But facing it, facing the obstacles, facing the difficulties and owning them and dealing with them. And then all of a sudden you turn them into assets. I don't get the sense you hold back how you're feeling. Do you let people know how you're feeling? You see, the thing that explains who I am is the fact that 18 months before I was born, my mother was liberated from Auschwitz.
She weighed 49 pounds. She was a skeleton in the midst of a field of ashes. She couldn't move. She could not move. She went back to Belgium. Her mother couldn't believe that she had survived. She was 21 years old. And she fed her like a little bird every 10 minutes. And within six months, she looked normal. Her fiancé, who had been in Switzerland, came. They met.
They get married and the doctor said, no matter what, you cannot have a child for at least two years because you will not make it and your child will not be normal. And sure enough, she got pregnant and I was born nine months later. And in a sense, you could say I was not normal. But the fact that I was so close to that, my existence, my mere birth was a triumph over misery.
And therefore, just the fact that I was born was a triumph. I had won just because I was born. And my mother used to say, God saved me so that I can give you life. By giving you life, you gave me my life back. You are my torch of freedom. So I was born with a torch of freedom in my hands, which as a little girl could be difficult. My mother, for example, would never allow me to be afraid.
If I was afraid of the dark, she would lock me in the dark closet. Today she could be arrested for it, but she made me fearless. And I'm thankful that she did that. She never wanted me to be a victim. Never be a victim, no matter what happens. And that's how you build your character. Because the only thing that you have complete control of, the only thing, is your character.
You could lose your health. You could lose your wealth. You could lose your job. You could lose your husband. You could lose your family. You could lose everything, but you never lose your character. And that character is the little house inside yourself that is called strength.
And did you take those lessons that you learned from your mother and did you apply them to being a mother yourself?
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Chapter 4: How does Diane von Furstenberg view aging and living gracefully?
I had cancer too, and I was terrified. I didn't have your mother's advice in my ear, but what I did do was take one step at a time. Exactly. I approached it as if it were something to be approached in manageable parts, and that's exactly what I did, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Talk about relaxing. How do you relax? What do you do to relax?
Relax also is a weird word. What should I say instead? Empty the noise, you know. It's empty the corridor. Silence, solitude. That is what is the most restorative thing. So I need to be alone. Mm-hmm. I need to be in nature. Yes. Solitude, silence, all of that is very restorative. Yeah, I find the same.
I'm a big hiker. Me too. Yeah. Me too. And if you go by yourself, it's an entirely different experience. And swimming.
I swim a lot. I swim a lot in the ocean, very far. And therefore, I'm alone between the sea and the sky. And I'm just this tiny little dot. And I go into deep meditation. And that is probably the most restorative thing.
You know, I've taken up swimming recently, too. Let me ask you something. What do you do about the sun when you're out there? Do you wear like a full body UV suit?
I got one of those, too, that blocks the sun.
Because then, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, otherwise I would burn because I swam two hours at the time. So I could not do that unless I wore something.
Two hours? My God in heaven. What does that mean? How many miles are you going? That's a couple of miles, is it not?
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Chapter 5: What advice does Diane von Furstenberg give about self-confidence and leadership?
This year we are, I don't know if it was this year. No, it wasn't. It was last year. We lost the spectacular Vogue journalist and editor Andre Leon Talley, I know who is a very good friend of yours. What did he mean to you? And also, can you talk about endings and how you deal with endings?
Okay, so Andre was, first of all, my friend. He was my friend for over 45 years. He happened to be also a formidable person. But if you're talking about ending, and it was very sad that he died. He died January 18 last year. But strangely enough... His life has become even bigger. Really? Since he died. How? Well, the recognition that he has received. Yes.
And the recognition of his book and his work. And, you know, he was almost evicted from his house. a few months before he died but didn't, and now the street names his name. So there is no such thing as ending. It's evolution. We are all part of nature, and we evolve into something else.
Yeah, but I mean, but what about your sadness when he passed? I mean, you must have been very, I mean, he sounds like such an extraordinary human being.
Yes, yes. But death, you know, life is a journey. Death is a destination. We all die. So, I mean, there's not a day in my life that I don't think about death. And that is my way of dealing with it. So, you know. I mean, that happens to everyone.
I know. We've all got it in common. We're all headed there. That's right. God, you're so gracious with your time. I want to ask you just a couple more quick questions, and you can just give me whatever thing pops into your head. Is there something you'd go back and tell yourself at 21? Go for it. Is there something you'd go back and say yes to?
The only thing you regret in life is the things you don't do. Right. And I did pretty much all I could do.
What's the best business advice you ever received? Or the worst?
Or both? Oh, I don't know. My big fault in business is that I enable people. Because I feel like I can make things happen. I think that everyone can make things happen. But, you know, I don't think I'm a great businesswoman. I think I am a very good manifester. I can manifest things. I can make things happen. I am somewhat a little bit of a visionary, but I'm definitely not an executive.
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Chapter 6: How did Diane von Furstenberg's early life shape her fearless character?
That would be superb. I got to say, it's been kind of dreamy talking to you. It's been very dreamy talking to you.
Well, thank you very much for asking me. And continue to be the woman you are. You are definitely inspiring. Thank you. Back at you, DVF. Bye, Darlene.
The chicest lady ever. Bye. Lots of love to you. Thank you. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye. Okay, another podcast. Done and dusted. Wow. There is so much to tell my mom. Okay, I'm going to call her right now. Mama. Oh, hi, honey. Hi. So I just talked to Diane von Furstenberg. Oh, wow.
I hope I hope the wrap dress is still there.
Yeah. Speaking of the wrap dress, mom, did you have a wrap dress, mommy?
74, 1974.
Yeah. So I had a wrap dress and I was trying to remember what, it seemed to me that it had some kind of geometric print on it. Yeah. And then one that was sort of gray. And it was sort of maybe one color or two colors, something like that. I loved it. But I don't know why it made me feel a little self-conscious. Why, Mommy? Well, I don't know. Maybe I was just so used to wearing pants.
It was such a wonderful dress. Maybe I didn't. I can't remember. But I just somehow felt a little self-conscious.
Well, it was a very sexy dress. So maybe that's why you felt self-conscious. Yeah. Because it's not like you're wearing pants all the time. But I told her this story and I got to say, she did not find it as funny as I do. I don't think I told you this, but recently I was on vacation and I saw a pair of culottes and I wasn't sure if I should get them or not. Right. Right.
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