In the exhibition visitors will find items drawn from the DVF (Diane von Furstenberg) archives along with ephemera, fabric swatches, media pieces, and information on her philanthropic work

Diane von Furstenberg will be honored with an exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles that will detail her fashion career from the 1970s until today. Launching October 17, 2024 until August 31, 2025, the exhibit details her history as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, along with personal artifacts about her fashion legacy, like her iconic wrap dress deeply rooted with the idea to liberate women. Not just a fashion designer, von Furstenberg is known to use her voice to advocate for gender equity and human rights. Tickets are $18 for general admission, $13 for seniors, students, and children; and free for members.

Titled Diane von Furstenberg: Woman Before Fashion, the exhibit will include new artifacts that shed light on how her mother’s story gives an added perspective on the factors that shaped her life and work. A part of the exhibition is a spotlight on von Furstenberg’s mother Lily Nahmias, which features audio, images and text that explore her experience as a member of the resistance and a Holocaust survivor, including a reproduction of the letter she sent her parents after the Nazis imprisoned her. There are seventy-five items, twenty-nine of which are exclusive to the Skirball presentation. There are also garments from Greco-Roman drapery to kimonos, dance uniforms, and fellow designers that explore the connections between these historical pieces and the designs of vonFurstenberg.

“When my hometown, the City of Brussels, came to me and said they wanted to present an exhibition of my work at the Brussels Fashion and Lace Museum curated by Nicolas Lor, I was honored,” says von Furstenberg in announcement notes. “It was very emotional to have this just down the street from where I went to school as a young girl. Now, I am touched that the Skirball Cultural Center is bringing the show to another city very close to my heart, Los Angeles.”

Divided into four sections the exhibition will firstly tackle the origins of her iconic wrap dress through a selection of items and sculptures that showcase the inventiveness of the dress and its historical context. The next section dives into her bold designs that are found on her dresses, but through three lenses: nature, art, and freedom. Nature touches on animal prints and floral patterns, while art showcases her collaborations with artists from Jackson Pollock to Andy Warhol; and freedom is very personal to her. Lily Nahmias gave birth to von Furstenberg eighteen months after she was liberated from her Nazi concentration camp. From the time of her birth, von Furstenberg was referred to as mother as her “torch of freedom.” The third section “The American Dream” delves into von Furstenberg launching her brand in 1972 when she was just twenty-six. And the fourth section “WeAr(e)Able Stories,” while it is a play on words merging two expressions: Wearable Stories and We Are Able, it exudes the power she [von Furstenberg] gives to women through her brand and her outspoken advocacy.  

"We are thrilled to bring this powerful exhibition to Los Angeles, showcasing not only von Furstenberg's iconic designs but also her enduring message of female empowerment,” says Skirball Cultural Center President and CEO Jessie Kornberg. “Jewish connection to garment industries and needlepoint trades spans continents and generations. Past exhibitions like the retrospective on Rudi Gernreich or the textile art of Aram Han Sifuentes celebrated these connections. Diane von Furstenberg: Woman Before Fashion builds on that work with new vigor and a new dimension - the creative energy and conquering spirit of one extraordinary woman."

In 2010 von Furstenberg created the DVF Awards with the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, with the aim to empower women leaders worldwide. She’s also an author having written Diane: A Signature Life, The Woman I Wanted to Be, and she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019. She keeps busy sitting on various boards, getting involved in various projects around the world.