Wednesday night brought the New York fashion flock out in force to celebrate the official grand opening of Diane von Furstenberg’s new store in the Meatpacking District, with high profile guests including Calvin Klein, Ellen Barkin, Anna Wintour, Ahn Duong, Sandra Bernhard, Francisco Costa, Donna Karan, Lauren Ezersky, Yeohlee Teng, Richard Lambertson, John Truex, André Leon Talley, Isabel Dupre, Cecelia Dean, Steven Kolb, Nicole Miller, Fran Liebowitz, Alba Clemente, Carlos Falchi and Marlo Thomas literally crammed elbow-to-elbow in the open, white walled space.
But then, we’d expect nothing less for the newly elected president of the CFDA.
Located just two blocks from her old, much smaller boutique on West 12th Street, DVF’s new digs were designed by the architecture firm WORKac, inspired by the idea of a glittering jewel box, and are situated on the corner of 14th and Washington. And with two floors of retail space stretching over 2,100-sq. feet, it allows the designer to display her entire ready-to-wear and accessories collections, along with exclusive runway looks, swimwear, DVF vintage, Christian Louboutin shoes and a small selection of DVF Beauty products and Diane von Furstenberg for H. Stern fine jewelry pieces.
Pale gray glossy floors, “DVF Pink” banquettes, a continuous white “wrap wall” - a nod to the designer’s signature wrap dress - and twinkling mirrored constellations on the staircase and ceiling play backdrop to an impressive art collection (including a DVF portrait by Francesco Clemente) and set off the bold patterned frocks on which the DVF empire is built - and which appeared to be worn by at least half of the women in attendance.
“Diane is an old friend,” Anderson Cooper told The Fashion Informer when we asked what had brought him to the event.
He became endearingly bashful, though, when asked what he thought of the store.
“Oh, I don’t want to talk about that,” he demurred with a smile. “I don’t know anything about fashion...”
Barry Diller (aka, Mr. von Furstenberg) was a bit more forthcoming.
“Well, how could I say anything other than it’s perfect?!” he said, gesturing to the swank surroundings. “It’s got everything in it: Jewelry, clothes, style, nice people!”
Speaking of which, there was his missus, who had finally reappeared after greeting her friends Graydon and Anna Carter and whisking them to an elevator in the rear of the building for a private tour of the second floor, which was off-limits for the evening, thanks to a row of potted plants and a quartet of headless mannequins dressed in identical DVF wrap dresses, who sat cross legged at the top of the sweeping staircase like uber-stylish sentinels.
But before we could nab her for a chat, von Furstenberg upended a tomato-topped hors d’oeuvre down the front of her white dress, unbeknownst to the waiter, who sailed blithely on, unaware of the evening’s hostess politely calling after him, “Oh, sir! Oh, sir!” in a vain attempt to get a napkin.
“I’m going upstairs to change,” she announced calmly to a DVF staffer standing nearby, and strode off toward the elevator. A few moments later she emerged in the same white dress, the stain now barely visible, and continued greeting friends and posing for photos. Harper’s Bazaar editor Glenda Bailey arrived and was swept up in a big DVF hug, as was designer Kenneth Cole immediately afterward.
So, what’s kept DVF in the Meatpacking District for nearly a decade?
“Oh, I love it!” she said, before succumbing once more to the call of the photographers. “It’s my neighborhood. It’s just a real, real place.”
Fittingly, it’s DVF’s own realness that has endeared her to those in attendance.
“DVF is a fashion icon and a lifestyle icon,” Paper magazine editor Mickey Boardman told The Fashion Informer. “I mean, she’s the hardest working princess in show business. She has that wonderful dichotomy in that no one is more glamorous and more beautiful and more fabulous, but at the same time, she’s a real worker bee. She just keeps building the business and building the business. So she’s really the best of both. And to me, that’s completely irresistible.”
Photos © The Fashion Informer
