A Fashion Design Classic: The DVF Wrap Dress
pic_dvf-wrap-dress.jpg
by Sarah Clark
Fashion School Review Columnist

March 7, 2007

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Diane von Furstenberg's career in fashion was made when she introduced her iconic jersey wrap dress. Launched in New York during the 1970s, it was an entirely new and fresh take on the dress. Elegant and sexy, it's a style whose popularity endures today.

Von Furstenberg burst onto New York's fashion design scene in 1972, when she unveiled her now famous jersey wrap dress. It became a near instant sensation, inspiring knockoffs in middling department stores and luring women of means to buy her famously printed, ultra-feminine dresses.

A Career in Fashion Worth Modeling
Von Furstenberg made the most of her fashion design fame, introducing a cosmetics, perfume, and beauty care line during the 70s and early 80s. Later Von Furstenberg retreated from the limelight. The feminist backlash against curve-revealing day wear may have hurt sales of Diane's wrap dress. Or perhaps women just grew tired of them - the fashion industry customer is notoriously fickle. Whatever the case, women began shunning feminine silhouettes in favor of masculine suits with padded shoulders.

Then again in the late 1990s, after grunge had run its course, a renewed interest in feminine fashion design took hold. Around the same time von Furstenberg began marketing and selling her wrap dresses to a younger crowd. Free of the baggage of gender politics, young fashion-forward women enthusiastically embraced the classic, form-fitting look. Socialites like Paris and Nicole Hilton began sporting wrap dresses and today von Furstenberg's signature dresses are again crowding the racks at the toniest department stores and boutiques.

Fashion School and Your Career in Fashion
At fashion school you'll learn about iconic designers like von Furstenberg and the mark they've made on fashion design. You may learn how their designs are constructed and how you can find inspiration in them for your own designs, and your own career in fashion. You'll learn about that and much more during fashion school. So start learning about important figures in fashion like von Furstenberg by attending fashion school today!

About the Author
Sarah Clark is a freelance writer specializing in career development and postsecondary education.

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