Wrap Star

The wrap dress a printed wraparound dress in jersey material went on to become an icon,bridging the gap between her friends at Studio 54 Warhol8217;s studio and the modern working woman. Two years after she made the first one for a New York trade fair,in 1976,Furstenberg,once termed as a biblical temptress by the Town and Country magazine,America8217;s oldest monthly lifestyle magazine,made it to the cover of Newsweek as the most marketable woman since Coco Chanel. Her society background apart,Furstenberg credits her success to some quick thinking and the ability to read what women wanted,not just for occasional evenings out,but at every stage of their lives. But even then the dizzying success caught her unawares. I never imagined it would become so big. It just turned out to be exactly what women wanted at the time they wanted independence and power,and to feel sexy and to go to work and still feel like a woman. The dress gave them that, she says. The wrap dress became a cultural phenomenon,working its way into the Smithsonian Institution and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art MOMA,New York. I look back and I am very grateful to have seen all that I have and to have done all that I have done. I design for a woman who wants to be at her best. I help her to be the woman she wants to be. I hope my clothes bring confidence, she says.

At 65,the designer has not lost much of the drive that saw her make a fortune out of the wrap dress. She still looks sprightly,the long legs not in contradiction to the wrinkles that line her face. There8217;s a breezy confidence that makes Botox sound like a taboo word and beauty surgeries,therapies for the not-confident. Beauty is all about how a woman carries herself and that is about confidence. It is about knowing yourself and being that woman. I dont think it is about age,but as a young girl I think I was more serious about appearances. Now I know that a smile is always more beautiful. A smile is the best facelift, she says.

This ready acceptance of the inevitable has also kept Furstenberg fighting fit to deal with the vagaries of the fashion world,and her own life. After the sustained success of the wrap dress through the Seventies and early Eighties,it went through a period of lull till the late Nineties,when fashion saw its first anti-incumbency. Prints lost the war to monochromes,while at the other end of the spectrum,grunge became the new chic. Furstenberg moved to Paris in 1985,away from the heartbreak in New York,where she started a French publishing house Salvy. I have always loved to read and,for a while,I wanted to be a writer and help other writers do what they do,so I started Salvy,which I closed when I moved back to America. But through that experience I learned that even more than writing,it was the storytelling that attracted me. Because that is what connects one human being with another. And I am telling stories with my designs, she says.

Art,of course,has been a major influence in her career,both as a muse and as inspiration. Furstenberg has been immortalised by Warhol in his pop art series and by Opie,who captured her in the first dress she made. Art is all about having a unique way of looking at things and finding a way to communicate that perspective to others. Andy,for example,was an observer. He was always quiet,just watching everything go by with his camera. To be an artist is to have that eye,it is the same as a designer. As I have been a muse,I have also been inspired by art. I see prints and colours everywhere, she says.

Fuelled by this vision,Furstenberg returned to New York in 1997 and scripted one of the most emphatic comebacks in fashion8217;s history,her clients including everyone from US First Lady Michelle Obama to popstar Madonna to actor Gywneth Paltrow. I have learned so much,and now as I have become the woman I wanted to be,I work to inspire other women to do the same. I look to the future and cant wait to experience even more! So I never want to give it up because working is so much a part of who I am, she says.

India has been a mosaic of exotic experiences and Furstenberg,here on a working holiday,is clearly impressed. I was in India eight years ago and coming back,it feels like the first time. I have been blown away by the beauty of the places and the people,the richness of the colours and the landscape. I have been to so many places Mumbai,Jodhpur,Jaipur,Udaipur. I saw the Gangaur festival in Udaipur it was an amazing celebration of flamboyance,colour,music and happiness. I have so many memories to cherish, she says.

Work,though,never takes a backseat. With almost four decades of experience behind her,is there anything she still wants to achieve? I have a wonderful family that I love and a career that is exactly what I hoped for,and I am so grateful for it all,but there is always more to do, she says.