Diane von Furstenberg was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1946, the daughter of a Russian man and Greek woman. Diane von Fursenberg’s mother was a survivor of the Holocaust. Diane von Furstenberg went on to study economics at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

While at university, Diane met Prince Egon of Fürstenberg, the elder son of a German prince and his first wife, an heiress to the Fiat automotive fortune. The couple had two children, Alexander von Furstenberg and Princess Tatiana, both born in New York City. In 2001, she married an American media executive, IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller. The following year, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

With a $30,000 investment, Diane von Furstenberg began designing women’s clothes in 1970. Diane von Furstenberg became an icon in the fashion world with her knitted jersey “wrap dress” in 1973, which proved to be an enormous and enduring influence on women’s fashion.

With her fashions, Diane von Furstenberg likes to celebrate a women’s strength and confidence. In an interview with Diane Sawyer, she said “I have yet to meet a woman who is not strong. They don’t exist.”

Diane von Fürstenberg has started a number of successful businesses, including a line of cosmetics and a home-shopping business, which she started in 1991. In 1998, Diane Von Furstenberg published her memoirs, Diane: A Signature Life. In 2005, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awarded her a lifetime achievement award. In 2006, she was named president of the CFDA. In 2008, she served as a judge on several episodes of Project Runway.

Diane Von Furstenberg’s son, Alexander Von Furstenberg, is quite successful in his own right. Alexander Von Furstenberg is the Chief Investment Officer of Arrow Capital Management, a prominent private equity company. He is also the director of the philanthropic group Diller -von Furstenberg Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting community based solutions in literacy, disease research, child care, and human rights.