Woman Before Fashion At The Skirball Cultural Center

Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman Before Fashion, an exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center (on view through August 31, 2025), might strike a visitor at first as being a fashion exhibition. They would not be wrong: In fact, the exhibition originated at the Fashion & Lace Museum in Brussels, Belgium, curated by Nicolas Lor. For the expanded LA exhibition, Cate Thurston curated for the Skirball.

However, to encounter Diane Von Furstenberg, her life, her fashion line, her accomplishments, is to experience an exhibition that belongs at the Skirball and speaks to that institution’s mandate, as a powerful expression of Jewish identity and culture.

“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,” said Skirball Cultural Center President and CEO Jessie Kornberg in the exhibition press release. “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.”

The exhibition does provide fashion history, highlighting the women who were its distinctive talents, from Madeleine Vionnet, Claire McCardell, Sonia Rykiel, and Donna Karan.

Furstenberg’s wrap dress created an archetype for the liberated professional woman, feminine yet powerful, in charge of her own destiny.

In the exhibition we see the evolution of the Wrap Dress from Furstenberg’s first designs to its many reinventions and rebirths. The dress presents as a uniform that was subject to an infinite variety of designs and in which Furstenberg could express whatever inspired her, from tree branches to works by Warhol and Dali.

The exhibition makes the connection between the Kimono and the wrap dress. The art critic John Berger in The Ways of Seeing, discussed how for the male gaze, women in artworks are often presented in a way that signals that they are sexually available. The wrap dress, by being as easy to put on as to take off, also suggests sexual availability, but it is the woman that controls that availability. That is why the wrap dress has always been understood as an expression of a confident woman being in control.

This confidence and feeling of specialness that still fills Furstenberg in her late seventies, is informed by the boundless love her mother gave her.

Liliane Nahmias Halfin, Furstenberg’s mother, was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. The family moved to Brussels in 1930. Liliane’s father worked at Maison Doree, a textile house. Her mother attended fashion school. During World War Two, she joined the resistance. However, she was apprehended and was sent to Auschwitz, and as the liberation forces approached the camp, she was sent on a death march to Ravensbrück, the women’s prison camp in northern Germany where she was liberated in 1945.

When the war ended, she weighed only 49 pounds. Doctors were not sure she would survive. As she was slowly cared for, she was advised not to have a child. She was reunited with Leon Halfin who she had met before the war. They married and despite doctor’s warnings, she gave birth to Diane only 18 months after liberation, and later to a son, Philippe. Lilliane was devoted to her family. “My children are my life,” she said.

Furstenberg has said that her mother used to say, ‘God saved me so that I can give you life. By giving you life, you gave me my life back. You are my torch of freedom.’

The exhibition features more than 70 items from Furstenberg’s archive (29 of which are exclusive to the Skirball exhibition) that tell the story of her life, career, and that of the wrap dress over time.

Furstenberg studied economics at the University of Geneva, after which she worked as an assistant to fashion photographer Albert Koski and then apprenticed with textile manufacturer Angelo Ferretti.

In 1969, she married Prince Egon von Furstenberg who she met at university. They had two children, and although they separated in 1972, they did not divorce until 1983.

Upon marrying she decided to launch her fashion career. In New York she met Vogue fashion impresario Diana Vreeland who loved her clothes and guided her on how to launch her fashion business.

In 1974, the wrap dress was introduced. Since then, it has had many, many incarnations. The Diane Von Furstenberg fashion line has had ups and downs. She has licensed lines, and she has relaunched her company on several occasions. Stores have opened and closed. However, through it all Furstenberg has remained an admirable figure.

Following her 2001 marriage to Barry Diller, the Diller von Furstenberg Family Foundation has provided support to nonprofits in multiple areas, and was instrumental in supporting both New York’s High Line, and Little Island.

The exhibition highlights not only the history of the wrap dress and Furstenberg’s realization of the American Dream, but also how Furstenberg has used her platform to advocate for gender rights and to connect and support women all over the globe.

At the press preview at which Furstenberg spoke, she said that she now begins each day thinking which two people who don’t know each other she can connect just to see what happens, because she said, “What’s better than that?”

To spend time with Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman Before Fashion at the Skirball Cultural Center is to be inspired by a Jewish mother, her confident daughter, and a simple dress that turned out to be more than a fashion staple but an engine for self-realization, empowerment, and advocacy.