Just days after New York Fashion Week, designer Diane von Furstenberg was at Bloomingdale’s to launch her new perfume, DIANE. It’s a fragrance that she felt compelled to create because, in her opinion, ladies today aren’t yet using scents to their fullest potential.
“I felt like the new generation of women haven’t understood the power of the fragrance, and that it has been used as weapon by women for centuries, since Cleopatra,” she says. “People have made a lot of beautiful perfumes with a lot of beautiful celebrities and nice bottles, but people have forgotten what a perfume is about. It is really about addiction and memory and all of these things, and I really wanted to do a perfume that has that strength and that power.” Tell us more, Diane!
1. What inspired this scent?
I used two main inspirations, two flowers, two powers. The frangipani, it smells so wonderful and so clean — it’s all about happiness. But then the second flower is completely different. It’s strong, mysterious, naughty and totally seductive — that is the violet. The frangipani and the violet are like the yin and the yang. So in this bottle I have put all my love, passion, wisdom, knowledge and all my secrets of seduction.
2. Speaking of wisdom, what makes you feel confident?
I think it is just the relationship I have with myself. I know that I can trust myself. I know that I can pay my bills.
3. What’s your style of scent? Are you a floral girl or do you prefer muskier scents?
It has to smell good, I know that sounds stupid and obvious but a lot of perfumes do not smell good. It has to be a scent that you can actually swallow, not [one] that you get into a elevator and say, “Oh my God, please get out.” Definitely floral but also with a touch of wood. I do not like fruity scents at all. And I don’t like vanilla.
4. What makes you feel beautiful?
I do not feel beautiful at all. I think the most important thing is to accept who you are and just make the best the of it, and I think confidence is probably the best secret for beauty.
