Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY SETH OLENICK (DRESS); LESSICA JANIEWSKI (STORE); LORENZO AGIUS (DIANE VON FURSTENBERG) C hances are you watched American Hustle with an eagle eye toward spotting its Boston backdrops—but the Oscar-nominated film has also garnered attention for its inclusion of one of fashion's most iconic items. "Doesn't Amy Adams look fantastic in those wrap dresses?" asks Diane von Furstenberg, who appreciates that the timing of Adams wearing three versions of her wrap dress (including one 1974 original) in American Hustle couldn't be better: Throughout 2014, von Furstenberg is putting her own spotlight on the body-skimming, curve-embracing wrap as her label cele- brates the design's 40th birthday. The DVF wrap's icon status is partly owed to the timing of its debut, when women entering the workforce in the 1970s embraced the wrap as more than a dress, but as a feminist ideal crafted in a few yards of graphic-printed jersey. Over the years, the wrap has enjoyed an almost cultlike following, and you'll find it everywhere from Cybill Shepherd's character in Taxi Driver to Michelle Obama on the White House's 2009 Christmas card. "Really, I owe absolutely everything to that dress," von Furstenberg says. She is celebrating the anniversary with a capsule collection she has dubbed Pop Wrap, which draws on her friendship with Andy Warhol. Working with the Andy Warhol Foundation, von Furstenberg marries the signature prints of her wrap with graphics well-known to Warhol fans, including his brightly toned f lowers and dollar signs. Meanwhile, in the midst of designing her Spring/Summer 2014 collection, von Furstenberg says she made a discovery. "I [realized] all these young girls love f lare skirts, so I created a new dress shape, the Amelia, with the top in jersey and a f lared woven skirt," she explains, calling it "my present to the wrap." You'll also find the Amelia in von Furstenberg's latest series, her Venice- inspired pre-fall 2014 collection, which arrives in her Newbury Street boutique this month. Ultimately, it's just the latest phase, von Furstenberg says, of a journey she couldn't have imagined at the time, but 40 years later she can fully appreci- ate. "For one dress to accomplish so much—that in itself is amazing." 73 Newbury St., 617-247-7300; dvf.com BC. En-Wraptured DIANE VON FURSTENBERG COMMEMORATES THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF HER MOST ICONIC DESIGN AT HER NEWBURY STREET BOUTIQUE. BY LAURIE BROOKINS STYLE SETTER Wrap dress from the Amelia collection ($425). BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 81 080-081_BC_SS_StyleSetter_LteSpr14.indd 81 4/4/14 10:43 AM