Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/303789
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LORENZO AGIUS (VON FURSTENBERG); JEFF GALE (STORE); SETH OLENICK (DRESS) TASTEMAKER Wrap-sody in Hues DIANE VON FURSTENBERG CELEBRATES THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF HER MOST ICONIC DESIGN IN BOLD, VEGASFRIENDLY PRINTS. BY LAURIE BROOKINS D iane von Furstenberg opened her first store on the Las Vegas Strip in 2 0 0 8 , at t he Shoppes at t he Pa la zzo, now t he Gra nd Ca na l Shoppes, adjacent to Venetian (her second, at the Forum Shops, debuted in 2012). So perhaps it was kismet that the city of Venice inspired her perfect-for-Vegas Pre-Fall 2014 collection, arriving in stores in June. Filled with brilliant colors—meant to evoke hand-blown Murano glass— fashioned into vivid, notice-me graphics, von Furstenberg's latest looks indeed seem tailor-made for an afternoon at Marquee Dayclub or a night at Tao. But there's one dress that deserves a bit more attention: the Amelia, the latest iteration of von Furstenberg's iconic wrap dress. "I decided all these young girls love these f lare skirts, so I created a new dress shape, with the top in jersey and a f lared skirt in a woven," she explains. "Really, that's my present to the wrap." Von Furstenberg's most celebrated desig n deserves a gift, and it's one of many she's offer- ing as her label commemorates 40 years of the wrap dress. But the body-skimming, curve- embracing w rap t ra nscends mere fashion, with its revered status partly due to the timing of its debut. W hen women began entering the workforce in large numbers in the 1970s, they adopted the wrap as a feminist ideal crafted in a few yards of graphic-printed jersey. The frenzy for it was immediate, even in Hollywood, with Cybill Shepherd famously wearing a wrap in Taxi Driver in 1976, the same year that von Furstenberg appea red on t he cover of Newsweek. ( More recent ly, A my Ada ms wore three versions of the wrap, including von Furstenberg's Newsweek model, in American Hustle.) So the designer understands the weight of her words when she says, "Really, I owe absolutely everything to that dress." Von Furstenberg is celebrating the anniversary with a limited-edition capsule collection dubbed Pop Wrap, which combines the classic design with another DVF association: her friendship with Andy Warhol. Working with the Andy Warhol Foundation, she has married the signature prints of her wrap with graphics well-known to Warhol enthusiasts, including his brightly toned f lowers and dollar signs. For her legions of wrap-dress fans, von Furstenberg knows that these are gifts that will keep on giving. "It sounds incredible, but I was never really that impressed by what happened with the dress. I think I took it for granted," she says. "And now, 40 years later, I'm looking back and realizing how special it was and how unique the dress remains. Now I'm fully embracing it." The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-879-2692, and Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-818-2294; dvf.com V The Amelia wrap dress ($485). Von Furstenberg's store at the Forum Shops, one of two DVF boutiques in Las Vegas. VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 97 096-097_V_SS_Tastemaker_MAYJUNE_14.indd 97 4/21/14 2:58 PM