Support for this podcast comes from the Newbower Family Foundation, supporting W

HYY's Fresh Air and its commitment to sharing ideas and encouraging meaningful

conversation. This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. When Dion von

Firstenburg was born, her mother declared,

You are my torture freedom. Just a year before in 1945, Dion's mother Lily had survived the Nazi concentration camps.

Dionne von Furstenberg, simply known by many as D. V.F. would go on to become one of the most well-known

fashion designers of our time after she designed the rap dress which has endured

for more than 50 years as a symbol of women's empowerment and liberation.

The story of the rap dress goes like this.

One day, Von Furstenberg saw former President Richard Nixon's daughter on television,

wearing one of her rap tops along with a skirt. She thought,

what if the two pieces could turn into one? The rest is history.

The wrapped dress was the go-to garment.

Everybody I knew had one.

It seemed to epitomize a modern, independent,

sexy woman who could have it all.

I remember being a young reporter saving up for a Diane von Furstenberg

rap dress.

It was such a status symbol to have one of those dresses.

This dress empowered a giant swath of women who could actually afford to wear it,

which, you know, let's be honest, is not true of most high fashion, right?

Like, most high fashion kind of exists over here. And Diane's dress exists in the middle of the

...