DVF in South America

Driving through the urban jungle of São Paulo, Diane von Furstenberg snaps a picture of the vibrant graffiti art that paints the city. “I love everything about Brazil!” she says, her chestnut waves blowing in the south-of-the-border breeze. “The women are perfect for DVF clothes—they love their bodies, and they love life. If the BRIC countries are the future,” she says, referring to Brazil, Russia, India, and China, “in Brazil it will be most pleasant!” The designer has traveled to São Paulo to celebrate two big events: the opening of her first store in South America and the second stop of her traveling retrospective, “Diane von Furstenberg: Journey of a Dress,” on display at the Iguatemi shopping center, which also houses the boutique that carries everything from those perfectly printed wraparound wonders to kelly green stacks of her comic book, Be the Wonder Woman You Can Be. Iguatemi is owned by the designer’s close friends the Jereissati family (locals call them the Kennedys of Brazil) and is where paulistanos do everything from blow-outs at the W Studio salon to gossiping at the Armani Caffé. Von Furstenberg calls it “the only mall in the world with soul.”

The flamingo pink walls of the exhibition are filled with more than 140 mementos from the designer’s personal archives, including 40 looks spanning four decades; her Warhol and Francesco Clemente portraits; and the Obamas’ first presidential Christmas card (Michelle’s in a wrapdress with the fam on the White House lawn). At the opening cocktail party, von Furstenberg walks guests—such as the youngest members of the Jereissati brood, including bachelor Carlos and his brother Pedro—through the eras of her life, telling stories of her early days as a working girl (“I wanted to be a man in a woman’s body”) and what Andy Warhol was like (“A true voyeur, he hardly spoke”). When asked what she thinks of Brazilians, she says with a toss of her hair, “The world is going crazy, but they still see the beautiful side of life.” Sounds like someone else we know.