Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the February 5, 1973, issue of New York . (Diane von Fürstenberg later said that reading it made her realize her marriage was finished.) We’re republishing it here to mark the release of the documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge .
Egon and Diane von und zu Fürstenberg are this week’s couple of the year, the newest darlings in what passes for high-powered social life in New York. They are a striking European duet with just the right recipe of royalty, money, charm, and a dollop of decadence. They take us beyond run-of-the-mill excess as they explore the opportunities of open marriage.
The Prince and Princess (the title derives from 15th-century Germany, the money from Egon’s mother, Clara Agnelli of Fiat fortune) will not remind you of Andy Hardy and his best girl or of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace. Nor even, getting closer to home, of Tricia Nixon and Fast Eddie Cox. They make last year’s best-beloveds, Carter and Amanda, look like a pair of knock-kneed cheerleaders.
But they have their moments, the Von Fürstenbergs do. They claim to be 26 years old (he looks it, she doesn’t), have two children; both run talked-about fashion businesses, and they are said to ride youth-fare on their frequent Atlantic jet-crossings. Diane, a tall, slender woman with Middle Eastern eyes and extraordinary breasts, enjoys appearing in diaphanous fabrics that show her off to best advantage, and has posed nude for fashio.
