- Diane von Furstenberg, inventor of the wrap dress, spoke about aging in a new podcast interview.
- Speaking on Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast, the designer said people should avoid the word "old."
Diane von Furstenberg got frank about her views on aging in a recent appearance on Julia Louis-Dreyfus' podcast, "Wiser Than Me."
The iconic designer spent much of her chat with Louis-Dreyfus opening up about the evolution of her decades-spanning career in fashion and getting older.
Von Furstenberg is best known for being credited with the invention of the wrap dress in 1972. In 1988, she told The New York Times her designs became so popular by 1975 that she was making 15,000 wrap dresses a week, Vogue reported.
Now 76, von Furstenberg told Louis-Dreyfus that her life experiences have only made her that much more appreciative of her age – so much so that she actually would prefer people to stop asking her how old she is but rather, how long she's been alive.
"I would change the world aging and say living," she said. "Instead of saying 'how old are you?' people should say 'how long have you lived?'"
According to von Furstenberg, the simple switch would "automatically" change the context and make aging something to be celebrated, rather than feared.
"Aging for me is life, it is not a decay, it's a continuation of life," von Furstenberg added.
The designer and Louis-Dreyfus also bonded over how they both have always loved getting older rather than desired being younger. Asked about her thoughts on people turning to plastic surgery to look more youthful, von Furstenberg said she never judges but that she personally has always enjoyed looking older.
"I've never wanted to be younger, I always look forward to being older," she said. "I don't judge anyone, everyone has a right to do whatever they want."
Because of that, she also said she'd replace the popular phrase "aging gracefully" with "living gracefully," but said that the definition of that phrase is up to the individual.
And despite saying that she feels as if she is entering "the winter" of her life, von Fusternberg said she remains quite active. One of the things she said she finds most restorative is routinely swimming for two hours in the middle of the ocean.
"I swim a lot in the ocean very far," she said. "I am alone between the sea and the sky and I am just this tiny little dot and I go into deep meditation. That is probably the most restorative thing."