Documentary film “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge”, which is currently available on Disney+ in South Korea, broadly looks over the life and achievement of its very fascinating human subject. Although I wish it regarded this interesting figure with more honesty and insight, the documentary still works a fairly informative presentation, and I must admit that it also fills some blank spots in my deficient knowledge on fashion industry.

With its human subject constantly occupying its center, the documentary begins with her family background. Diane von Furstenberg, who will soon have her 78th birthday around the end of this year, was born as Diane Simone Michele Halfin in Belgium shortly after the end of the World War II, and she tells a bit about how things were quite grim and difficult for her Jewish mother during the war. Her mother eventually managed to survive the Holocaust and then reunite with her parents, and then she came to give birth to her daughter not long after marrying her first husband, though her doctor told her that having a child could be quite risky for her.

While von Furstenberg’s mother cared a lot about her daughter as showing some tough love to her, their life subsequently went through a big change as she suddenly had a divorce for some other guy. Young von Furstenberg was soon sent to a boarding school in Switzerland, and that is where she came to befriend and then fell in love with Prince Egon von Fürstenberg, a young and handsome German aristocrat who would become her first husband several years later.

After they eventually got married in 1969, von Furstenberg moved to New York City along with her husband, and she was already ready to live her life as fully as possible. She and her husband busily attended one big party after another as heedlessly being swept by the carefree mood of the city, and she also did not pay much attention to her husband’s increasingly infamous sexual promiscuity.

Meanwhile, von Furstenberg became more serious about what she really wanted to do with her own life. She and her husband were pretty fine with each other and also had two kids between them, but she really wanted to try a bit on fashion business, and she could easily access to a number of prominent figures in the American fashion industry mainly thanks to her husband’s considerable social status in New York City. Although things were not so easy for her right from the first day, she soon became more passionate and creative, and this eventually led to her creation of wrap dress, which quickly became quite popular among millions of American women during the 1970s.

Thanks to the enormous success of her wrap dress, von Furstenberg became an independent fashion designer/businesswoman who had her own company, and she did not hesitate at all when she felt that her marriage with her first husband was totally over. They eventually divorced, and she went all the way for more fun and pleasure just like her first husband while going up and up in the international fashion industry.

Although many years passed since that wild period of hers, von Furstenberg does not have much regret while frankly admitting that both she and her husband were not exactly good parents for her two kids, who incidentally grew up fairly well despite their parents’ wild and busy lifestyle. They cannot help but become amused as reminiscing about how promiscuous their parents often were during that time, and von Furstenberg told us about an amusing episode about how she could have slept with both two certain famous British musicians.

However, this wild period of hers was soon over around the early 1980s, when von Furstenberg and many friends were struck hard by the AIDS epidemic in the American society. Not so surprisingly, her first husband was subsequently diagnosed to be HIV positive, and his following death certainly hurt her a lot as she still regarded her first husband as a good friend. In addition, her fashion season started to go down as there came another considerable change in American female fashion, and that was surely another big blow to her.

Nevertheless, von Furstenberg tried to keep going as before, and the documentary glides over a series of following romantic relationships in her life. While she felt quite happy when a wealthy movie businessman who would later become her second husband, she also tried on several other guys one by one, and, again, she does not feel any regret of guilt because she was simply trying to discover more of herself and then find the next direction for her life.

In the end, von Furstenberg eventually found a breakthrough which brought back her to the top of fashion industry, and we see how she keeps going while bringing more opportunities and recognitions for many female models and designers out there. After marrying her second husband, she also became closer with her children and grandchildren, and she even let her granddaughter co-manage her company business with her.

On the whole, “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge”, which is directed by Trish Dalton and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, presents its human subject with enough respect and admiration, but I must point out that it does not go beyond what von Furstenberg wants to tell and show us despite assembling a lot of various interviewees ranging from Fran Lebowitz to Hilary Clinton. Yes, it could be more truthful and perceptive in my humble opinion, but it did its job mostly well at least, so I will not grumble for now.