Diane Von Furstenberg solves your quandaries for the Cut. To submit a question, e-mail askthecut@nymag.com.
Dear Diane: As someone who places a lot of focus on inner peace and happiness, how do you deal with the negative energy of others? —Athena
The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself. You have to build from within and you will have control. Be honest with yourself, accept who you are. Once you do that, you can improve yourself and like yourself. YOU are the solution! Look for the light and build around it. You have the keys to your happiness. Let others be negative, your light will shine on them! It also helps to surround yourself with amazing women. I am so thrilled to be in the fourth year of the DVF Awards, where we award five extraordinary women who have had the courage to fight, the power to survive, and the leadership to inspire. I have met so many incredible women that make it easy to focus on the positive because they have so often turned hardship into opportunity. That is the definition of grace.
Dear Diane: What was your energy like when you first started to design clothes? —Jay
When I started out, I wasn't trying to make fashion so much as make clothes that women like myself would wear, and no one was doing the easy dress. And it is interesting, because I was very much in a place where I knew I needed something of my own. I was getting married and having a child and moving to America, and also very much wanting to have an identity of my own. Designing gave me that. That energy, that desire for independence came through in the wrap dress which was all about freedom and independence for women. So I knew what I wanted and I was being true to myself — that is what you should remember as a designer.
Dear Diane: You have incredible style! Any tips for decorating on a budget? —R.I.S.
Everything in your space should be a reflection of who you are. I love to buy things when I am traveling or in antique shops and to think of decorating as a continuous process, so you are always looking, rather than one big decorating project and then you are done.
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