Many know Diane von Fürstenberg as the iconic designer of the wrap dress. They associate her with models, socialites and royalty. What few people know is her life wasn’t always so glamorous. The daughter of a prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp, Fürstenberg learned at an early age what it means to persevere. Born only 18 […]
Folorunsho Alakija is a Nigerian businesswoman and one of the richest African women and also one of the richest black women in the world. In 2014 she unseated Oprah Winfrey’s the richest woman of African descent in the world. Alakija is ranked by Forbes as the richest woman in Nigeria with an estimated net worth […]
Discouragement from the outside world is one thing. Discouragement from yourself is another. Bethenny Frankel has felt a ton of discouragement around her, but never within her. Surrounded by hostility and defeat, Bethenny recalls her childhood as difficult. Her biological father stopped supporting the family and her mother, Frankel says, “was always drinking” and often […]
Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer born in 1890. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli’s designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. Her clients included […]
One of the most important female intellectuals of modern times, Simone de Beauvoir was a writer, existentialist, philosopher, feminist, political activist and social theorist. She lived a life often scandalous in its nature but dared to speak the unspoken and be unapologetically herself. Born in Paris in 1908, she was profoundly religious as a child. […]
Anaïs Nin was a Cuban-born essayist and memoirist from Paris. Born in 1903, she spent some time in Spain and Cuba but lived most of her life in the United States where she became an established author. She wrote journals (which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly […]
I love Jemima Kirke. No, not Jessa from ‘Girls’. Jemima. I love Jemima because she isn’t scared to show the world who she is – whether on screen or off. I love her flaming sense of self respect. Most importantly, I love her honesty. From rehab, to abortions, to her underarm hair, she’s unknowingly opened a […]
Joan Didion is an institution. Not just an American one, but a feminine one. During her senior year at the University of California, Berkeley she won first place in an essay contest sponsored by Vogue, and was awarded a job as a research assistant at the magazine. For two years at Vogue, Didion worked her […]