Cosmogony of Desire

Diane von Fürstenberg became a fashion icon in the 1970s as the inventor of the wrap dress, a soft jersey sheath designed to follow the natural contours of a woman’s body. Practical yet sexy, the dress had a streamlined elegance that conveyed the empowered femininity of the women’s movement. Having learned from her mother, an Auschwitz survivor, that “fear is not an option,” von Fürstenberg has begun urging women to apply that philosophy to aging. “In my older face, I see my life,” she has observed. “My face carries all my memories. Why should I erase them?”

Artist Anh Duong finds equal significance in the eyes of her sitters, which she believes “can express the inner workings of a person.” She began this portrait with the right eye. After an hour, von Fürstenberg recalled, “There were only my eyes in this huge canvas, but she had captured all of me.”