Egon von Furstenberg, popular fashion designer, dies at 57

By Mary Rourke
Los Angeles Times

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His office did not give the cause. Carla Nani Mocenigo, a fashion publicist and friend of Mr. Von Furstenberg, said that he had recently developed bronchitis.

Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Mr. Von Furstenberg inherited his title of prince from his father's side of the family, but most of the family fortune came from his Italian mother, Clara Agnelli of the Fiat automotive empire.

He attended the University of Geneva, where he met his future wife, Diane Halfin, a Belgium native who launched her own fashion line under the name Diane von Furstenberg after the couple married in 1969.

They lived in New York City where he worked at Chase Manhattan bank for several years before enrolling at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

The Von Furstenbergs' whirlwind social life and his aristocratic heritage made them a frequent item in New York's society pages.

Mr. Von Furstenberg made no secret of his attitude toward open marriage. "After a while, passion cools," he said in an interview with New York magazine in 1973. The couple separated that year and divorced in 1983.

He took a job as a buyer for Macy's department store in the early 1970s and met a wholesale manufacturer who asked him to design a collection for large-sized women. He launched that line in 1975 and soon afterward started his own business with a menswear collection.

He moved his base of operations to Milan, Italy, in 1977 and later added an office in Rome, where he lived in a Renaissance palace near the Pantheon. Mr. Von Furstenberg expanded his business to include women's wear, accessories and home furnishings.

He married Lynn Marshall in 1983. It was not immediately clear if they were still married at the time of his death.

Mr. Von Furstenberg is survived by his two children and several grandchildren.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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