Diane von Furstenberg

Diane von Furstenberg on dressing first ladies, the Trump-era of 80s New York

"Well, I had good legs," she quipped, talking about the days of modeling her own designs.

She is, of course, most-connected to the wrap dress -- a style she invented -- as well as the glamour of the 70s in New York.

Diane von Furstenberg got candid with Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan at a live discussion Thursday night, like the aristocratic, exceedingly stylish aunt you wish you had to share crazy family stories over champagne cocktails during the holidays.

She told the oft-hilarious tale of how she went from the daughter of a Holocaust survivor to marrying a prince and becoming one of the best-known designers in the world

I came to New York like you're supposed to arrive in New York," she said. And how is one supposed to arrive? By boat, though preferably not pregnant like she was.

"I arrived and saw the Statute of Liberty in the morning. And Egon (von Furstenberg) picked me up with a beautiful car and I had big trunks and in my trunks I had my dresses, and I didn't know what I was going to do or how I was going to do it. I had no clue."

But as much of an icon of fashion and New York as she's become, she left the city for most of the 80s for a reason that perked listeners' ears.

"If you actually read my book, you will see that I write one of the reasons I left New York because New York had become the city of Donald Trump. I wrote it so it's there. I wrote it long ago," she said.

In her memoir, Diane: A Signature Life (1998), she mentions the president-elect and his first wife by name as a symbol of the ostentatiousness of the decade, writing that she "watched the social ethos change."

"His lavish clothes were the epitome of the eighties; they screamed money," she wrote of Lacroix, noting Ivana and Donald Trump were in the first row of the fashion show he put on in 1987.

There was the death of Andy Warhol, closing of Studio 54, the rise of fashion that bordered on gaudy in brands like Christian Lacroix.

"What I meant was in the mid 80s was Dynasty, Dallas, big shoulder pads, big poofy hair, and (Ronald) Reagan. And money was seemed to be the big deal," she said.

Though she's made it evident the new president doesn't embody her taste, von Furstenberg has joined the list of designers who have been diplomatic in their response to the question of whether they'd dress future first lady Melania Trump.

"Any first lady should be respected like any first lady," she said. But she does believe there is an obligation to promote the American fashion industry, something the Trumps have not done thus far.