Diane von Fürstenberg Honored in Thessaloniki, The Birthplace of Her Holocaust Survivor Mother

Von Fürstenberg was honored successful Thessaloniki. Credit: AMNA

Legendary manner designer, philanthropist, author, and laminitis of the planetary DVF brand, Diane von Fürstenberg, returned connected Friday to her mother’s birthplace, Thessaloniki, wherever she was honored by the Deputy Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace.

Von Fürstenberg is an enduring awesome of pistillate powerfulness and independence, peculiarly recognized for revolutionizing women’s wardrobes successful the 1970s.

She is highly regarded successful the manner manufacture for her enduring creation: the wrapper dress. This elemental yet elegant garment became a planetary phenomenon, praised for empowering women by offering comfort, versatility, and confidence. Her quality to construe idiosyncratic resilience into iconic, accessible manner cemented her presumption arsenic a titan of American design.

Von Fürstenberg’s instrumentality is profoundly personal. Her mother, Liliane Nahmias, was calved successful Thessaloniki and was a subsister of the Nazi attraction camps.

The grant and the household bequest successful Thessaloniki

The Belgian-born American decorator received an honorary plaque from Konstantinos Gioulekas, Deputy Minister of the Interior for Macedonia and Thrace, which read:

“To Diane von Fürstenberg. As a token of heavy appreciation for your originative tone and multifaceted, inspiring work, Thessaloniki, the metropolis wherever your parent was born, embraces you with love. Thessaloniki, October 2025.”

Gioulekas emphasized the designer’s transportation to a “martyred household of Thessaloniki” and to her mother, who endured a travel “truly terrifying conscionable to contemplate.”

Diane von Fürstenberg: Thessaloniki is simply a multicultural harmony

Diane von Fürstenberg, who was accompanied by her younger brother, highlighted the affectional quality of the visit:

“I americium present contiguous with my small member to grant my mother’s birthplace. My parent was calved here; her begetter was calved here. When she near Thessaloniki, she was a tiny girl, but she remembered the food, the flowers, definite words.”

She revealed that she understands a fewer Greek words herself, including eleftheria (freedom), gyneka (woman), anthropos (person), kosmos (world), and Thessaloniki.

The decorator shared a poignant household memory, linking her individuality backmost to the city:

“I remembered arsenic I was getting dressed contiguous that, for my precise archetypal Carnival costume party, my parent dressed maine arsenic she utilized to dress. She made maine a small girl’s costume from Thessaloniki. I really inactive person the embroidered apical of the outfit.”

Reflecting connected Thessaloniki’s identity, von Fürstenberg drew a meaningful comparison:

“Thessaloniki is successful Macedonia. In French, Macédoine means effect salad. So, you person galore fruits—Muslims, Armenians, Jews, Greeks—all unneurotic successful 1 salad. Thessaloniki is simply a metropolis of surprises; you spot Mount Olympus, you spot Roman ruins, you spot Ottoman mansions. It is simply a metropolis wherever everything is together.”

She underscored a almighty connection of unity:

“It is precise important that we beforehand harmony and that we beforehand the thought that we cognize however to unrecorded together. That is what I believe, and I judge you bash too. That is what we are celebrating tonight. It is simply a large grant that you invited maine to my mother’s city. She was calved precisely 100 years ago.”