Fashion Talks

Diane von Furstenberg made her first public comment about the departure of her creative director Yvan Mispelaere on the same day his exit was announced.

"Yvan is a really talented designer," von Furstenberg said. "He joined DVF almost three years ago, and he helped me to brand it. He was very, very helpful. I think he had a good time. He saw a whole other way of seeing fashion and doing fashion, and then he felt like his mission was accomplished, so we parted."

Citing a press release from von Furstenberg's team, previous reports said Mispelaere would not be replaced, and that an in-house team would lead the design process. But the designer herself — who has counted Catherine Malandrino among her creative directors — seemed open to bringing another young designer into the fold.

"I think that he put together a really dynamic team," she said of Mispelaere. "There's a lot of talented designers, and I love the idea of having a laboratory."

Von Furstenberg was similarly vague about the implications of another staff change: the hiring of former Tommy Hilfiger executive Joel Horowitz as cochairman. Some have suggested Horowitz will help the company go public, but von Furstenberg wouldn't discuss specifics of his job.

"I realize that I have created a brand. And I look back and there's a big body of work and there's a huge recognition," she said. "I really have an asset — that's something that can go on after me. . . . It's a platform to build the next step."

Michael Kors is the funniest man in fashion — or at least that's how Fern Mallis described him when she brought him on stage for the latest edition of her Fashion Icons series at 92nd Street Y.

Mallis asked Kors about everything from growing up on Long Island, where he was born Karl Anderson Jr. — "the least likely name for a nice Jewish boy" — to his first dalliance in fashion: redesigning his mother's second wedding dress at the age five. "The dress is pretty timeless," Kors said. Read on for more highlights from the talk — including Kors on his first Met Gala, who he'd like to play him in a movie, and why he dropped out of FIT.

On redesigning his mother's wedding dress: "My mom tried the dress on and it was covered with a zillion bows — bows everywhere! And my grandmother said, 'That's magnificent!' And I just kind of sat in the corner, and my mother said, 'What's wrong? What do you think?' So I said, 'I think it's really busy.' So my grandmother said, 'Oh, don’t listen to him, he’s only five.' Priscilla of Boston, how could you go wrong? And then the tailor came in and my mom said, 'Trim off a few of the bows,' so they took them off the bodice at first. And then my mom said, 'You know, he’s right. Take them all off,' so the bows went off."

On dropping out of FIT: "I got to school and I had been sketching since I was really small, and I had such firm ideas about what I liked, so I was fighting with the teachers . . . I don't think that there's a rule in fashion in how you have to chart your course. I would never tell anyone, 'Oh drop out, it worked for me.'"

On his first Met Gala with Vera Wang, while he was working for the retailer Lothar's: "Vera, in fact, was working at Vogue ... and wore a Michael Kors for Lothar's charmeuse slip with a leather down vest and a mohair sweater around the waist. I think we were definitely doing creative black tie. In we went and it was the year of the Saint Laurent exhibit. I got to meet him and I almost levitated. This was when it was in December and it started snowing while we were in the Temple of Dendur. Suddenly it got very quiet . . . and then we found out that it was the night that John Lennon was killed."

On the show that inspired Mallis to start fashion week: "The music started, and it was very hot that day. Pounding, pounding, pounding music. Naomi Campbell was out there strutting her stuff and all of a sudden I heard this explosion from backstage. It sounded like gunfire and I was just, 'What on earth was that?' Naomi got off the runway and she said to me, 'The ceiling caved in. The plaster just came down. And hit people.' We hit Suzy Menkes . . . It was time for New York to get professional show spaces. Voila!"

On who should play him in a movie: "If it's a drama and vanity comes into it, I'm gonna have to go with Daniel Day-Lewis. If it's a big box office comedy, Will Ferrell."

On his philosophy of life: "You can have it all. You can be glamorous, you can be sexy, you can be comfortable, you can feel good in your own skin. Balance indulgent with pragmatic. You have to feel good, that's what it's all about."

>> Belgian fashion legend Dries Van Noten talked about his life and his work Thursday night at the French Institute Alliance Francaise's final Fashion Talk, giving the audience a little insight into the way his brain works.

Van Noten touched on a range of subjects, from the unique relationship he has with his creations to what it was like going to design school at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Below, some of our favorite quotes from the talks.

On fashion school: "Going to fashion school in the '70s, it was really difficult to be judged by a [teacher] who said, like, 'No short skirts, only pants,' or, 'You can do short skirts, but then you have to cover the knees with stockings,' and things like that . . . 'Long hair is untidy, so it had to be all chignon or short hair.' 'Jeans are for poor people.' So, that was our teacher. So, in fact, when you have so many restrictions, you have to be enormously creative."

On his clothing: "I'm more inspired by things which I don't like . . . nothing is so boring as something beautiful. I prefer ugly things, I prefer things which are surprising . . . You force yourself to ask yourself questions. Quite often I make a collection and I say, 'Here's a color I really don't like.' . . . My assistants will say 'OK, you don't like lilac,' [that means] this season will be lilac."

On runway presentations: "Fashion shows are really my way of communication. I don't go on Twitter, I don't go to parties, I don't often do fashion talks like this. So for me, it's really what I want to communicate. It's the end of the story . . . So the venue, the light, the location, the sound, the hair, the makeup, all makes it for me. You have 10 minutes to explain to your audience what you're doing, what you want to tell. So everything has to be perfect."

On fast fashion: "That's one of the disadvantages of modern technology. It's so fast, that it's already like, a few minutes after the show, on the Internet, you have like, the shoe's details from the back, side, front. It makes it easy sometimes . . . I think it's the reality. I don't want to live in the old world, like 35, 30 years ago when people had prêt-à-porter and that was it. I think fast fashion is good. I think modern people combine vintage with designer clothes, with a piece they buy at Zara or other stores — why not?"