Diane von Furstenberg to teach online course on how to build a fashion brand

Diane von Furstenberg became the person she wanted to be and now she hopes to teach others how to do the same. With over four decades running her fashion label, the designer is replete with life lessons and business acumen that she will impart as the latest instructor being added to the roster for MasterClass. The online education company also includes video lectures from Kevin Spacey on acting, Christina Aguilera on singing and David Mamet on dramatic writing.

“I spoke [on-camera] for three days,” the designer explained in a call from her New York City office. “As I now have Jonathan [Saunders] handling the rebranding, I’m focusing a lot of my time on mentoring and philanthropy. I hope this lesson is nice. I made the director cry, so I think it was good.”

It was revealed earlier this year that Saunders, DVF’s chief creative officer, will lead a redesign of the company’s logo, monogram and brand colors.

“I tried to make it a lesson about how to start your life and how to deal with success and failure and how the customer is important,” continued von Furstenberg. “It’s about the fashion of business, it’s about trying, it’s about being true to yourself — all lessons of life and everybody will take something different.”

The teachings from von Furstenberg, which are available for pre-order Thursday with a full launch later this year, draw from her own experience. But the Belgian-born designer asserts she’s learning something new everyday.

“I’ve learned so much since I finished writing a book [about my life] three years ago,” she added. “I learned today that data is the new currency. How about that? I came up with that today. Everybody is data, data, data. So I guess that data is the new currency.”

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