Egon von Fürstenberg

Family

Eduard Egon Peter Paul Giovanni Prinz zu Fürstenberg, born 29 June 1946 in Lausanne, Switzerland, was the elder son of Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg (1903–1989) and his first wife Clara Agnelli (born 1920), elder sister of Fiat's chairman Gianni Agnelli. After Clara's departure, his father married Texas oil heiress Dr. Cecilie Amelia Hudson (née Blaffer).

Fürstenberg's younger brother is Prince Sebastian zu Fürstenberg,, and his sister is socialite and actress Princess Ira zu Fürstenberg.

The House of Fürstenberg is a German family which reigned over a small principality within the Holy Roman Empire until mediatized in 1806, henceforth retaining its official princely status until the fall of the German Empire in 1918, and thereafter maintained ownership of vast estates. Although zu rather than von is the predicate attached to the family's princely title (denoting that the family retained possession of, not merely past or nominal association with the Fürstenberg family seat), Egon and his sister chose to use the more familiar von for career purposes.

Ancestry

Life

Egon von Fürstenberg was born at Lausanne, Switzerland, was baptized by Pope John XXIII, and was thereafter brought up in great privilege in Venice, Italy. He earned a degree in economics at the University of Geneva, followed by an 18-month term in the Peace Corps in Burundi working as a teacher, and then two years as an investment banker in New York.

While studying at university, he met fellow student Diane Simone Michelle Halfin, a Belgian-born, Jewish woman of Romanian-Greek descent and daughter of a Holocaust survivor (on her mother's side). They married on 16 July 1969 at Montfort-l'Amaury, Yvelines, France. The new Princess Diane von Fürstenberg was pregnant, and Egon's father, who also objected to his marrying a Jew, boycotted the ceremony.

His wife opened her fashion house in New York at Egon's urging, creating am eventually iconic wrap dress, a career as designer that pre-dated and arguably eclipsed Egon's. Fürstenberg began his career as a buyer for Macy's, taking night classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Parson's School of Design.

The von Fürstenberg's had two children: Alexandre Egon (b. 25 January 1970) and Tatiana Desirée (b. 16 February 1971). They were divorced in 1972.

Furstenberg began independent work as a fashion designer in 1977, designing clothes for plus-size women, and later expanding to full fashion and product licensing, with ready-to-wear, fragrance, and made to measure lines based in Rome. Next von Furstenberg designed ready-made clothing for the masses, and an off-the-peg (ready-to-wear) line of fashion.

Fürstenberg wrote two top selling books: The Power Look (1978), a guide to fashion and good taste, and The Power Look at Home: Decorating for Men (1980), a book on home furnishings. He opened an interior design firm in 1981. In 1991, he exhibited at Alta Moda days in Rome.

Fürstenberg collected art, and his collection included works by Zachary Selig.

Egon von Fürstenberg died at Spallanzani Hospital in Rome on 11 June 2004.New York Post, reported Fürstenberg's widow stating that he died of liver cancer caused by a hepatitis C infection that he acquired in the 1970s.

Published works

Fürstenberg's published works included:

• The Power Look, 1978, New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston
• The Power Look at Home: Decorating for Men, 1980, New York, NY: Morrow