One thing was clear from the moment Diane von Fusternberg (DVF) walked on stage at the Expedia Partners Conference �" she may be married to CEO Dara Khowroshahi’s boss Barry Diller but she is clearly her own boss, her own woman �" indeed, the woman she wants to be.

That’s the title of her new book by the way, “The Woman I Wanted To Be”. For the fashion icon whose brand has spun a TV reality series, “House of DVF”, when it comes to leadership in business, “it doesn’t matter if you wear a skirt or not”, she told Khowroshahi (left) who interviewed her at the conference.

DVF however believes there are fundamental differences between male and female business leaders. In this media interview, she said, “Women should not try to be men. Men and women are two entirely different animals. They don’t do anything the same, right? So why should they lead in the same way?”

Summing up her own life for the audience in Las Vegas, she said, “I started young in my 20s, I was inexperienced, I lived the American dream, I rose very fast, very high. Then I sold the company and the buyer ruined it.

“Then I restarted. At 50, I felt 25. We saw young hip girls buying our dresses in vintage shops and we thought, why not.”

A little googling tells me that DVF was born and raised in Belgium and first came to America aged 25. Her iconic “wrap dress” landed her on the cover of Newsweek in 1976. Today, DVF has 116 store locations across 55 countries, reporting sales of more than $200 million annually.

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