a peek inside: diane von furstenberg’s meatpacking live/work penthouse

"Everybody told me when I came to this neighborhood that I was crazy—that it was full of drag queens, that it smelled awful because of all the butchers,” says the Brussels-born designer, who moved to New York in 1969 with her first husband, Fiat scion Prince Egon von Furstenberg. (They had two children, and divorced in 1983; in 2001 she married media mogul Barry Diller.) “All of that is true,” she continues. “And yet in a weird way the cobblestone streets remind me of Belgium.”

When I was young, I lived like an old woman,” the 65-year-old grandmother of three explains, “and when I got old, I had to live like a young person.”

Gosh I love her. You can read all about the six-story, 35,000-square-foot structure comprising Von Furstenberg’s design studio, flagship store and penthouse on Architectural Digest or in their March issue.

Photos: François Halard for Architectural Digest