The Covid-19 pandemic changed Diane von Furstenberg’s new book from fun and frivolous to a much more serious project.

Belgian designer Diane, who became a worldwide fashion icon after introducing her wrap dress in 1974, has penned Own It: The Secret to Life, an A-Z guide and manifesto for personal growth.

Admitting the shake-up in tone excited her, Diane told Cover Media: “It’s really a guide; a guide for owning it.

“As I was writing it, as one big prose, I was very frustrated because I thought it sounded condescending, and who is she. And then I had the idea to turn into a dictionary, and I picked 250 words that I liked or sometimes that I don’t like, and I wrote those little definitions.

“And then Covid happened and all of a sudden, this book which was supposed to be a book of advice and fun and on the verge of frivolous, became much more serious because we were all in confinement, everyone was reflecting. Then it became really exciting to me.”

Among her favourite words included are Alone, Effortless, Vulnerability, and Addiction.

The guide starts with Aware, with the 74-year-old revealing she’d written down aware, alive, and awake before writing up her definition of awareness.

“All three words embody own it,” she mused. “Awareness is full presence and consciousness. It is knowing who we are, where we are and noticing everything around us. It is seeing, hearing feeling. Awareness is assessing the gratitude of being alive. It is making an accurate, honest assessment of where we are in our journey.”

– Cover Media