DIANE von Furstenberg is lounging calmly on a sofa, unfazed by the commotion around her as anxious event organisers and shop staff fret over finishing touches to the opening ceremony of her first standalone DVF boutique at Ion Orchard in Singapore.

Remembering even to pause every once in awhile to quickly pose for the camera, Ms von Furstenberg is the epitome of a woman in control - a woman who can accomplish anything she puts her mind to, the woman that she knew as a child, she wanted to become.

'When I was a young girl I did not know actually what I wanted to do but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to become,' she says. 'I wanted to be an independent woman.'

Which explains why, at the tender age of 20, not content to rely on her then aristocratic husband-to-be, the German Prince Egon of Furstenberg, she decided to make her own way in the world by becoming a fashion designer.

'I was working as an intern for a man (Angelo Ferretti) who owned a factory in Italy, and he taught me everything I knew as an intern, and then all of a sudden I was engaged, pregnant and I had to move to America,' she recalls. 'And I went to Ferretti and I said, this is terrible, I want to be independent, what can I do?

'I knew I had to do something in America, so I made a few sample dresses and that's how I got started.'

Those 'few sample dresses' more than 40 years ago, formed the basis of what was to become one of the most successful fashion labels of its time and included Ms von Furstenberg's biggest claim to fame as a designer - the now iconic wrap dress.

The wrap dress is a figure-hugging piece that was a cult item for both the Studio 54 crowd and Park Avenue set in the 1970s. It made her a household name in America, especially after the sale of five million wrap dresses in 1976, and landed her on the cover of the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek as 'the most marketable female in fashion since Coco Chanel'.

Thirty years later, the ubiquitous wrap dress relaunched Ms von Furstenberg's career in 1997 after her hiatus from the fashion world in the 1980s due to market saturation.

'The wrap dress you see is a very conventional shape. I did not invent the wrap dress, it's a kimono, it's a toga, it's anything that doesn't have a zip or a button,' explains Ms von Furstenberg.

'The only thing different about my wrap dress is that it was in jersey and therefore it was tight and close to the body, and it was printed and it was like an animal, and so it made the women feel very feline and that's what was different. Women of all ages, shapes and sizes look good in them, that's why they like them.

'I design for women. My mission in life is to empower women. I do it with my clothes, I do it with my mentoring, I do it through philanthropy. I sit on the board of an organisation called Vital Voices that helps to train women leaders worldwide. I know how to make women feel better about themselves and look better.'

She decided to re-enter the fashion world in 1997 because she had noticed many young people buying her wrap dresses in vintage shops and realised that demand was strong enough for her try again.

'I had created something so fantastic so young and it was so great, and having lost it, I missed it,' she says with a whimsical smile. 'It was very interesting that it got so successful the first time but more crazy that it got more successful the second time round, and that 30 years later, young girls were wearing the same dress.'

Fashion empire

But lest we think that Ms von Furstenberg is a one trick pony, consider this. Her fashion empire is now a multi-million dollar business spanning more than 30 shops worldwide, of which 12 are in Asia. DVF goes beyond wrap dresses and is now a clothing label well known for its clever use of prints and flattering silhouettes, not to mention the expansion of the brand to produce bags, shoes and homeware with beauty products in the pipeline. A keen photographer, she also announces that she shot DVF's newest Fall/Winter ad campaign. To be released in September, it will feature her son's fiance, fashion designer Ali Kay.

As David Ting, managing director of Globalluxe Ltd that brings in DVF, puts it: 'When we first brought the label to Asia, it was indeed the wrap dresses that were selling at first, but over the years, the wrap dresses have become only a small part of what people buy.'

More importantly, he says, the brand is doing very well - profits are growing year-on-year - and what was deemed a brave decision to open a standalone boutique in the midst of a recession was actually a reaction to growing demand in a time where retailers and designers are worried about staying alive.

'My business is much more international now the second time round,' says Ms von Furstenberg. 'I won't make the mistake of growing too big too fast like the first time around again. I'm very careful, I control my products and distribution, I don't want to be everywhere too much, I'm only interested in designing for women, I have more say now.'

This article was first published in The Business Times