Von Furstenberg runway tells the tale of a modern princess

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Diane von Furstenberg called her spring collection “Palazzo.” ”La Dolce Vita” also would have worked for the clothes that debuted Sunday at New York Fashion Week.

The muse has “the polish of a princess and the heart of a gypsy,” von Furstenberg said, and she travels from Rome to Marrakesh and then off to Jaipur, India.

She takes with her on this journey tunics and skinny-leg pants – practically silk leggings – to wear during the day, and a blood-orange scarf gown attached to a silver choker and cuff bracelets for the night. She brings her kiwi-green gown with a cutout neckline just in case she’ll need it for a last-minute, black-tie invitation.

The trip is definitely more play than work, a bit of a departure for von Furstenberg whose label often is the workhorse of a career woman. But these clothes fuel the fantasy she might be having at her desk.

The ease with which she can switch from a pink-and-cream-colored shift to a white paillette-covered draped gown with a plunging V neck makes this woman the envy of her jet-set crowd. She has an unfussy sophistication about her, yet never appears undone.

Could this be a little autobiographical for von Furstenberg? Remember, she was once married to an Austro-Italian prince.

Now-husband Barry Diller sat in the front row with Oscar de la Renta and Sarah Jessica Parker.

“Some fairy tales end with the girl marrying the prince … some start there,” von Furstenberg and the house’s creative director Yvan Mispelaere said in their notes.

Von Furstenberg, Mispelaere and some of the models wore Google Glasses that were collecting video for a project to be released on Google-Plus and YouTube on Thursday at the end of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which is four days into its eight days of seasonal style previews.

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