Diane von Furstenberg is solidifying its relationship with Henry Zankov.
After designing a highly successful capsule for DVF last fall, Zankov has been tapped as the brand’s artistic director, a new role. His debut collection is set for September at New York Fashion Week. He will oversee the brand’s creative, from collections to visual identity.
Nathan Jenden, who returned to the brand in January 2024, continues as creative director of DVF, reporting to Zankov.
The 45-year-old Zankov, CFDA’s American Emerging Designer of the Year in 2024, plans to continue designing his eponymous ready-to-wear line, which is known for its color, rich texture, ease and irreverent sensibility.
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Before designing the capsule last fall, Zankov earlier worked at DVF for four years as design director of knitwear. He stayed close with Diane von Furstenberg once he left to start his own designer company in 2020.
“DVF is a brand with an incredible founder and visual vocabulary. I am excited to expand and evolve its heritage,” Zankov told WWD.
“I have always been surrounded and inspired by strong women, and Diane is the ultimate embodiment of that,” Zankov said. “The DVF woman is a rebel — confident, curious and independent. It is an honor and privilege for me to build on Diane’s legacy and to carry the brand into the future.”
In a Zoom interview with Graziano de Boni, global chief executive officer of DVF, explained that when they took the DVF business back in-house from its Chinese licensee and distributor Glamel in February 2025, they were thinking about how to set it up for the long-term. Knowing that DVF is a 54-year-old heritage designer brand, he was interested in the company’s alumni. He was speaking with a colleague on the design team, and asked if there were any DVF alumni who were doing something great? “And she said, ‘Have you heard of Henry Zankov?’”
De Boni said he wanted to meet him, and they struck up a friendship and started talking. That morphed into Zankov creating a capsule collection, DVF x Henry Zankov, that was launched last September at Bergdorf Goodman, dvf.com and the freestanding DVF boutique in New York, which did very well.
“So we got to know Henry more. When we restarted the business back in-house last year, the market started saying to us, they were looking for new ideas and freshness. I came to the conclusion that Henry was the right person that could bring us that freshness and that modernity, and even broader, the cultural relevance that I’ve been working to re-establish for our product,” de Boni said.
He said that von Furstenberg has done an incredible job on the relevance of the spirt and purpose of the brand, but they needed freshness in the design, creative and product side. “As he [Zankov] put it, it’s not just a job, it’s really a mission, and almost a calling.” It’s the first time DVF has had an artistic director, de Boni said.
Zankov, a Russian-born, American designer, held roles at companies such as Donna Karan/DKNY, Edun and DVF before starting his own business.
According to de Boni, Zankov will head the design team and will be responsible for the product, and will have influence over all the image and narrative, “that is naturally equally important.” De Boni said it’s up to Zankov to decide what team members he brings over from his own company.
Last fall, the DVF x Henry Zankov capsule featured looks such as a Bali floral garnet sequined mesh dress, a fringe knit cardigan, a merino wool and cashmere dress, and an Infinity geo merino wool turtleneck. Elevated fabrics included chiffon, silk and cashmere, with materials including metallic Japanese Lurex, satin and cashmere intarsia braid with embellishments such as digitally printed sequins, paillettes and intricate hand-embroidery. Prints included broken polka dot, paisley, batik and ombre polka dot.
Silhouettes were long and loose, and shapes borrowed from the world of menswear, with subtle wrapping techniques that nodded to DVF’s legacy.
“We [von Furstenberg and Zankov] both have a strong fascination with color and patterns and prints, and it made sense to come together and work on something,” Zankov told WWD last August.
De Boni likes the idea of doing a collection with an alumnus. “I don’t want to bring in people who come in and tell me what DVF should be. I want to do things with people who have possibly already worked with DVF, so they’re already assimilated and know what is the uniqueness of this brand. There are so many powerful elements that define DVF, both on the two pillars. One is the purpose and as DVF calls it, ‘We are the uniform for the woman in charge’ and the support for women, and on the business and product side,” he said.
De Boni said when Zankov worked at DVF he learned a lot about colors and prints from von Furstenberg herself.
“Henry coming in is the last and most important step for me to complete a whole new management team at DVF in the past year. All roles are now filled, with very exciting, talented individuals. We’re creating an environment that feels right, and it feels exciting,” de Boni said.
When De Boni came in, they closed down DVF’s distribution completely, and have since started it up again. In addition to dvf.com, they are selling at stores such as Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s. “We were absent from department stores for many years,” he said. They just restarted distribution in Europe with a distributor and are selling retailers such as KaDeWe in Berlin, Breuninger in Germany and El Corte Inglés in Spain, as well as specialty stores in Italy, and other countries.
Looking at growth opportunities for the brand, de Boni said, “The three things that have been very important are reclaiming ownership of our identity and values, reasserting the authenticity of what DVF is and should be from a product, content and uniqueness [point of view], and reestablishing our presence in the market.” He said they want to be right for today’s woman, “and the relevance that we’re bringing back with Henry is instrumental.”
Currently, they’re not interested in licensing any categories. “We have done the whole reset, now we have the team ready and we’re going into phase two, which is to make sure that the things that we’re going to be doing are going to be right, and going to be working. He said phase three is going to be real development, “now that the business is really going to take off.” He said the business is growing by double digits.
“It’s still a relatively small business for such an incredibly big brand,” he said.
De Boni said that Zankov will be based at the company’s Meatpacking headquarters. The label will continue to say Diane von Furstenberg. “It will always be such. Listen, you don’t want to mess up with a greatness that has been built there,” de Boni said. The first collection will be spring 2027, and it will be shown this September. Asked if they’ll be on the CFDA Fashion Calendar, de Boni said, “We are talking about that. And I think most probably yes.”
DeBoni said the reason he was brought in was to basically secure the legacy of the business of DVF. “Diane has done an unbelievable job in securing the prosperity of the brand forever, but the business side, I don’t need to tell you that the business has been up and down over the years…so we want to do things the right way, taking the right time, doing it with the right people. The fact that we are in a unique business because I have not just a living legend, a living icon, she’s my oracle. Diane created all this, but also the uniqueness of the fact that Diane and the family still own 100 percent of the business. We have no outside investors. So we have to do it our way. He said they need to keep perpetuating Diane’s vision and message and all that and really set up the business for the long term. Everybody who’s joined us really believes in this, and to me it’s very important because of the uniqueness of Diane.”
In a separate Zoom interview, von Furstenberg, vice chairman, founder and owner of DVF, was asked why she wanted Zankov as the company’s artistic director. “It’s completely Graziano,” von Furstenberg said. “It was his idea originally. He [Zankov] worked at DVF for four years. It was completely Graziano’s idea to ask him to do the collection, and the reception he [de Boni] got from outside was that you need a fresh blah, blah, blah, and it was very successful.”
“I applaud Graziano’s vision. I am excited to watch Henry’s designs, sense of color and effortless sensibility seduce a new generation,” von Furstenberg said.
Von Furstenberg said the brand has a very special relationship with many generations of women, “and we’ve seen that it’s so and I’ve lived this. Now this will be the third time that I live this, that young girls are discovering it. It’s a very interesting moment. And basically by taking the brand back, I am laying out the blueprint for the legacy. I guess I’m doing something that usually people do when they’re already dead,” said the 79-year-old designer.
“I love that Graziano had this idea about alumni. I’ve had incredible alumni. Very often, I’ve had designers who really understood the brand after they left the building. They’re like children. You only appreciate your family after you leave it,” she said.
When asked what her role will be, von Furstenberg said, “I am the brand. They know that it’s woman before fashion. It’s effortless. It’s got to be formula dressing. It’s got to be your friend in the closet. It’s got to be very simple. It’s got to be clothes for the woman in charge. It’s about giving women attitude and confidence. He [Zankov] is very good with colors, he’s very good with sweaters, and he knows everyone here, and he’s very respectful, and he belongs to the zeitgeist.”
She also said that Zankov works very well with Jenden. “Roles change and it’s pretty remarkable. All of them in the design department came and left and came back. Usually when they came back, usually they’re better,” von Furstenberg said.
And what are her long-term goals for the brand?
“It’s smaller than it’s ever been. Graziano believes in it so much. He has a nice, good strategic plan, and he believes in it very much. I have to go along with it. It’s funny. I’ve never had investors. We own everything. We start clean….There is a vocabulary,” Von Furstenberg said.
Asked whether she will give Zankov free rein, DVF said, “I let everyone do whatever they want, and then at the at the end they do whatever I want.”
Von Furstenberg was asked whether last fall’s capsule looked like DVF, or was it different? “It’s a very good question. At first I said, ‘OK, I am not sure,’ and then I ended up grabbing a lot. I applaud Graziano to have had the idea. The more I see it, the more I see it’s good idea. There’s great deal of respect.”
Von Furstenberg doesn’t think Zankov will have a problem keeping both his own and DVF’s lines distinct. “The point is for DVF, you have to do DVF. It has to be effortless, and sexy and on the go. It’s nice to have a modern take, but what I like is that he doesn’t want to break anything. He doesn’t feel strange. He’s been here for a long time.
“At this point, when the brand has existed for 50-plus years, the original dress is still selling 50 years later, you know that the brand has a personality of its own. It’s jersey and its color and its print, and it’s effortless, and it’s flattering,” von Furstenberg said.
