- First of all I want to thank that you accepted this interview, and I want to ask you why did you decide to come to Moldova. We all know that your father was Moldovan.

- Right. So first of all I want to thank you. And the most important thing is that I am so happy to have come back to Moldova and to have found such a beautiful, beautiful country. I didn’t expect quite a beauty. I was here, my father was born here many, many years ago, and he left in 1929, but in 1967 I came back. I was a young girl, and I came back with him, and then it was soviet, you know it was under Brejnev, and it was quite different than it is now. So this year I wanted to do something special and I decided, you see I have a picture, which I should show you actually, I will show you after, is of my grandmother and her six sisters, my grandmother had six sisters, and last year my brother’s daughter got married, and many of the  grandchildren of these six sisters came to the wedding, and some of them I don’t know very well at all, and some of them I know, and then we took pictures, and I remember saying “Oh, we are all the grandchildren of these six sisters”, so this year I decided to invite all the grandchildren, and they are all very old, I am practically the youngest, to invite them to come here, and to pay respects to the memory of our grandparents. And so everybody came, and we are 14 of us, and it’s been very nice and it has been wonderful, because you know, I have roots here, my father was born here, my grandmother was born here, probably her mother and her grandmother were born here, so I have more roots than I have in Belgium and than I have in America.

- I want to ask you if you had time to visit Moldova, what did impress you most, and if you drank our wine and tasted our mamaliga.

- Yes I did, I did. What I love most is the taste of the fruit. The fruit is so good, and the vegetables taste so good, and the trees in the park are so big and so authentic. So this time I didn’t have time to visit the countryside, but I want to come back with my children and my grandchildren and I want to visit the countryside. What I like, you see, Moldavia was a little bit, it stayed, it didn’t move for a long time, so it stayed very authentic, and so I hope you never lose that.

- What stories did you get from your father aboutvMoldova, I mean I want to ask if you have some future plans here, a fashion event maybe?

- My father always said “Oh Moldova is the California”, you know it was like California, we had such good fruit, vegetable, and then I think that when we came together in 1967, I think he was a little disappointed, but I think if he came today he wouldn’t be disappointed. And so I am coming here for him, and will do something here, maybe, but one thing for sure, I will promotevMoldova.

- Please describe yourself in a few words

- Describe myself? Okay. I am a woman, I am a woman who very, very much wanted to be independent, when I was a little girl, I did not know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be. I wanted to be a woman who was very much in charge, and very independent. I became that woman because of a little dress, and because it was a little dress who made me independent, that same dress made other women feel good. So many, many years have happened, I am now an old woman, I have grandchildren, but my message is still the same message, my message is to tell every woman that they can be the woman they want to be, so I do that through my work, by giving them nice clothes and nice accessories. But I also do that through mentoring, I speak a lot to women’s groups , to young girls, and I also do it through philanthropy, I am very involved in philanthropy to help girls and women.

- And you wrote all this in your book “The woman I wanted to be”. So what makes a woman strong and truly beautiful?

- What makes a woman strong. I think the most important thing to know is that the most important relationship is the one you have with yourself. And I think that to be true to yourself is at the end what makes you the most confident. And if you are confident, somehow you are beautiful. But you’re beautiful when you’re young.

- A lot of women from our country are victims of domestic violence. What is your opinion about this fact, and what is your advice for them?

- (sigh) I think it’s unacceptable.  I think it’s unacceptable. I think that, as much as possible, they should not accept it, they should not be afraid of their own strength. You know I have never met a woman who is not strong, but what happen is that, because of their husband, brother, religion, family situation, or sometimes just for themselves, women have the tendency to hide the strength. Then, if a tragedy comes, something really bad happens, all of a sudden miraculously the strength of the woman comes out, so my advice is “Use your strength before a tragedy”.

- Your mother was a Holocaust survivor. Can you describe your memories of her? Are you a survivor too?

- My mother was a prisoner of war, she survived, she was 22. When she came back she weighed 29 kilos, so she was almost dead, but she didn’t die. She came back home, she came back to her mother, her mother fed her, little bit, little bit, 6 months later she was normal. My father came back from Switzerland, they got married, and the doctors said is good, you could be married, but you cannot have a child for at least 3-5 years, because your body cannot do it, and your child is not gonna be good. Well, 9 months later I was born. So my mother always said “God gave me life, so that you gave my life back”. No, I’m sorry, “God saved my life, so that I can give you life, by giving you life, you gave me my life back, you are my flag of freedom”.  So I was born with my mother making me so much understand to carry the flag of freedom was important. So I am a survivor.

- Did you have bad times in your life? What did you learn?

- You know, everybody has bad times in life, difficult time. Life is a journey. You know its like you take a journey in a train and the landscape changes, it’s sunny, and then it’s raining, and it’s cold, and some people come in, and some people go out. And that’s your life, but when my mother also taught me, is that you have to accept the reality, and then deal with it. So when you have something bad you say "okay how do I deal with that", and then you deal with that and you adapt, and then some other things happen that are good, and at the end you realize that maybe the thing that was bad was an opportunity.

- You seem to have a perfect life. You have two children, you have been married to a prince, and you are a princess. How is to have such a life?

- Well, you know I was lucky to be healthy, I was lucky that my mother made me that the fear is not an option so I was not afraid. I was lucky to be told that to be a woman was a privilege. I was lucky that I was good student, I got married, I had 2 children, I worked, I was independent. I was successful very young, I lived the American dream, and my marriage, we separated, I went on, but I think that my biggest luck was the fact that I took charge of my life, and therefore, I was in charge. And so what was the question, I forgot the question (laughs) – How is to have it? – Yeah but I have, you now, some things to look at and say, oh it’s so glamorous. Yes, I have a glamorous life. But I also have, you know, I had cancer, I had another things that are not very pleasant, and everybody does, so just deal with it.

- “I design for a woman who loves to be a woman”. These are your words. Can you describe this kind of woman?

- My woman is the woman who wants to be in charge of her life, who wants to be independent and strong, but who is a woman, who likes to look like a woman, feel like a woman, but also be respected.

- What is your opinion about Moldovan women’s style?

- But first of all, they are very beautiful. Moldavian women are beautiful and most beautiful skin, and they are very beautiful, so I suspect they are very strong, and so I encourage them not to be afraid and to take their life in charge.

- How did you start your career in fashion? And from where do you get your inspiration?

- I am inspired by two things: women and nature. What inspires me about women is I want to make the clothes I made, the accessory I made, the things that are tools for the woman. You know DVF, my brand, is the friend in your closet, is the friend that you could come to, is the friend that you rely on, is the friend you never get rid of. You know, you can go, you could start like that the day, and then the other way. That’s what we are, and that’s it.

- There are times women are acting like men. Dressing like them, working hard like them. Is it right? And what is the role of woman in the society?

- The role of the woman in the society is to give life, but also I think that the woman should have an identity outside the home. I think that’s very important.

- The last question is about our traditional blouse, ie, what do you know about ie, is it beautiful?

- I received one, I love it, and today I am going to see all traditional costumes, so I’m very excited about it, but I think that my trip to Moldova is the first trip of adding, I think I will get very inspired about doing things here, about doing things from here.

- Thank you very much for the interview.

- Thank you.