Diane von Furstenberg will receive the 2026 Couture Council Award for her influence on women's fashion, The Museum at FIT announced on July 29.

The award will be presented at the museum's annual Couture Council luncheon on October 22 at Gotham Hall in New York City. The luncheon is a fundraising event that benefits The Museum at FIT, which is the only museum in New York dedicated exclusively to the art of fashion. Its permanent collection holds more than 50,000 garments and accessories dating from the 18th century to the present. (WWD)

Von Furstenberg is one of the most recognisable names in American fashion. She built her brand on the wrap dress — a single garment that became a commercial phenomenon in the 1970s and turned her, by her own account, into one of the first designers to openly frame her clothes as a tool of female independence. The Couture Council cited her "transformational influence on women's fashion" as the reason for the honour. (WWD)

Two Couture Council board members will co-chair the luncheon: Anne Baker, a jewellery designer who leads the Anne Baker Collection, and Alida Boer, the chief executive and founder of Nolé Care and Marias. (WWD)

The Couture Council Award has been given annually to designers who have shaped the field. Past recipients span both American and European names: Oscar de la Renta, Karl Lagerfeld, Manolo Blahnik, Carolina Herrera, Michael Kors, Valentino Garavani, Thom Browne, Dries Van Noten, Narciso Rodriguez, Alber Elbaz, Ralph Rucci, Isabel Toledo, Christian Louboutin, Albert Kriemler, Olivier Rousteing, Simon Porte Jacquemus, Gabriela Hearst, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Wes Gordon. Giorgio Armani received a separate Couture Council Award for Global Fashion Leadership in 2008. (WWD)

Von Furstenberg is not new to this particular stage. She served on the artistic committee for the 2008 Couture Council luncheon honouring Isabel Toledo (FIT NYC), and was listed among attendees at the 2011 luncheon that honoured Valentino (FIT NYC). This October, she returns as the guest of honour.

WWD, the trade publication that covers the fashion industry, published the announcement; the article does not attribute the news to a separate source, suggesting the outlet was first with the story. (WWD)

For a designer who has spent decades on both the creative and business sides of the industry — and who has been a fixture at fashion's institutional events as much as at its commercial ones — the award places von Furstenberg in a lineage the museum itself curates. The luncheon raises money for a collection that tracks fashion history from the 1700s onward, and the award picks names the council believes belong in that record.