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Diane Von Furstenberg Launches a Line of Hospital Gowns

By Della Hasselle | September 7, 2010 6:44pm
New York fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg helped create a stylish new hospital gown.
New York fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg helped create a stylish new hospital gown.
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Courtesy of Cleveland Clinic

By Della Hasselle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — New York fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg wants to make sure that sick people get to be stylish, too.

The fashionista, who was key in planning this year’s Lincoln Center-based fall Fashion Week, has helped create a hospital gown that combines patients’ needs with the season’s trend.

The gown features the 70’s wraparound style that DVF became famous for, eliminating the awkward open back that accompanies most hospital garb, the Associated Press reported.

“Patients were just never comfortable,” Jeanne Ryan, who led the design project at the Cleveland Clinic, told Newsweek. “They complained that it didn’t cover enough, that they felt exposed, and people didn’t like the way they looked. People have family and friends visit them in the hospital, and they want to look as nice as they can in that environment.”

The new gown also has side-ties and the clinic’s logo emblazoned on the front.

The pieces are made from fabric that is light but tough, to allow a cooler design and frequent laundering, according to AP.

So far, the gown has premiered at the Cleveland Clinic. The designer encountered a small bump in the road when some male patients complained that the new gowns are too feminine, AP reported.

Diane von Furstenberg representatives didn’t return calls to comment on whether the new gowns will make a future debut in New York.