By Daniela Petroff
FLORENCE, Italy

A full moon to highlight the romantic Florentine skyline, a manicured garden with marble statues and a front-row mix of nobility and celebrity--there could not have been a more perfect setting for designer Diane von Furstenberg's European runway debut.

But then, Florence is a special place for the designer.

It was in this Tuscan capital in 1974 that she gave birth to the wrap dress, which marked the beginning of her fashion fame, in a nearby textile factory.

The theme of the collection presented Wednesday night, at the invitation of the Pitti Fashion Fair, was a suitcase packed with von Furstenberg favorites: wrap dresses, simple cotton jerseys, twin sets, shifts and cropped pants.

"When you figure out your suitcase, you figure out your life," the 61-year-old Belgian-born designer, who launched her fashion career in the U.S. in the 1970s, likes to say.