The CFDA Fashion Trust held its first In-Conversation event Tuesday evening at the new Spring Place in Los Angeles. CFDA Chairwoman Diane von Furstenberg and television personality Morgan Stewart sat down and talked fashion, career, motherhood, sex (yes, sex!).

Here, highlights from the conversation:

Morgan Stewart: In your book, you talk about some of the failures you’ve gone through. You’ve always opened a door regardless of what failures faced you. What do you think was your most teachable failure?

Diane von Furstenberg: Life is like a journey. Even when you are very successful very young, it doesn’t necessarily just keep getting better. You go through things. You saturate the market. Things happen. The most important lesson to remember when dealing with a setback is not to be delusional. You must face it and own it. The minute you own it, you understand what you can do to make it better. You should always remember that you have to own it, accept it, and correct it. Very rarely will you remember that something great came out of a failure.

Morgan: How did you do such a good job at balancing motherhood and working so early on in your career?

Diane: I was 22 when I got pregnant. Then I got married and just after, I started my business. I had two children in the span of 13 months. I think that it’s important for women to have children and for women to have an identity outside of the house, and yes it’s a lot of work and it’s worth it. I was never a soccer mom. My son recently asked me to go to my grandson’s soccer game, and I told him that you know I was never a soccer mom and I am not a soccer grandma. He turned out very well so I couldn’t have been that bad of a mother.

Morgan: Since we are here for CFDA’s new program the Fashion Trust which gives designers support through grants and mentorship. Who were some of your biggest mentors when you started your career?

Diane: The CFDA was created by Eleanor Lambert 50 years ago. She realized that designers in Europe were being exposed and that designers in America were hiding in the back. She created the organization to promote American designers. That’s our mission and that’s what we do. The Italian man I worked for in Italy before I started my own line was my mentor because he let me create my samples in his factories. Diana Vreeland of Vogue was another mentor.

Morgan: What are some traits you look for in up and coming designers. Do you see that they have it before you get to know them or does it take studying?

Diane: People have talent. The designers need to have talent as well as a point of view. They also need to have a lot of willpower, they need to believe in what they’re doing and go for it.

Morgan: What are some of the differences you see now when designers start a brand versus when you started your own line?

Diane: Now, there is a lot more competition. Now everyone has a voice because of the internet. You can sell on Instagram and other platforms that were never available to me when I started. I think it’s so nice to see designers expressing themselves and using their platforms for what they think is right. It’s a very exciting time for them!

Morgan: What do you think is the most important lesson in life?

Diane: The only lesson that matters in life is that the most important relationship you have is with yourself, because that is your character. You could lose everything – your health, your wealth, your family – but you never lose your character. If you have a great relationship with yourself, every other relationship is a plus and not a must, and that’s important because you don’t want to be needy. That’s not attractive.

Morgan: The idea of living a man’s life in a woman’s body is thrilling to you. How do you feel like you’ve achieved that?

Diane: I came to LA because I was selling my clothes to a boutique in Beverly Hills. I was staying at the Beverly Wilshire, and I slept with Warren Beatty and Ryan O’Neil on the same weekend. That to me was great satisfaction, because that’s the type of things that guys do. That’s when I knew I was living a man’s life in a woman’s body. It was really the achievement of having done that.

Pictured: Morgan Stewart talks to Diane von Furstenberg.