About Diane

Charismatic, pearl-haired “Queen of Jeans,” Diane Gilman, is 77 years young and celebrating her most successful year in fashion. An inspiration for women embracing their third act, Diane is a tele-retailing legend who’s just getting started. In 2020, she channeled her trademark positivity and intuition to sell $100 million worth of blue jeans to mature women who are eager for fashions that flatter. $100 million dollars worth of jeans in a year. On television. At age 74.

A fashion rule-breaker with millions of loyal fans, Diane’s DG2 jeans breakthrough came at the age of 60. Certain there was an unmet need for jeans crafted specifically for middle-aged bodies, Diane used her own measurements to design a sexy and fashionable new line for Baby Boomers she called DG2. In a matter of minutes working her charms on HSN, she’d sold 5,000 pairs and her career catapulted. Diane’s DG jeans became the top tele-retailing brand globally, just as she was defying Stage 3 breast cancer – running between HSN and radiation treatments with her indomitable spirit intact.

In her 60s, Diane also wrote “Good Jeans,” an autobiographical, self-help book for women with advice on aging joyfully and productively. The success of her jeans empire – 19 million pairs of DG2 jeans sold since 2008 – served as inspiration for women everywhere who were just hitting their stride.

Diane’s fortures came through overcoming hurdles. Her own family tried to squelch her passion for fashion with efforts to block her entry into the field. Undaunted, she painted, embroidered and be-jeweled jeans for rock icons Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Jim Morrison and Jimmy Hendrix in the mid-’60s, while still a student at UCLA….first-ever line of washable silk garments she designed and called the Diane Gilman Collection – her CABAL label soon got distribution to department stores and boutiques nationwide. It was in 1994 that QVC invited Diane to sell her silk line on TV, igniting her tele-retailing success story.

Not unlike many women’s stories, recognition for Diane came later in life. HSN’s longest-running and most successful fashion personality received the ‘Women in Power’ Award from The National Council of Jewish Women in Palm Beach in 2019. That same year, she was featured on NBC’s “Know Your Power,” Mika Brzezinski’s program recognizing women 50+ who achieve their greatest success in later years. Today, at the age of 76, she’s a deserving nominee for Designer Brand of the Year for QVC/HSN and Canadian channel TSC.

Her latest book (due out November, 2022), “Too Young to be Old,” is another compelling take on conquering life’s challenges and harnessing one’s own power to live a “third act” filled with dream-catching and fulfillment.

Today is the youngest you will ever be. Make the most of it.

— words Diane lives by