ROME (AP) – Egon von Furstenberg, an aristocrat and eccentric designer known as the “prince of high fashion,” died Friday in a hospital in Rome. He was 57.

His fashion house confirmed his death, but gave no details pending release of a statement.

Von Furstenberg was born in Switzerland, on his father’s side the descendant of a noble German family. His mother was an Agnelli, the Italian family that controls Fiat.

He married the Belgian-born fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg in 1969, but they divorced soon after son Alexandre and daughter Tatiana were born. She married American media mogul Barry Diller in 2001.

Von Furstenberg seemed destined to a career in banking but he decided to follow his passion in fashion – with some of his friends from high society eventually becoming his clients.

He studied at Parson’s School of Design, worked weekends at a department store, and in 1975 came out with a line of pullovers and men’s shirts – his first collection.

“He cut an extremely elegant figure and brought an Old World feeling to the made-in-Italy label,” said designer Laura Biagiotti. “He must have loved fashion because he certainly didn’t need to work.”

He also put out a ready-to-wear line but was known for his high fashion collections, especially his concentration on color and a romantic look.

In Rome, where he showed in High Fashion week, he lived in a Renaissance palace near the Pantheon.

His start in the clothing business was much more prosaic, working as a buyer for Macy’s department store in the early 1970s. Early in his career he designed clothes for large-sized women.

Giovanni Agnelli, patriarch of the automaker dynasty, was his uncle.

“Uncle Gianni got a real kick out of my work,” von Furstenberg said last year after a much applauded show in January 2003, a few days after Agnelli’s death.

Information about funeral arrangements was not immediately available.