Vera Wang (Q8035)
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Vera Wang is a fashion house from BOF.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Vera Wang |
Vera Wang is a fashion house from BOF. |
Statements
1990
founder and designer
A week ago Vera Wang posted a sneak peek of her new collection on Instagram. In the trio of pics, she models a black bonded silk satin crepe sash top and matching mini with a long tie sash at the hem. Though she made her name designing lavish wedding gowns—Vanessa Hudgens is her latest boldface bride—her own tastes lean more arcane.These clothes offer plenty of evidence of that. A vest dress, for example, features a sculptural peplum skirt made by fusing lambswool, boning, and horsehair, a technique she’s been working on for several years so its elaborate construction doesn’t look or feel heavy. A narrow midi skirt is cut with a doubled waistband folded down below the hips to create a sort of sartorial bustle, and trousers come with attached gauntlets suggestive of a pair of over-the-knee boots. “I wanted to bring a bit of attitude, modernity, a bit of evolution to evening dressing,” she said.Wang has noticed that the new generation of stars are “more fearless” than their predecessors—more willing to wear a bra on the red carpet, say, or go braless under a sheer dress. This collection indulges those instincts—it’s no coincidence that she’s releasing it just as award season is heating up, an award season that everyone is anticipating will be bolder than usual, given the end of Hollywood strikes that put such events on hold for so long.Equally, though, this is a collection shaped by Wang’s own obsessions. The HBO Max showThe Gilded Age—she’s a fan—loosely inspired a two tier gown with an illusion mesh corset and clouds of fantastically draped aqua tulle, and a silk faille ball gown with a long train of lavender tulle held in place by three-dimensional lamé flowers at the shoulder. And, then there’s the palette, which, save for the pretty pastel tulle, is almost entirely Wang’s preferred black. Though, of course, she’d happily make them in ivory for a bride that asks.
21 December 2023
Vera Wang spent a month this summer in Watermill not far from the polo fields there. She’s not a rider, but she found herself taken with the horses’ elegance and beauty. The rigor and discipline of equestrian dress also held appeal. She had a starting point for her new collection.This isn’t your typical horsey collection, however. Though she spent part of her career at Ralph Lauren before launching her bridal label 30-odd years ago, when she’s not wearing her own creations she says she’s more of a Balenciaga and Rick Owens girl. Wang sees things through a couture-inflected, goth-leaning lens.Many of the looks she put together are separates-driven, but there’s no denying the dressiness of the clothes. That’s intentional. “There’s been so much street wear in fashion,” in the wake of the pandemic, she said. “I’m in the mood for something different, a certain kind of romance.”Enter a showstopper of a ballgown, made from 55 yards of lightweight black taffeta, its tiered skirt accented with elaborate integrated rosettes. What its picture doesn’t reveal is that it’s built on a strapless bathing suit, making it both historical and modern at once, and quite cheeky too.Wang likes that kind of tension. That’s why an organza trapeze dress, for instance, is decorated with utility pockets, why high-waisted short-shorts are finished with garter belt details at their hems, and why another taffeta gown is cut high in front with a yards-long train in back.Historical elements in the form of panniers, bustles, and crinolines were everywhere on the spring runways. Wang approached the trend with a welcome dose of woman-friendly pragmatism. Her quilted duchesse silk peplums are in essence accessories, which means less commitment and more versatility—a good combination.
13 October 2022
Vera Wang has gone cowgirl. Few designers are more closely associated with New York, but on a Zoom call, Wang insisted she’s not unfamiliar with the American frontier. As an aspiring Olympian, she was a summer skater in Aspen and other points west. Her memories of family trips to those places, mixed with a fair bit of lockdown-time wanderlust and old-movie watching (Urban Cowboy, Val Kilmer inTombstone), sparked her imagination. Her new collection is a mix of “saloon girl” dresses with puff sleeves, hip-high slits, spills of ruffles, and the occasional bare back and lace capes, bustiers, and peignoirs. Off-the-shoulder “sheriff” trenches provide a swaggering counterpoint.Wang had a couple of star turns at the Met gala, dressing Emily Ratajkowski in red and the cochair and inaugural poet Amanda Gorman in blue. She herself wore a white cape. They made an on-theme, even patriotic, trio given the exhibition’s focus on the American fashion lexicon. Her new lineup is as vivid as those celebrities’ dresses, in shades of chartreuse, lime green, lilac, and turquoise. Wang’s preference for the color black is well established, so there was a novelty factor to her palette this season too.A tank top was printed with the words “Not my first rodeo.” Wang has rounded the three-decade mark in business, but she’s keeping her eye on the way young people are dressing on the street. “I’ve noticed a trend toward people being more naked,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t think that’s quite where we’ll ever go—it’s not us. But I tried to bring a certain amount of sensuality.” Cue the collection’s many shorts, some flat fronted and others with blouson-like volumes, which she paired with sweeping capes, off-the-shoulder bandeaus, or bikini tops and blazers. Wang proved just how versatile shorts could be when she wore hers with that white cape and over-the-knee boots at the Met.
25 October 2021
Vera Wang revolutionized the bridal market by approaching it with a fashion editor’s eye. Thirty years later she’s still pushing boundaries; for spring 2021 she is presenting her ready-to-wear and bridal together: Call it Vera².Wang said she’d been thinking about uniting her two worlds for awhile. But the unusual circumstances of the pandemic convinced her to take the unconventional approach. It also provided the designer with the opportunity to keep staff employed, and show off the many techniques her ateliers and factories are capable of: tailoring andflouas well as artful embellishments. “We’re one of the lucky companies that can really have a level of sewing that is comparable to Paris,” noted Wang, “and I say that with full confidence because it’s been 32 years and we have trained insane sewers that are irreplaceable.”Not only were the collections made in-house, but the designer stayed close to home with the inspiration as well. In place of medieval flourishes and behatted handmaids were references to Wang’s own wardrobe. The designer describes her ready-to-wear as generally being more “reflective of who I am and how I like to mix things up and down and, you know, different proportions and different layering and T-shirts with everything.” The collection’s bodysuits and leggings, for example, can be traced back to Wang’s childhood training in ballet and figure skating. For spring, the presence of “boyish sporty separates” keeps the romantic pieces from becoming saccharine.One of Wang’s achievements is to have taken the stuffing out of formal wear, and there’s a very bearable lightness of being to this collection—with the exception, perhaps, of the more rooted floral prints. “Because I didn’t know anything about bridal fashion, so to speak, I think I was freer,” Wang reflected. Now, as then, there’s no fencing in her imagination.
21 December 2020
Vera Wang lives in an all-white apartment and wears only black. When she decides to play with color and print, it’s an occasion. “It’s a new departure for me,” she said backstage, discussing her fall collection. “It’s gossamer and very light. I always do shorts because I feel they inject youth. And there’s whimsy.” That whimsy was the key difference between her last outing and today’s. She let the light in.The setting was the James B. Duke House, the mansion on Millionaires’ Row where Doris Duke grew up. Wang laid a chartreuse carpet in its spectacular foyer, and as the models made their way around its perimeter, they glanced at themselves in the mirror. The images reflected back at them were signature Wang. She specializes in gamine gothica: big platform heels and boyish tailoring mixed with boudoir bits. A typical look combined well-cut black trousers with a plissé tulle corset, or micro-shorts and a loose ruched camisole complete with an asymmetrical train. The uplift of this season came from the color palette—shades of neon yellow, lavender, and red. The other surprise: the bodysuits and stretch maxiskirts in photoprint florals. Wang accessorized the printed separates with studded harnesses and faux-fur neck warmers; without them, they could’ve doubled as designer exercise gear. A new avenue for expansion?The frothy pastel tulle numbers at the end were more evocative of the wedding confections that made her famous, that is, apart from the black leather strapping. It wasn’t all sweetness and light.
11 February 2020
Vera Wang is celebrating 30 years in business this season. Less than a month ago, she staged an anniversary show during New York Fashion Week, and today she debuted her 60th bridal collection in her Madison Square Park studio. Other designers who reach that milestone might be tempted to reminisce about the past, but not Wang; instead, she’s thinking boldly about the future. The bridal world is slow to change, but as its most influential name, she set out to create something radically modern and new, which will in turn push the industry to evolve.The fact that it was a surprise to see so much white in Wang’s Fall 2020 collection was a testament to her experimental nature; lately, she’s dismissed the classic shade in favor of dusty pastels, neutrals, and black. But the choice stemmed from her materials: luminous charmeuse, crepe, and silk faille, a traditional couture fabric she tends to avoid. Her challenge was to make it feel fresh, not stuffy, so she cut ivory faille into mini bubble skirts, high-low gowns, and voluminous coat dresses that revealed or concealed the legs with hook-and-eye closures. The crepe was noteworthy for its opacity—Wang tends to prefer sheer tulle or lace—but she felt it looked right for her narrow, strict silhouettes; a few came with touches of menswear tailoring, like the “tails” trailing behind a mini, and others had gothic embroidery, which brides will be able to customize with different letters, numbers, or words.The biggest story was in the concept of “pieces,” not just one dress: A few beige illusion gowns with light beading (Wang called it “body glitter”) were actually comprised of several slips and bras layered together, while other looks were shown with a removable satin bra top or extra-wide obi belt. Those were a direct reflection of Wang’s own style—she mentioned wearing them over T-shirts—but they’ll also give a bride options to truly personalize her look. Now more than ever, brides are willing to break the rules of what a wedding dress is “supposed to look like,” and the ease of adding or taking off a piece will appeal to women who want to change things up throughout the night.What connected this collection to last season (and to her Spring 2020 ready-to-wear show) was the sense of dishabille, with straps that appeared to be falling off and asymmetrical, spontaneous-looking constructions.
Wang is always quick to point out the level of skill in her studios; the effortless, thrown-on look of the clothes only works because of their couture craftsmanship. That emerald green bustier gown Zendaya wore to the Emmys looked pretty simple, but it was a serious labor of love; Wang said it’s gotten so much positive buzz, she’s going to recreate it in ivory for interested brides.
4 October 2019
Vera Wang was back on the runway today for the first time in two years. It’s the 30th anniversary of her business, a remarkable achievement. Wang, of course, began as a maker of modern wedding gowns, but her brand isn’t just brides: Over the years she’s dressed a who’s who of Oscar winners and first ladies. “Designing for the red carpet, you’re more of an Edith Head [the famous mid-century costume designer],” she said, “because it’s not necessarily about your own personal philosophy.”Wang’s design philosophy is certainly idiosyncratic. In her collections, she favors attenuated silhouettes—wispy layers accented by structured tailoring perched on extraordinarily high heels for an ambiance of romantic fragility. For spring, she made a study of lingerie elements used as accessories. “I was searching for a new formula for evening that I thought was more modern,” she said. Her explorations included hip-grazing chainmail slips featuring garter belts, sheer bra tops worn loose and unfastened over structured pieces, ruffled bustles, short shorts, and pelmet minis. It was deshabille in extremis.In the middle of the show, you saw the silhouettes that made Wang’s career: long, vaguely Edwardian shapes that were indeed very romantic, like layered bias-cut slip dresses scooped out at the back so they sort of floated.But the complications of her improbably willowy silhouette proved overwhelming elsewhere, and two models took spills from their sky-high platforms. Wang has decades of experience balancing women’s real-life needs with the oftentimes frivolous details that glamour demands. Her runway should rise to the same standards.
10 September 2019
In October, Vera Wang will celebrate her 60th bridal collection. Could she chill out and just reproduce her greatest hits? Sure, but that isn’t likely to happen. In fact, her Spring 2020 bridal collection was one of her most intricate and challenging yet, consisting of gowns that required so much handwork and detailing that Wang said they’ll be a trip to reproduce. She started with the idea of wanting the dresses to look completely different from every angle, whereas many designers only think about two vantage points: front and back.Applying a more 360-degree approach to her gowns got Wang thinking about perfection. Most wedding gowns are too perfect, too precious; Wang’s, on the other hand, were purposefully asymmetrical. Many of them came with giant handmade roses pinned to one side while others had a big swath of tulle bunched at the hip, like a mini petticoat. As models glided through the showroom, the dresses seemed to take on a new shape with every turn; the finale gown combined a beige tulle skirt with a structured ivory top that seemed to wrap around the body, ending with a surprise flash of skin in the back. Making it all look natural and spontaneous was the trick, of course. The effect was of artfully throwing tulle on the body, but one hand-tucked gown in shades of blush and beige was hardly spontaneous; Wang said it used 1,000 stitches.She joked that once she had finished the collection, she realized it looked a lot like a case of Ladurée macarons. “What’s funny is that I do a lot of color for bridal, but never for ready-to-wear.” There’s nothing cloying about her pastels, though. Mixed in with the framboise and pistache hues were moodier hits of gray, sage, and deep burgundy; Wang called them “strange.” That wouldn’t be perceived as a good thing in any other bridal house, but for the fashion-forward bride who wants to look truly relaxed, a bit of strangeness would feel just right—maybe even a bit liberating.
14 April 2019
In September, Vera Wang will be back on the New York runway after a two-year absence for a 30th-anniversary show. Today, she was in her showroom, presenting a collection with its roots in Celtic tradition. She said she was attracted to the culture’s fierce warrior women. Wang may be best known for bridal, but she’s lately emphasized tailoring in her ready-to-wear, which has lent it a tough streak amid the romance. Originally, it was an interest in plaids that led Wang in the direction of the Celts. Her research led her to their sash-liketonnaggarment; it gave her plenty of opportunities to experiment with the draping that’s central to her own aesthetic.Wool doesn’t naturally lend itself to draping; it’s typically stiff and bulky. But Wang used those qualities to her advantage, creating asymmetrical volumes that she layered over everything from a wisp of a gold-paillette slip dress to a tailored jacket. “It’s the new scarf for me,” she said. The sturdy wool would probably prove useful in inclement weather, but it’s thetonnag’s swagger that makes it interesting. (Alexander McQueen understood this well.) The Celts provided Wang with other design elements too. Among them, the manuscript-print dress in body-hugging silk jersey was more persuasive than the Celtic words for loyalty, bravery, and constancy that were embroidered on pants and sleeves.As for romance, Wang tapped into those decades of experience in bridal to create a delicate, white-lace apron dress, the vibe of which she described, in her quotable way, as “priestess druid.” But her best idea, in the end, had little to do with the inspirational Celts. It was a charcoal gray faux-fur robe coat that fully reversed to a lining of giant silver sequins.
12 February 2019
Vera Wang is a lifelong Francophile. This season, she expressed her affection for the place via the exaggerated ruff collars and voluminous shoulder and sleeve treatments of the court of Louis XIV. The ruffs are removable and sold separately, but the puff sleeves aren’t going anywhere. These are clothes for exuberant, eccentric dressers and lovers of excess, despite the mostly black-and-white color palette. Proportion play is another fixation for Wang. If there was volume up top, as in the case of her macramé-lace baby doll dresses, the legs were left bare above towering platforms. She balanced ultrashort brocade shorts against layered torsos: capelets on top of pouf-sleeved blouses accented with peplums at the waist. The broderie anglaise gowns pooled on the ground but started off attenuated at the shoulder.The Sun King isn’t trending this season; Wang is out on her own on this trip. Coincidentally, though, this collection has heavy-duty grommeting in common with Riccardo Tisci’s debut at Burberry. The metal rings gave a modern edge to a gauntlet-sleeved blazer that counted among the most viable pieces in the lineup. On the opposite end of the reality-fantasy spectrum, there was a pair of minidresses with outsized lace ruffs wrapping the arms at the shoulder like angels. They looked like something Lady Gaga could wear on the premiere circuit forA Star Is Born.
28 September 2018
Vera Wang doesn’t play by anyone’s rules. In a bridal season dominated by white dresses of the prim variety, she indulged in vibrant, sumptuous color for Spring 2019. “I wanted to explore translucency and movement, and obviously color, but in a new way,” she explained, “in order to ignore certain ‘bridal’ dictums, like white, beading, acres of lace, and traditional ball skirts.” Drawing inspiration from the canvases of Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, she delivered romanticism with a touch of edge.With books, songs, and films (Girl With a Pearl Earring, anyone?) devoted to Vermeer’s mystique, it makes sense that Wang would be influenced by his work, too. She honed in on his use of color and light, from a subtle burst of magenta peeking out from beneath a train to neon grosgrain bows and a crimson corseted gown. Hand-painted by Rebecca Moses, the frottage detailing was a time-consuming process but one Wang considered necessary. “That’s the only way to achieve a luminous, painterly effect—imperfect but nuanced.”Wang broadened her scope with a series of tulle-heavy pieces that nodded to the costumes of the Ballets Russes, and she kept up the momentum by focusing on movement—an idea evident in Inez and Vinoodh’s photographs of the collection. With dance being a key component of most weddings, one has to wonder why more designers don’t consider movement in their designs. By keeping things airy and artsy, Wang was at her best.
16 April 2018
What do you get when you cross the Tudors, England’s 16th-century rulers, with Madonna in a Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra circa 1990? Vera Wang’s new Fall offering, that’s what. Wang claimed the Tudors as a reference point via exceedingly brief collection notes;Truth or Dare–era Madonna is just a personal hunch—Gaultier has been in the air this season. Funnily enough, so have medieval times. Even strong women need a sturdy defense in 2018.Wang modeled her shoulder construction on articulated metal armor and lifted the bulbous peplums and derriere-enhancing domes cantilevered into existence with horsehair from knights’ costumes. (The miniskirt with the dome in front was dead on arrival.) The armor concept carried over into the softer, more lingerie-like pieces—they don’t call them bullet bras for nothing. In addition to padded brassiere cups, there were also padded tushes. To be sure, this was not your standard eventwear; Wang spent the first part of her design career becoming the most famous wedding dressmaker in the world and the remainder of it acting like she isn’t.Her best idea here was her flared pants. Flares are having a moment, too. What was special about Wang’s was their exuberance. One pair pooled and rippled like a fancy double train. Come to think of it, they’d look pretty terrific on a red carpet.
1 March 2018
“I have seen this desire to return to a more artful kind of dress,” Vera Wang said of her latest bridal collection, a couture-level offering of 13 gowns. “[My clients] want dresses that have a sense of importance.” It’s fitting that her clients were her inspiration this season—Wang reworked a few custom gowns she designed for their recent weddings. “It’s a new formality.” That was also evident in a corresponding film Wang shot in Paris in the Luxembourg Gardens with her friend Patrick Demarchelier.Paris has proven to be an inspirational second home to Wang; she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in February. With this collection, she pushed the envelope with grand yet easy silhouettes: “There’s a volume that’s quite theatrical, in a strange way,” she said, pointing out the generous mix of lace and embroidery. A loosened corset recalled last season’s Romeo and Juliet–inspired gowns, and the garter belts nodded to Wang’s new Spring ’18 ready-to-wear lineup. Her signature sheer dresses had a touch more modesty. “It’s [about] not wanting to look exposed now,” she said.With each collection, Wang evolves with her bride, offering alternatives to the sweetheart necklines, mermaid hems, and frills found elsewhere. “It’s sort of a new way of looking at grandeur,” she said succinctly.
10 October 2017
Vera Wang readThe Handmaid’s Taleover the summer and started watching the TV show. Ofglen and her fellow handmaids’ bonnets appear in the collection video and lookbook she produced this season—only Wang’s aren’t white, they’re black. Margaret Atwood’s dystopian depiction of a totalitarian United States struck a nerve with Wang, as it has done for so many. “The loss of any personal freedom, the fear of retribution, the cruelty of forcing women to be so stratified and categorized, and most of all having to obliterate their pasts and their identities is something so profoundly troubling,” Wang said in a statement. “For the collection,” she continued, “control ultimately begets self-expression.” Ofglen carvedNolite te bastardes carborundorumon her closet wall. For Spring, Wang customized her tailoring by exposing bras under jackets that peeled off the shoulder and adding corsetry seaming to others—or even garter belts. Ironically enough, all that self-expression put her at the center of things (which is not a bad place to be); the corset is shaping up to be the accessory of the season.Tailoring has been a preoccupation of Wang’s recently. Accoutrements aside, the bridal dressmaker made a case for her suits, which came in a Balenciaga-ish check in both wool and printed silk. The silk version was a clever idea because it will give her customer the pulled-together look of tailoring with the potential ease and comfort of a dress. That having-it-both-ways concept extended to other pieces in the collection, including the dress in white or black that combined a boxy men’s cotton shirt on top with a skirt of luminous bias-cut silk satin below. Because of the lingerie details here, the line between day and night was blurred. Wang likes the nebulous areas, so she mixed things up just as much for after dark. Metallic paillettes met more of that wool plaid, and a button-down dickey accessorized a long Victorian-ish white dress. It was unaccountably compelling.
29 September 2017
“I wanted to offer my clients a different viewpoint,” said Vera Wang of her latest bridal collection. The designer said the 20 looks were her new take on romanticism: “I felt frustrated by what is typically thought of romantic.” Instead, she offered up a new concept focused on sleeves and asymmetry.This rethink was most successful on a daring, body-skimming crepe dress, which featured an exaggerated draped sleeve on one side, a tulle whisper of a sleeve on the other, and an oversize black silk flower on the shoulder. “It’s not simply about the components of a dress that are traditionally bridal-related, like lace and chiffon and all these other materials,” Wang said. “It’s a total exploration of viewing a wedding gown in another context, but still being relatable to modern, young women.”Wedding day purists will fawn over the designer’s signature ivory lace offerings, like the sleeveless, plunging V-neck gown with scallop detailing and a more demure long-sleeved version. But it’s when Wang pushed the envelope of conventional weddingwear that she reminded us why she’s been the reigning queen for decades. “I’m trying to push [brides] in a different direction,” she said. The most avant-garde will appreciate the cutaway dress with three-quarter sleeves embellished with sheared-tulle flowers, pearls, and a tuxedo cape, which looked like something Tilda Swinton might wear on an upcoming red carpet.Wang’s hope is that by presenting a new, global perspective on bridal, the tides will shift away from sweetheart necklines and mermaid hems. “There are many brides in this room,” she said, “and there are different personalities. But in the end, [in] every single context, we’ve pushed that vocabulary further.”
22 April 2017
Vera Wangreceived the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian honor, in Les Invalides this afternoon. Champagne was served in the shadow of model horses and riders wearing Napoleonic crests. A few Arrondissements away, her new Fall collection was hanging from racks in a sales showroom; she opted out of her usual New York Fashion Week slot, given the timing of the French award, and has said she will be considering alternatives to the traditional runway format going forward. Instead of Napoleon I’s N’s, Wang embroidered V’s. The emperor and his wife Josephine were muses for a collection that combined masculine and feminine elements and served up its pomp and circumstance via heraldic gold embellishments.A wispy white empire-line gown came with the decorated woolen sleeves of an officer’s jacket attached. In the lookbook, the sleeves extend well past model Mariacarla Boscono’s wrists. For sales, perhaps, Wang could re-create the effect with long fingerless gloves. An outfit that combined a tailored jacket with a frothy dress boasting a feather harness painted gold by Maison Lemarié was a more practical way to get the look Wang was after; there’s versatility in those three pieces. Layering was a big part of her story this season, as it tends to be back in New York City. There’s something idiosyncratic (and more than a touch unlikely) about topping a fox fur with a peacoat. But the oversize shearling that accompanied a slouchy button-down, corset, and cropped pants looked like something you’d see outside the shows.
28 February 2017
For Fall 2017,Vera Wangtook her cues from Verona, Italy, in the 17th century. While previous seasons saw Wang creating frothy confections for her brides, this season returned to a sense of majesty. “I felt it was time we make a fashion statement with silhouette, architecture, and a bit of pomp and circumstance,” said Wang today in her showroom.That idea was best exemplified by the most grandiose look of the bunch: an A-line dress featuring fringed silk organza flange at the skirt, a corset bodice with hand-knotted ribbon detailing, and crystal and pearl embellishments on the latticelike neckline. If Juliet were to have had a happily-ever-after ending to her story, this would have been the dress she’d have worn. Of course, Old World interpretations were given modern updates through exaggerated draped sleeves, fluid off-the-shoulder treatments, and imaginative front slits. “There’s a certain formality and a certain grandeur,” Wang offered. “But hopefully—hopefully in a new way. Deconstructed but still constructed.”
8 October 2016
Is there a designer who looms larger in the dream life of women thanVera Wang? It’s the wedding dresses that have put her there, of course. Wang is probably the world’s best-known bridal designer, but this you wouldn’t guess from her new Spring collection. Describing it herself backstage, she said, “I’ll make it simple for you: black, black, black.”Wang opened with a long series of corseted jackets sliced horizontally above the bust. What variation there was was found in the sleeves, which extended past the wrist or all the way beyond the fingertips. In addition to black, black, black, the sleeves came in dark brown and navy. For the most part, Wang layered them over ribbed tanks and paired them with peplum shorts that curved slightly at the hips; all of them exposed the midriff. She landed on two trends of the week, corsetry and the still-going-strong off-the-shoulder silhouette. Her other ideas for Spring included long, sheer georgette skirts and blouses with cuffs that dropped almost to the knees, bisected by a peplum, and experiments with outsize, sometimes awkward, volumes on bomber jackets and full skirts.A few white looks made it into the mix, as did lavish large pearl embroideries. They served to lighten the dark mood somewhat. But in a season when other designers are liberally using neons and shoppers are seeking out mood-elevating pieces, this Wang outing felt out of step.
13 September 2016
Vera Wangdidn’t present her latest collection in her showroom or bridal atelier, but rather employed director Gordon von Steiner to create a film evoking the feel of her bride-to-be. The result was a cinematic dream, filled with tulle, lace, and organza. And while this might conjure images of the grand creations Wang has made for A-listers including Mariah Carey andVictoria Beckham, for Spring, Wang brought a moodier touch with diaphanous dresses punctuated with pearl and floral embroidery. This season also highlighted Wang’s marriage of fluid and structured silhouettes with pieces featuring boning, corsetry, or both. Of course, she included some perennial favorites, too—among them a long-sleeve, high-neck, floor-length style dotted with embellishments—but it was the opulent styles that stood above the rest. Wang’s take on boudoir dressing yielded an ivory ball gown whose bustier top gave way to a hand-appliquéd lace peplum skirt, while a princess dress was reimagined in frothy layers of tulle with floral paillettes.
27 April 2016
Vera Wangscored at theGrammyslast night, dressingEmpire’s Serayah McNeill in a dove gray one-shoulder gown as curvy as all get-out. At her Fall show this morning, Wang was after something different. Backstage, she name-checked Giacometti for his long, lean sculptures and Modigliani’s paintings for their burnished color palette. She also said the collection’s starting point was a fencing jacket. On the runway, that jacket translated into quilted plastrons that strapped across the back over floor-length kilts. Vanessa Moody looked rather regal in hers; the only trouble with the thing is you’ll likely need an attendant to help buckle you in. If you’re lucky enough to have one at your disposal, these straps looked cool worn as layering pieces over crisp button-downs.Wang tapped into her boyish side with today’s tailoring, which ranged from more boxy (double-breasted blazers in Modigliani shades of green and brown above short shorts not much longer than the jackets) to quite fitted (zip-front vests accompanied by narrow pants). To achieve the attenuated silhouette she was going for, Wang put her models—whether they were wearing suits or diaphanous dresses—in towering platforms and ankle socks. Balconet bras peeked out beneath somewhat shapeless color-blocked tulle nightdresses, sheer floral-print aprons were teamed with skinny pants and silk robe coats, and nude floor-length slips were paneled in metallic paillettes. Among the evening pieces, the sequined styles have the best odds of a red carpet appearance onZoë Kravitzor the other young lovelies in Wang’s front row.
16 February 2016
Titled Hotel Madrid Part Two, Vera Wang’s Fall 2016 bridal collection, picked up where her Spring line left off, in the Spain of flamenco dancers. But in place of last season’s streamlined styles, the 17 pieces in the new collection seemed to be a study in form. Silhouettes varied from the conventional—a long-sleeved shirtdress style with hand-appliquéd lace—to the subversive, in the form of a princess dress with a sheer bodice sitting atop layer upon layer of gossamer-thin tulle.The ethos of the collection was clear: Wang wants her bride to feel sexy and sensual, with hints of the exotic. Every style came with detachable bows, and clever black corsets acted as a subtle nod to the costumes sported by toreadors. There were more traditional takes on dressing for the big day, including a made-to-order stunner featuring hand embroidery with pearl accents and an ostrich feather–trimmed skirt. But it was Wang’s one color option, in black, that truly captured the joie de vivre of Madrid with a flower-lined bubble hem.
13 October 2015
“I love the mix between schoolteacher and showgirl,”Vera Wangsaid backstage. “There’s real life, then there’s fantasy life.” That’s potent material; there’s a reason that Luis Buñuel’sBelle de Jour, which was a loose reference point here, became the classic it did. Indeed, dichotomy has long defined Wang’s ready-to-wear. Masculine and feminine, tailoring and flou. She’s fashion’s punk ballerina, a world-famous bridal designer who wears only black. Duality was again the order of the day for her new Spring collection, but the results were somewhat mixed. Tailored coats topped only the barest of bandeaux and high-waisted briefs. More quizzical was a structured vest that turned to reveal it was a dickey of sorts, completely bare in back. And the practical applications of a loose V-neck tank cropped below the bust in black mink were hard to discern. Wang knows her way around a mash-up, but there was a disconnect between her fancy evening dresses and the athletic mesh bras underneath that she never quite resolved. Piece by piece she did beautiful work. Black ostrich plumes added romance to a sleeveless blazer in nude techno gazar, chrome and gold paillette–embroidered dresses were eye-catching, and Wang, the wedding dress queen, cuts a smart pair of high-waisted cropped trousers. Reality, not fantasy, came out on top.
15 September 2015
Founder: Vera WangYear established: 1990Known for: Gowns with a more fashion-forward aesthetic than the usualFamous brides: Victoria Beckham, Ivanka Trump, Chelsea Clinton, Heidi Klum
20 April 2015
Who you callin' a bridal designer? Vera Wang may be the first name you think of when someone says "wedding dress," but anybody who knows the designer will tell you she's not a beads-and-bows kind of woman. Backstage she was rocking an old gym tee and leggings with platform boots. And while her new Fall collection wasn't quite as casual as all that, it was very much made in her image. "It's reflective of how I live and dress," she said. Designers are always strongest at doing what they know, and this was a good Wang collection, built mostly from tailoring—evening looks included—and nearly all in the color black, which is shaping up to bethecolor of Fall '15.The first outfit out, a boxy but cropped man's jacket and long satin skirt with the wide drawstring waistband of boxing shorts, pushed the concept too far—the bared midriff feels a bit overexposed at the moment. Button-down shirts with wool coat sleeves likewise seemed a bit try-hard. But otherwise, Wang made an interesting and often unique case for marrying elements of classic men's tailoring with more traditionally feminine pieces: Inserting the waistband of a pair of pants—pockets, too—into a long silk velvet dress gave it a cool, slouchy attitude. And a crepe bustier top with lace detailing at the back retained a tomboyish vibe thanks to the oversize trousers it was paired with. The crinkly vinyl outerwear pieces looked particularly good: girly but irreducibly tough. Extra points for the white lug sole black leather boots that accessorized all but the shortest of the looks. We bet a few of her models tried to make off with a pair to beat today's ice and slush.
17 February 2015
If you met this season's Vera Wang girl, would you like her?Girlis the operative word here: Designer price point notwithstanding, you unavoidably pictured an undergrad going out in Wang's pleat-embellished short shorts or her poppy-print minidress with a bubble hem, worn with a matching sweatshirt. That young woman seemed like a bit of a flake. But if you thought of this collection as a sort of bildungsroman, you could see the Wang girl come of age. There she is, spending Daddy's money on things like sequined Bermuda shorts; then, advancing in sophistication, you find her dressing with a bit more circumspection, selecting a cocktail dress of evanescent black tulle and a camel cashmere coat with broad lapels. She hits her sweet spot wearing a long, gauzy maxi dress in that poppy print, or better yet, a wide-leg jumpsuit in sheer-ish black silk. Eventually, she enters her going-off-the-rails period—she ventures out in leather maxi skirts and tucks herself away in layers of long goat hair. Reemerging for the denouement, she discovers an affection for knitwear. As we take leave of her, she's in a slender ribbed knit skirt and striped crewneck sweater. This collection made the clever point that we are many selves over the course of one life. Or one pre-season, as the case may be.
11 December 2014
Vera Wang is a born tomboy who wears only black, yet she became the world's foremost wedding dressmaker. Don't you just love the contradiction? This season, the designer made her incongruities work for her, dividing her show into two acts. The program notes said, "Boyish Boudoir, Baby Bohemian." And backstage, she explained, "There are two very distinct parts: One is tailored, the other side is very flou."Yet look closer and you could see how they overlapped. Take the tailoring. Pants were no-fuss, but jackets, though neat and trim in shades of black and charcoal gray, featured wide bands of tulle and ruched ribbon below the waist, as well as dense passementerie embroidery at the hips or on the back. Wang said she borrowed a lot of the techniques she uses in bridal and applied them to the menswear pieces. The flowing gauzy dresses topped with a shrunken wool twill vest or a tiny bolero? That's the way Vera herself does after-dark—no wonder it looked right. Crystal-covered tulle panels stitched to brocade baby-doll dresses, in contrast, looked somewhat contrived, a last-minute afterthought. In our book, boyish boudoir trumped baby bohemian. With and without a little menswear topper, the gauzy multilayer trapeze dresses were dreamy.
9 September 2014
Vera Wang seemed to be feeling the tug of conflicting impulses for Resort. On the one hand, there were flower prints on fluttery chiffon. On the other, boy shorts and black socks with loafers. No wonder one of her cardigans displayed the phrase, "Who Are You?" on the back. In all seriousness, Wang has always liked working both sides of the masculine-feminine split, and this collection was very much in her signature style: lots of layers, lots of leg, and a very healthy appreciation for accessories. Giant silk peonies bloomed at the shoulder, their decadent romance grounded by the sturdy leather belts that accompanied many of the looks, even the evening dresses. Wang has a well-honed irreverent streak, the seriousness of her booming bridal business notwithstanding. Here she exhibited it on transparent silk tops sewn with thin strips of mink, and on evening shorts encrusted with paillettes stitched into three-dimensional rosettes. When you get right down to it, the least whimsical things in the collection were that "Who Are You?" cardigan and a pair of flower-covered track pants. Wang's "gypsy tomboys," as she's dubbed them this season, will put some miles in wearing those.
14 June 2014
"You Bug Me." That was the message stamped across a black T-shirt that came marching out over a plaid button-down and a long black leather skirt. Why the attitude? Because Vera Wang, wedding dresser to the stars, has gone grunge. Stranger things have happened on a runway, but that tee definitely qualified as a surprise. To everyone, perhaps, except Wang. "People think of me for romance," she said backstage. "But there's always the old references to what our brand stands for. There's a tomboy, male energy mixed in with a sensuality."That somewhat silly T-shirt aside, the mix that she was talking about made for a diverse, lively Fall offering. Whereas last season she seemed to be stuck in one gear—gossamer sport, let's call it—here she delved into different categories: wool tartan tailoring, tough-chic black leather, floral chiné, pj's dressing, metallic lamés for cocktail hour. Her chunky ribbed knits and argyle sweaters were as good-looking as any we've seen this week.Of course, grunge isn't the newest idea on the block. Everyone from Dries Van Noten to Hedi Slimane has done his or her own riffs recently. Although Wang's collection looked a little too close to the Belgian's for comfort at times, there were moments that were identifiably her own. A silvery fine-gauge tank and black stretch lamé mermaid skirt, worn with a man's overcoat falling loosely off one shoulder, was an outfit that tapped into Wang's special ability to make a woman look dressed down while being quite fabulously dressed up.
10 February 2014
Pre-Fall is personal for Vera Wang. Looking into her own closets for inspiration, she combined masculine sportswear elements with the feminine touches that she loves—lace, rhinestones, bold swatches of fur—with results that felt decidedly broodier than her most recent collection. The primary colors on her September runway have been replaced by black, shades of gray, camo green, and a flocked-velvet floral—but mostly black. Metallic sequins brightened up the evening pieces. Wang kept things interesting by playing with texture: hand-painting satin with a confetti print for an evening sheath, or pairing a jean jacket in stiff, raw denim with rich charcoal-gray brocade stovepipe pants. Draped volume at the shoulder added drama to otherwise unadorned dresses, in both knee-length and long versions, while a black leather skirt with the same kind of draping detail at the waist stood out as the kind of item that will have legs in the stores.
16 December 2013
Get sporty! Athletic influences are a big thing for Spring on the New York runways, and Vera Wang is the latest designer to insert herself into the action. This is the woman Hollywood calls on when it needs to cast a wedding-dress designer—did you know she has a SAG card? But don't forget she was also a competitive skater. Wang is naturally sporty, with an affinity for tees and stretch leggings. It served her well here. The beginning of the collection was an extended riff on elevated activewear, and it looked good. Wang did crop tops and bombers and second-skin dresses, only hers came in gazar, technical mesh, and silk gauze—all in black. The stretch-ponte dresses were anatomically seamed and collaged from panels of sheer mesh and net. Racy.Although it would've been nice to see some of the first pieces amped up in color, she did turn on the brights (blue, yellow, and red) for the dressier part of the show. It's much harder to make a convincing case for athletic gear after dark, but Wang's bias-cut chiffon layers—racerback gown on top and slipdress underneath, with hand-painted swooshes on both to suggest speed and movement—had an ease that was appealing. That doesn't mean they were simple to construct; on the contrary, she must've driven her patternmakers crazy with the finale dress—a collage of chiffon, mesh, and corded lace that came off as quite effortless. Here and there, Wang tossed in a few cocktail dresses strewn with 3-D paillettes. They were more expected on a Wang runway, but they only served to slow this collection down.
9 September 2013
The two keys to Vera Wang's lively Resort collection were lightness and layering. A hard combo for some designers to pull off, maybe, but not for the CFDA's Lifetime Achievement winner. Wang knows sheaths backwards and forwards. They were lovely on their own, but she wanted to treat them in a fresh way, so she topped them with clingy knits cropped right below the armholes, with lace vests, or with sheer tunics, which injected the lineup with a sporty ease. The casual tone continued into evening, for which she showed a tulle shift embroidered with geometric matte paillettes over another shift in a delicate dot pattern.At the other end of the masculine-feminine divide (lightness and layering wasn't the only opposition she was interested in) were pin-striped suiting pieces. Cropped trousers and Bermuda shorts, both with contrasting seersucker waistbands, had a fresh tomboy vibe that she hinted would continue into Spring.
10 June 2013
Vera Wang's tomboy phase is over. The designer changed things up a couple of years ago, swapping the three-dimensional volumes and jewel tones she made synonymous with her name in the mid-aughts for slimmer, garçon-ish, and often black clothes. Today, she made another switch, calling her collection an exploration of classic dressmaking in sculptural silhouettes. It wasn't a bad match. This was a pretty collection for Wang.The show got off to a slow start with graphic layers like a black twill sleeveless cocoon coat with plunging armholes worn over a stone gray canvas shift. The canvas bandeaux that she sometimes added on top are a styling idea that won't make it past the runway. But she moved on fairly quickly. Wang can't resist a bit of fur, and her black fox cape, fastened at the neckline with a studded leather strap over a jeweled T-shirt dress, had charm. Another nice outfit for evening: a white fox wrap and leather opera gloves over a black Chantilly tunic and cropped pants in metallic lavender brocade.Like most 48-look shows, this one could've used some pruning, but things really started looking up when Wang let the light in. Photos don't do justice to the iridescence of a youthful pink sequined and beaded V-neck dress. The tangerine and magenta jacquards of a pleated-neck top and a blossoming tulip skirt were especially lovely. And when those bandeaux reappeared under rose-print chiffon blouses with long trains and matching jacquard pants, they made a whole lot more sense.
11 February 2013
The mix is the message at Vera Wang for pre-fall. Posing the question "Is it high day or low evening?" she sent out a simple shift with a shirttail hem in super-luxe floral damask and added an elasticized waistband to a floor-length column skirt in corded jacquard, then paired it with a button-down in humble cotton. A boyish tuxedo, meanwhile, was made to look more feminine with the addition of ruffled silk faille trim at the shoulders and a bullion and crystal collar necklace.Jewelry, once such a big part of the Vera Wang oeuvre, has gone missing from her runway shows for several seasons. At the request of retailers, she reported, she's bringing it back in a big way. The necklaces and the crystal encrustations at the waistline of a sheath dress or on the pockets of a fox-collared evening jacket made this collection feel a little bit like a walk down memory lane. Revisiting your hits isn't a bad thing when it produces a look like Wang's sleeveless top in amythest satin jacquard and matching floor-length hobble skirt.
11 December 2012
India was Vera Wang's starting point for Spring. She isn't alone. Other designers have fallen for the tunic-over-pants look and diaphanous layers this week. Literal references weren't really Wang's focus, though. Rather, what she had to offer were textures, prints, and colors—and plenty of them. The results were sumptuous.The first quarter of the collection was all white: The show started with an almost plain cotton cutaway jacket and a cotton voile dancing skirt. A V-neck shift was covered shoulder to hem in dense soutache embroidery. Another look delivered surface appeal via lace jacquard, guipure, and cotton eyelet. But when the color came in, it came in strong: azure blue, navy, amethyst, cypress green, chartreuse, culminating in gold.Wang was in mix mode today, pairing a narrow tunic embroidered in gold bullion with a swirling skirt in a wallpaper print, or teaming a beaded boy tank with brocade Bermuda shorts. Still, the prettiest numbers in the show were the sleeveless sheaths in Chantilly lace—utterly simple but bejeweled at the waist or on the shoulders. Manhattan or Mumbai—they'll play anywhere.
10 September 2012
Last season Vera Wang went through the looking glass, showing anAlice in Wonderland-inspired collection that, though lovely, didn't have a firm grasp on the real-life needs of women. The designer hasn't quite planted her feet on terra firma for Fall: The soaring arches of cathedrals provided the show's architectural photo print, and, more crucially, there were some of the same troubling issues with transparency. But there were other indications here that she'd absorbed the criticisms and was moving on.The show started on a promising note. Look 2 included an oversize nude wool parka with a detachable hood and great-looking tailored flare pants—definitely a first chez Wang. And there was more cool, creative outerwear later on, in the form of sleeveless jackets with swooping raccoon collars—just the things to wear over cashmere sweaters when the weather starts to turn cold. A sleeveless sheath in a steely gray jacquard, meanwhile, looked right up the alley of Oscar nominee Viola Davis, who sat in the front row.What worked less well were the sheer dresses, be they in nude net lace or vault-print silk chiffon. The peplums the designer put on top of them just didn't lower the risqué factor far enough. Wang is a proven problem solver (see any number of the beautiful bridal gowns she's designed over the years). She should tap into that store of knowledge in her next ready-to-wear collection.
13 February 2012
Vera Wang name-checked Jane Birkin and Yves Saint Laurent circa the late 1960's at her pre-fall presentation, but the influences weren't all that literal. On the one hand, she was interested in the offhand way that Birkin wore, say, a Paco Rabanne chain-mail dress in the same manner as a boy might toss on a dusty old T-shirt. And on the other hand, she was turned on by YSL's predilection for putting women in pantsuits and tuxedos. Not unlike on her Spring runway, many of Wang's looks featured a tailored coat or jacket and a short, wispy dress. And we do mean short. The micro hemlines of shifts were balanced here by ribbed socks that sometimes extended over the knee or by thick rib-knit shorts that gave the collection a sporty undertone.When Wang wasn't tossing boleros or vests over dresses, she was layering them with sweaters for that boy-girl feeling. A bubble-skirted frock in a colorful kaleidoscope print and a cropped cardigan buttoned up the back rather than the front was among the collection's most striking pairings, second only to a bias-cut, cowl-neck dress in the same print topped by a charcoal wool car coat. For the most part, though, the designer's evening numbers were all woman. Their bold colors and stretchy silk charmeuse fabrics should serve Wang well with awards season around the corner.
11 December 2011
Sprites. That's what came to mind watching Vera Wang's collection. Among the elements: tiny little vests with detachable peplums in cotton piqué and oversize eyelet. Skirts made from sheer parachute silk that grazed the thighs in the front and trailed weightless in the back. Gowns with diamond-shape cutouts on the chest. Gauzy leggings. All that was missing was a pair of gossamer wings. The show began in white; Ladurée macaron colors entered the picture about halfway through; and by the end it was psychedelic. Wang took cues fromAlice in Wonderland, and we went down the rabbit hole with her. The prints that closed the show were especially trippy. Inspired by eighteenth-century wallpaper, they almost looked like they were dripping off their delicate chiffon and organza dresses. Was that the Mona Lisa on Arizona Muse's hem?Wang has been retooling her aesthetic of late, but this collection is as antithetical to the pretty, people-pleasing bridal business that's her bread and butter as anything she's ever done. Kim Kardashian, who wore a gown designed by Vera to her wedding earlier this summer, was sitting front-row today. There was a bit too much fairy tale in these clothes, though, to picture them stepping off the runway and into the real world.
12 September 2011
Easy, relaxed, sexy. Vera Wang was in London for a perfume launch, but you could almost hear the designer chanting the mantra in absentia at her Resort presentation. Wang has been studiously trying to tweak her clothes' look of late, ditching the precious embellishments and costume jewelry for a more sportswear-influenced look. Personally, she favors an anonymously chic cardigan and leggings, but there's nothing plain about the separates she puts in her collections. On the parka front, the designer picked up where Fall left off, cropping jackets above the waist, adding frills at the collar, and ruching the sleeves. The other big story here was dresses, wispy little things that came in bold painterly polka dots or a more restrained square motif. The dots looked fresher, and were particularly winning on a tank dress with an asymmetrical hem topping a pair of sporty racing pants cropped below the knee. There wasn't much awe factor in the 18-look lineup, but you have to give Wang credit for nailing the way urban girls dress, mixing tough with sweet, delicate with street.
9 June 2011
The parka, that high-fashion yet functional item, has a legion of proponents, both established and emerging, this New York fashion week. Vera Wang was the latest designer to warm up to the idea. Naturally, her parkas came luxe, with fox either lining the inside or decorating the outside of jackets. And, naturally, they came in black. After last season's painterly florals and bright pops of red, Wang returned to her more usual subdued palette for Fall. And like many of her peers, she preferred to pair her parkas and vests with pieces of a more delicate persuasion—chiffon dresses mostly, or chiffon tops paired with skinny wool flannel pants made feminine by swags of knife-pleated fabric hanging from either hip.Pleats were the collection's other dominant motif. Wang showed pleated dresses for day and night in a variety of styles: short and long, shoulder- and décolletage-revealing, or high-necked and long-sleeved. She name-checked glamorous Americans of the 1930's in her show notes, specifically Viscountess Thelma Furness, Lady Emerald Cunard, and Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson, all of whom might've worn Fortuny's famous, finely pleated tea gowns in their day. Wang is clearly trying out a new direction—there was no jewelry and no clusters of crystal and tulle in today's show. But with all the focus on just two big ideas, you eventually missed the richness of some of this designer's former outings.
14 February 2011
Kill Billhas been given the ax atVera Wang. The martial arts references the designer used to sometimes ferocious effect on her Spring runway have been replaced by something altogether sweeter for pre-fall. "I wanted to go in a different direction; this is more schoolgirl," Wang said at a showroom appointment today. Her models wore mini kilts over thigh-high socks and layered thin-knit cardigans on top of vests and crewnecks. Sporty parkas were rendered luxe in shearling or wool flannel with leather and fur accents, and the designer came up with a novel way to solve the cold-weather shorts issue, sewing sheer pants into the waistband of bloomers and an all-in-one.It was still recognizably Wang, however. For one, the palette was mostly black. And for another, the looks were accented by the costume necklaces and brooches that are such a signature for her. To keep her eveningwear looking young—"not an easy thing to do," she said—she showed a lot of short shifts, adding a peplum of fur at the hips and occasionally a removable ruff of frills at the neck. Her bias-cut, draped silk gowns had a more grown-up feel. A to-the-floor frock in amethyst with a lariat of crystals tied low around the neck had an Old Hollywood glamour that should appeal to starlets of today.
12 December 2010
Vera Wang was in the news all summer long, having created the wedding gowns for some very high-profile brides, Chelsea Clinton among them. So, did all that romance rub off on her? Yes and no. The designer's Spring collection walked both sides of the feminine/masculine divide. On the sweeter side: draped, body-loving sheaths in beautiful lush florals, and hand-ruched tulle dresses in shades of poppy, citrine, and blush pink suspended from corseted underpinnings. Anybody who's followed Wang's career knows that the one big color in her life other than bridal white is black; those bright hues were a departure for her.The collection's more boyish martial arts-inflected pieces, apparently inspired by the Quentin Tarantino filmKill Bill, were also a surprise, albeit with entirely different results. The asymmetrical quilted vests worn over pinstripe jumpsuits had an appealing roguish quality, as did an ivory organdy kimono blouse tucked into what were essentially glorified gym shorts. Wang's twist-front, droopy derriere pants, many of them belted with black "sumo" rope, were about as far away from Chelsea's silk tulle and laser-cut organza as a girl could get. If Wang wanted to inject a more youthful edge and toughen up her image, she succeeded.
13 September 2010
"Fellini-inspired play clothes" was how Vera Wang billed her latest effort. And while this collection evoked the artsy but luxury-loving Vera woman more than it did, say, Anita Ekberg splashing about in a Roman fountain, the clothes aimed for an easy sensibility. In place of the designer's beloved leggings were satin cropped harem pants and shorts (a tough sell, perhaps, though designers have been proposing the drop-crotch silhouette for a few seasons now, so maybe they know something we don't). These were worn with, among other pairings, a molded bustier, sheer asymmetric cardigan, and lovely short-sleeve silver sequined coat. Pleated cotton blouses and a tailored blazer with rosette details rounded out the day looks.Eveningwear wasn't the focus today, but there were some fine moments. A zip-front slip with a tulle overlay could be dressed up or down; ditto a wrap dress with a knit bodice. Best, though, was a billowy gray washed silk number. Floating down the runway, it looked up-to-the-minute but caught a sense of the glamorous ease hinted at in Wang's inspiration.
15 June 2010
What's the reigning queen of artsy dressing supposed to do when fashion starts heading in a cleaned-up, spare, decidedly un-artsy direction? If she's astute, and Vera Wang is nothing if not that, she starts making cleaned-up, spare fashion of her own. The first look out was a black wool pantsuit with a narrow, slightly elongated jacket, its shoulders trimmed with organza corsages. Hey, no one becomes a minimalist overnight. Tailoring was a focus of this show, but Wang put her luxurious, ultra-femme stamp on it: adding Mongolian lamb trim to the hem of a coat and cutting the sleeves off at the elbows so it can be worn with opera gloves; affixing sequins to the mesh pockets of a charcoal felt double-lapel jacket.A pair of her easy paper-bag-waist tuxedo pants, worn with a draped one-shoulder top in white linen voile or an ivory silk faille tucked bustier, would make fabulous alternatives to the little black cocktail dress—though Wang showed quite a few of those, too. Among the best was a simple twisted and draped jersey frock that fell to just above the knee. Others, with their mosaics of metallic sequins and swags of black tulle (accessorized with piles of pearls), erred on the fussy side. "Less is more" is not a concept that feels entirely natural for Wang. Still, she nailed it with a scalloped black organza gown that looked practically weightless as it glided down the runway.
15 February 2010
Vera Wang's ready-to-wear is synonymous with a sort of artsy dressiness, so her pre-fall collection of tailoring, structured outerwear, and body-hugging knits was something of a departure. "I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone," the designer said. But Wang seems quite assured working with these new categories. A boy blazer in charcoal wool twill with a double lapel in darker gray was coolly confident. If her client isn't quite ready to work a suit (the jacket was paired here with a short, sculpted skirt), Wang included plenty of the layerable lean basketball T-shirts and leggings she's long been known for. Black tinsel trim on hems and Mongolian lamb swatches on pockets or shoulders ensured that her parkas and anoraks looked signature, too. And despite the fact that she was focused mostly on daywear (retailers are looking for versatility and low cost per wear), she showed one of her most stunning evening looks in a long time. It was a tulle T-shirt dress with a swirl of multicolor paillettes, sequins, and beads on the front and simple black jersey on the back. It'll be expensive, but it'll be worth it.
10 December 2009
For the second season in a row, Vera Wang showed in the intimate confines of her Mercer Street store, and you didn't need to read the name on the door to know whose designs these were. Crystal necklaces, densely embroidered necklines, tulle and net overlays—all the Vera signatures were here. But something was different: Call it a sense of ease, or a dressed-down (relatively speaking, of course) casualness that looked new. It came across early on thanks to a loose-fitting black crepe de chine jumpsuit topped by an incredible beaded spiderweb necklace, and it continued throughout the show via the biker shorts that she paired with everything from a basketball tee and organza skirt combo to a metallic gauze halter tank and poufy ballerina skirt. For the client who isn't going anywhere near a pair of shorts—despite evidence to the contrary on this week's runways; their numbers are legion—she showed bias-cut rocker pants or slouchy silk leggings. The collection pretty much reflected the way Wang herself dresses: luxe and pulled together but somehow sporty.All that's not to say the designer abandoned after-dark. A pair of pleated tulle dresses, one mini, the other long, looked ready to party, as did a circular sequin tank dress in shades of midnight blue, blush, and silver. That was one of the show's few shots of color; the others came via the tulip and poppy prints that appeared on the delicate gauze of a hand-smocked tank dress as well as on a coat belted over a jersey tee and Bermuda shorts. But in keeping with the realities of the new economy, Wang smartly decided to toughen up her trademark romantic vision.
14 September 2009
Vera Wang cheekily called Resort her "Calypso-meets-Intermix" collection. What the reference to those eclectic boutiques means is this: Not only are there more colors—safety orange, peacock blue, chartreuse—than in the designer's last several seasons combined, but the line is also chock-full of item-y pieces like slouchy, whisper-thin cardigans; lace shorts; and all manner of T-shirts and tanks for her customers to mix and match. The inspiration, Wang explained, came from her daughters, who are fond of wearing long tees over short shorts, and the lineup did have a more youthful sensibility than her runway shows. Save for the daisy chain necklaces, embellishments were for the most part pared down, and her signature voluminous silhouette has been likewise streamlined. The key piece was the one Wang herself wore to the CFDA Awards earlier this week: an olive gold sequin racer-back tank dress over a sleeveless white cotton T-shirt.
17 June 2009
Vera Wang moved her show from the Bryant Park tents to the more intimate confines of her new Soho boutique, and the change of venue, coupled with the new economy, clearly had her rethinking her aesthetic. Wang is New York's most romantic designer, but for Fall she stripped her clothes of most of the glittering embellishments she usually favors. That's not to say they didn't deliver plenty of sensory pleasures. The close quarters of her store were the perfect place to appreciate the liquid-y, ripplelike effect of the Fortuny-inspired black moiré organza she used for off-the-shoulder dresses and coats, and to hear the swish-swish of a navy techno stretch skinny pant worn with a tie-front jacket.Overall, there was a severity to the collection that felt new. It came across through the scuba material she used for a stiff, front-pleat A-line skirt; a spare, long-sleeved coat; and, most intriguingly, corset belts that cinched the waists of a meringuelike organza dress and a crinkle cotton shirt and stretch pant look. Tank dresses, one in gray silk with cardinal red sequins and another in purple brocade with navy and gray sequins, were among the few departures from a predominantly black palette (and the most obvious allusions to her stated theme, the art patron Peggy Guggenheim and her life in Venice). Wang has always been about the arty/pretty mix; this time around, arty trumped pretty. That could win her some new fans, and should her loyalists object to the austerity, there's still plenty of her signature sparkly crystal and ribbon jewelry to go around.
18 February 2009
The boyish sophistication of Coco Chanel was Vera Wang's starting point for pre-fall, but the collection was pure Vera: bejeweled T-shirts, peplum tanks, and weightless, tulle-lined sweaters, paired with stretch pants worn long or cropped halfway between the knee and the ankle. She threw in the occasional poufy skirt, and wide stretch obis accessorized some of the looks. For evening, the silhouette wasn't quite as narrow as for day. A ruby silk cocktail dress was draped and tucked at the neckline and fell loosely to the knee. As always, everything came accented with strass and pearls.
9 December 2008
Vera Wang's Spring collection was as artsy as ever, but, inspired by the proto-pop French artist Niki de Saint Phalle, the designer expanded on the soft-focus romance she's known for to embrace a gutsier kind of chic. From across the room you'd still peg each piece in the collection as signature Vera, but in addition to the familiar sheer gazar over-slips and three-dimensional dresses there were now narrow "basketball" tanks, skinny cigarette pants and leggings, and pencil skirts. In counterpoint to the hand-painted duchesse satin frocks and skirts, Wang showed graphic prints—a charcoal and white color-blocked tank dress stood out for its sharp simplicity. Joining her crystalline necklines and necklaces were panels of colorful mosaic-cut sequins cascading down the front of a dress, or wrapping the waist of a skirt that echoed the silvery gray sculpture at the back of the runway.Favoring a shorter silhouette for both day and evening, Wang limited herself to two gowns—one in gray and orange layers of silk organza, the other a short beaded dress with an ankle-skimming sheer veil. All in all, there was newness here (Janis Savitt-designed cameo jewelry included), but still plenty that should please the designer's loyalists, who like their Vera just the way it is, thank you very much.
10 September 2008
The year: 1950. The setting: a villa on the French Riviera. The heroine: a teenager coming of age. Françoise Sagan'sBonjour Tristessewas the starting point for Vera Wang's beautiful and modern Resort collection. Scorching sun and sparkling Mediterranean sea translated to a palette brimming with blue and ocher, which was then enlivened by flashes of raspberry and tempered with touches of gray. Men's shirting, fine-gauge oversize sweaters, and slouchy trousers added just the right soupçon of tomboyish dash, a clever contrast to thela vie en roseromanticism of lingerie and floaty childrenswear-inspired tops and dresses.
11 June 2008
In past seasons Vera Wang has voyaged back in time to czarist Russia or ancient Rome, with the result that her collections sometimes appeared too much like costume. But for Fall she took her color cue from the modernist painter Kees van Dongen, and her strongest influence, believe it or not, was the street.There was a hipper edge to her layered silhouettes. It came across most clearly in youthful-looking sleeveless peplum tops in techno brocade or pleated ottoman, worn with tapering satin leggings. The sculptural bed jackets in quilted faille were equally cool. This isn't to say Wang has abandoned the luxe she loves: We saw more of the burnished bullion embroidery and the crystal and jet jewelry, including knockout cuffs by Philip Crangi, that she's used in previous seasons. Her latest obsession, though, is manipulating fabrics. She worked organza and felt into lavish florets—spiraling around the waist or perched on the shoulder—and grand ruffles cascaded down the front of a kimono jacket (note: an early Fall trend). As emphasized by the huge mirrors at the top of the runway, a great deal of the focus here was on the back of the garments. Take, for instance, an embroidered top with a tutu train, or a broadtail and fox jacket with a bustle. Wang is a designer who finesses every tiny detail, and this time, there wasn't a single stitch out of place.
6 February 2008
As Vera Wang's informal pre-fall presentation began, she explained that she was focused on daywear. But the designer's definition of the category is uniquely her own—call it couture casual. Tees were gathered, tucked, and pleated until they didn't resemble tees at all. Alternatively, pieces like men's trousers, shapely jackets, and loose sack dresses came with built-in stretch because, Wang said, she wanted them to have the feeling of a T-shirt. Frocks were either scattered with glittery sequins or decorated with voluptuous Pierrot collars and jabots. "It's day—just add a sweater," Wang insisted. There were also plenty of those, from lightweight waffle knits to slouchy cardigans, all built for layering. "It's a little tougher than before," the designer said of the collection. "But still femme."
12 December 2007
For Spring inspiration, Vera Wang looked to ancient Rome—an apt metaphor, some might say, for modern-day New York. She's among the most intellectual of American designers, but what got her going was probably less the similarities between the two societies than the fluid ease of the earlier epoch's clothes—not to mention the gilt and bullion. Either way, this finely wrought collection deserves plenty of praise.Reimagining the toga for today, Wang showed an elegant, asymmetrical navy silk day dress; a limpid jersey tunic worn with soft, washed crepe de chine pants; and graceful cashmere knits with flyaway chiffon panels at the sides or back. The full, shin-length skirts were the only things here that didn't look Roman, or right.Wang has a vibrant sense of color. Metallic blue brushstrokes vibrated across an olive green duchesse satin wrap coat, and a peplum jacket and asymmetrical skirt in the same fabric were tie-dyed to resemble clouds. Evening looks ranged from a jeweled-bib chiton jersey gown that blousoned at the waist to a deceptively simple coppery column in which the volume and drama were in the back. A languid micro-pleated gown in ivory looked like an ode to fashion's original interpreter of the ancients, Madame Grès.The theme could've proven costumey—remember last season's babushkas?—but it wasn't. It was Wang at her romantic best.
6 September 2007
Switching gears from Russia to ancient Rome, Vera Wang built her resort lineup around a silhouette that's become one of her signatures: the loose, languid sack dress. "It's about T-shirt dressing," she said of the collection. But there's nothing plebeian about Wang's twenty-first-century take on the toga. Her frocks came in color-blocked satins, brushstroke-print silks, and rich metallics—some accented with luxe bullion collars-cum-necklaces. The designer herself never veers far from all black, but here there were bold jewel tones, as well as surprisingly subtle tie-dyes. Layering, too, was key. A short-sleeve coat in tie-dyed citrine silk, worn over a softly draped olive tunic and slim, cropped amethyst pants, was one of the show's prettiest looks.
9 July 2007
Soft-focus romanticism is Vera Wang's stock-in-trade; she was a bridal designer first, after all. Whether she borrows from the ballet or travels back in time to early-twentieth-century Russia, as she did for Fall, there will always be embroidered tulle, metallic brocade, and glossy duchesse satin.To these pretty Vera-isms, she added stiffened jackets belted and bustled in the back with a taut military elegance, and fabulously thin shearlings in black and midnight cropped high above the waist. For accessories, there were gloves that inched their way up the biceps and sturdy boots with medallions on the calves. In case this all proved a little moody, a little dark, for the luxe-loving Vera Wang girl, the designer embroidered the skirt of a cage dress with enough gold and bronze bullion to fill the Romanovs¿ coffers. She added panels of densely embroidered paillettes to dresses, then veiled them with net.Babushkas aside, there was a lot going on in these looks. If her artsy layers didn¿t have the same effervescence as last season¿s did, chalk it up to her starting point: Yes, she mentioned the Bolsheviks in her program notes. But no matter: Pulled apart and taken piece by piece, there was real beauty to be found.
7 February 2007
Today's lovely Vera Wang show made it clear why Kohl's courted the designer for two years and why she's poised to succeed in translating her vision to the moderate-priced clothes she'll design for its hundreds of department stores. Over the last few seasons Wang has expertly refined her signatures. You know a Vera jacket when you see it: the subtle sheen of the silk faille; the short, elbow-length sleeves; the blossoming volume below the bust; the rosette attached with offhand insouciance. She's a brand where other designers are collections of borrowed ideas.That's not to say that she didn't evolve for spring. There was a new balletic quality to the clothes that went beyond the pink rehearsal bar at the entrance to the runway. She played with transparency, a big spring motif, by encasing the lower half of a dress in a bubble of tulle, shrouding a sequined camisole with net, and showing cropped chiffon pants under tunics. She also worked layers, tweaking, for instance, dressed-up gold brocade by tossing a black cotton chemise over it.But what was really interesting was the way she brought her own simple style of dressing to bear on the proceedings. Wang loves a legging and a big sweater. Today she showed fine-gauge cardigans covetable in their cool simplicity and skinny pants that added a casual element the collection formerly lacked. Practice for the Very Vera line that hits Kohl's a year from now? Yes or no, it all looked beautiful.
13 September 2006
Vera Wang may be in talks with St. John to become its creative director, but for now she's keeping any ideas she might have for commercial knit dressing under wraps. Her fall show, inspired as it was by Mark Rothko, was a decidedly artsy affair, with riffs on the abstract expressionist's color-block paintings showing up in interesting ways on the designer's silk chiffon dresses.The moody palette aside, this was more or less a typically feminine Wang collection. Witness all the decorative details, from taffeta and tulle corsages to swags of rhinestones. In a couple of intriguing instances—a wool gabardine jacket with raw edges, a pea coat with exposed seams—she did venture out of her usual comfort zone to explore more-masculine elements. She soon returned to her dressed-up sensibility, though. Among the show's standouts were a metallic-blue floral-brocade cardigan with coordinating trapeze dress, and an iridescent rose chiffon gown that was layered over a deeper-red slip to create its own Rothko effect. If the presentation occasionally felt repetitive, it's nothing that a sharper edit couldn't fix.
8 February 2006
Vera Wang is having a moment. She won the CFDA award in June. Her resort collection, which combined the American sensibility of Claire McCardell with the vibrant palette of Matisse, earned raves from buyers and editors alike. And she continued that momentum by introducing a collection in a similar vein for spring. This time, she injected a new, raw edge into the formula, courtesy of the HBO frontier dramaDeadwood."The idea was to do primitive," said Wang backstage. "Matisse's models dressed not unlike the female characters on that show."Of course, Wang'ssalopettes,farmers shirts, and "nightgowns" looked a little too rich for life on the Great Plains. That's thanks, in part, to the iridescent chiffons, brocades, taffetas, and duchesse satins she used for evening and, more surprisingly, for day. She cut and draped those fabrics like a modern Charles James (a designer known for lush, elegantly structured gowns, to whom some audience members compared her), creating tops, skirts, and dresses that puffed around the body without ever feeling bulky. Among the many standouts were an electric-blue smock blouse and navy dirndl skirt, a black off-the-shoulder number, which was shown with flats (as were most of her longer silhouettes), and a red silk apron dress with an elasticized hem. Jackets also had volume, especially those that were fuller on top and gathered near the bottom—as if they were pulled on upside down. Gritty, raffia sashes and the occasional sturdy leather belt gave the collection a touch of downtown, if not of South Dakota, but it's bound to be a hit everywhere.
14 September 2005
Last September, Vera Wang showed a spring collection that was one of the highlights of the season, proving that she was capable of much more than just dressing a woman for her wedding day. Sadly, her fall show left you feeling like you'd been jilted at the altar, waiting for a vision of loveliness that never showed up.Wang sent out a large number of chiffon evening dresses, but all the deliciously rich-yet-light colors she showed for spring were traded in for a palette that consisted mainly of dour blacks and browns, with some challenging shades of green and terra-cotta for contrast. And the accessory that took center stage—a fur bonnet tied under the neck—was an unusual choice, to say the least. There were arty, Empire-line tops, whisper-thin cardigans, and full tweed or brocade skirts, tricked up with dressmaker-like tucks and folds; but there wasn't enough here to get a woman through her working day. It's not that Wang needs to churn out corporate-friendly clothes—she's far too individual and spirited for that—but interpreting wardrobe-friendly basics in her own way could be intriguing. (There were some effective little fuller jackets, which have become one of this coming fall's key pieces, here done with a pleated, Empire back, and in soft velvet.)The wonderful thing about Wang is that, through her bridal business, she has mastered the art of merging fairy-tale fantasy with hard reality, dressing women of every shape and size for that all-important day. Now the challenge is to make that marvelous empathy cross over.
9 February 2005
Vera Wang's evolution over the past several seasons into a full-fledged creator with an elegantly specific aesthetic has been a pleasure to watch. And this spring's collection, full of lovely, artsy dresses and skirts, finely detailed and delicately luxurious, clinches the transition.Even though she's a red-carpet mainstay—witness Jennifer Connelly and Holly Hunter in her front row—Wang is not, and never will be, about flash and flesh. Her sex appeal comes from the sensuousness inherent in her materials—limpid crepe de chine, georgette, and charmeuse, muted gold lamé, brocade, fuzzy cashmere, and tissue-thin knits—and her slim, caressing cuts.Wang had but one pair of pants in her collection; the rest was all narrow, fluid dresses and skirts cut every which way, from a slim, businesslike pencil to an organza delight, embroidered with gold peacock feathers and light as a dandelion. She paired these with crisp, blue or white cotton men's shirting fabrics, simple sweaters, and slightly retro prints to keep it all from getting too precious. Her color sense, too, kept the clothes resolutely modern: ivory, navy, brown, black, and taupe, with bits of color dropped in as if by a watercolor artist. A crimson tank top, a pistachio blouse, a dusty-rose gown, all floated down the runway against a subdued soundtrack that sounded like distant bells. Controlled scatterings of sequins and beads were a subtle reminder of her bridal brilliance—but luckily, Wang's strengths now reach way past the aisle, right into everyday life.
9 September 2004
It’s getting increasingly difficult to categorize Vera Wang as a designer. Her clothes are thoughtful, but romantic too; artistic, but eminently wearable; and sexy, without being overtly so. Of course, you could just call them beautiful and leave it at that.Although she’s still best known for her evening and wedding gowns, Wang’s daywear is coming on strong. For fall, she worked in a muted palette, mixing dusty, tea-dipped colors like taupe and pink with intense greens and purples as well as black and brown. She cut slim skirts and trousers with neat, narrow waistbands that sat low—but not too low—on the hips and showed them with soft blouses, bare-armed chiffon tops, and tissue-thin cashmere sweaters. There were strict, sharp wool coats over satin dresses, gleaming furs, and wispy, pin-tucked dresses, often paired with chunky fur shrugs. Wang even dabbled in abstract prints, like a muted wine-toned splattered silk that showed up in a lean little dress with an inset waistband of raw-edged tweed.The designer showed a similar restraint in her evening looks. She shaped her chiffon confections with bias cuts or hand-sewn details and touched them with just the right amount of beading or ruffles—as well as plenty of pieces from her own line of diamond jewelry. And why not? Having put together a collection this strong, Wang has earned the right to gild her own lily.
10 February 2004
Pretty may be the trend for spring, but it’s nothing new for Vera Wang; she’s made a career of unfussy elegance. Her latest collection, full of lovely, understated separates and drop-dead gowns that are red-carpet ready, showcased her undeniable skill.She touched on the season’s mood with stunning jersey goddess gowns in rich green and brilliant red that worked as perfect foils to Wang's diamond jewelry. The twenties feeling came up via cocktail dresses embroidered with scallops of gold thread and, in one example, embellished with a tart chartreuse ribbon. The slightly raised waistline that she used throughout the collection—even a snug navy coat had a high belt at the back—referred to a gentler, more ladylike era without ever getting sentimental or overly retro. In fact, Wang knows how to keep it modern, too: She paired a classic smoking with the most feminine tops (think pleated tulle, embroidered net) and beautifully-cut tuxedo trousers, a totally contemporary look that provided the perfect balance to her plethora of charming party dresses.
21 September 2003
Vera Wang sustained the coolly wistful feeling of her spring show with a lovely Asian-tinged collection for fall.Although best known for her evening looks, Wang has clearly been putting some thought into daywear, opening her show with a slim black coat whose three-quarter sleeves and low belt whispered an early ’60s elegance. Other sportswear pieces, like a great ivory goatskin coat, or a black cashmere shell and slim skirt, were judiciously embellished with a glimmer of beads, a bit of swinging passementerie or a bar of origami-folded ribbon. Some were topped with adorable shrugs made from fur or cashmere, or knitted with popcorn. Wang also did long and short versions of sexy silk jersey dresses, including one strappy number she called a bondage dress—although if that's bondage, Debra Messing is a dominatrix.The modern dilemma for eveningwear, as recent red carpets have made all too obvious, is how to achieve glamour and sophistication without falling into old-and-fussy or new-and-weird. Wang has that problem solved: A pale-gray chiffon gown, cut in the time-honored plunge-neck style, gets a fresh treatment via raw seams; a high mandarin collar makes a satin dress stand out; and a taupe gown made from the webbiest open-work lace enhances without overwhelming—which could well be this designer’s motto.
13 February 2003
Eveningwear is a tough proposition; all too often, it falls into clich¿s of over-the-top glitz and heavy-duty ornament. But it doesn’t have to be that way, as Vera Wang’s beautiful spring show proved.Gone were the Edwardian references of Wang’s dramatic, all-black fall collection. Spring’s silhouettes are simple and completely modern: knee-length straight shifts and skirts, tailored trousers and, of course, long gowns. Using a restrained palette of black, taupe and white (with just an occasional shock of vivid color like violet or red to jolt the eye) and luxurious fabrics like silk jersey, chiffon and tulle, Wang created outfits that were simultaneously elegant and youthful, hip and intelligent. She paired a simple black knit top with a whimsical skirt made from tiers of rough, ruffled ivory silk tulle, ran a line of asymmetrical ruching down the front of a strapless black cocktail dress and mixed in careful details like hand-smocking, crochet and occasional short bursts of cascading ruffles.There was minimal embellishment, used to maximum impact. A scattering of pea-size glittering glass beads looked like dewdrops against a black pleated chiffon shift, and a pretty red floral chiffon gown had thin streams of lace tracing its seams. Wang added a few lovely daytime pieces, like a white leather coat, a cream organza skirt with a touch of ruching at the side and black wool trousers with white stitching. But her real success with this collection was injecting new life into the night.
19 September 2002
Vera Wang became a household name putting women into white dresses. But as her all-black fall 2002 collection made clear, she has a sophisticated dark side, too.Wang's strength has always been in evening wear, and her fall collection was a kind of historical survey of luxurious glamour. There were Victorian touches, including handwork-intensive details like pintucking and beading, high-necked furry capelets, and corset references. The Thirties were referenced via bias-cut silk charmeuse or an occasional flurry of ostrich feather decoration. A fitted, quilted top that Wang called a "fencing jacket" paired with a matching mini looked distinctly 60s-era Mod, and one knee-grazing dress sported a shades-of-the-Eighties pouf. There were also plenty of skin-baring separates like a chiffon halter over lacy boot-cut trousers, which were thoroughly up-to-the-minute.Wang has been on a roll this year, publishing a book about weddings as well as launching her first fragrance in a bid to expand her business. But this collection makes it clear that she's still got a firm grip on her first priority: beautiful clothes for gala-filled lives.
18 March 2002
Few designers can match Vera Wang's command of discreet sophistication. In addition to producing ready-to-wear collections and running a made-to-order atelier, she has recently completed a substantial coffee-table book answering every possible question one could have about planning a wedding.Wang is all about couture-like elegance. While there's nothing here in the way of sensible everyday separates, there are perfect little black dresses—one short georgette number has a ruffled skirt and a detachable bolero jacket; another, with cutout shoulders, is gently cinched at one side—and some very serious full evening looks. Among the best were a floor-length halter gown with fishtail hems and a long column with elastic leather straps.There's no shortage of color in this collection, either, thanks to some stunning cocktail dresses in frothy, fruity shades. Standouts? The melon slip with a jeweled lace border and the printed chiffon halter with sequin fringe dangling from the neckline to the floor and around the waist.
19 September 2001
Vera Wang is a favorite of big-event socialites and high-profile celebrities—after all, her designs can always be counted on to make an audience draw breath. This season was no exception: Wang opened her show with a rich orange zip-front caftan that could be worn with a hood up for movie star-grandeur or down for a casually chic look.Hand-painted Jackson Pollock-like prints adorned A-line and sack dresses, a motif that carried on to evening with "scribble" beading. There were also a couple of impeccable double-faced wool coats worn with a leather tie belt, and a plethora of simple, carefully detailed chiffon Empire dresses.
21 September 2000
Vera Wang is famous for combining couture-worthy craftsmanship with the practicality of American ready-to-wear, and her fall collection was true to her roots. It consisted of classic, elegant pieces in rich materials, cut with careful precision. Wang showed stretch tweed suits, cashmere pullovers, black crocodile coats and gabardine pleated skirts—and they all worked together. But Wang never forgets that she is most famous for her eveningwear, and she did not disappoint: There were square sequin gowns, chiffon halters, cashmere robes and a couple of show-stopping, neon-colored scarf dresses.
10 February 2000
Vera Wang began her show with pure, modern dresses in white, accented with graphic, geometric patches of silver beading. A series of fluid black pieces followed, and then a procession of beaded pants and skirts, transparent tops and sequined gowns in pastel shades inundated the runway. For the conclusion, Wang offered the expected array of signature wedding gown—an ultraromantic array of dresses punctuated by flowing cathedral-length veils that trailed to the floor.
16 September 1999