Vera Wang Women's Fashion Brand

Vera Ellen Wang is an American fashion designer based in New York City, and the bridal industry is where her record begins: a native New Yorker who spent her career at the forefront of fashion, Vera Wang began a sweeping makeover of the bridal industry in 1990 with the opening of her flagship salon at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Today, the salon continues to showcase collections known for sophisticated drama, feminine detailing and a modern approach to bridal design - the three style words that define the house.

For a women's shopper, that 1990 salon is the founding fact that organises everything else on this page. Before it, bridal was a trade needing a makeover; after it, the Vera Wang name means a specific kind of wedding dress - drama handled with sophistication, detail kept feminine, and a modern cut underneath both. The salon at the Carlyle is still the showcase: flagship first, collections after.

Ready-to-Wear, and the 2005 Honour

In 2000, Vera Wang's enthusiasm for couture fashion resulted in the launch of her highly acclaimed ready-to-wear collection - a decade after the salon, the bridal designer became a full fashion designer, and the industry marked the move on schedule: the Council of Fashion Designers of America honored Vera Wang by naming her 'Womenswear Designer of the Year' in 2005. Known for her nonchalant approach to style and luxury, her ready-to-wear collections resonate with her signature layering, intricate draping and exquisite attention to detail - the three techniques a shopper should actually look for on the rail, because they are the signature.

The brand record then widens from dresses to a lifestyle. The Vera Wang brand reflects her vision to create a lifestyle that goes beyond core bridal and ready-to-wear, and into publishing, fragrance, beauty, accessories and home; these collections are positioned at the highest end of the luxury market, driven by artistic, modern and luxurious design and style, couture-like quality and a high level of customer service. That positioning sentence is the practical one for research: a Vera Wang product in any of those categories is a top-of-the-luxury-market product by the brand's own stated design, and should be compared - and priced - against that tier, not against the high street.

Researching Vera Wang on Apparel Search

The brand's own site, carried in this page's References, has the complete collection of bridal gowns and designer ready-to-wear; the Apparel Search fashion blog's Vera Wang coverage is also linked here. Among this letter's designers, Vera Wang is the bridal specialist set between two Italians: Valentino, the couture house that has dressed a list of celebrity brides, and Versace, the Milanese house of flashy prints and bright colours - three luxury profiles in one letter, divided by what each house is for.

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