Fashion Definitions — fashion history, brands and industry terms from Apparel Search
Vera Wang, born on June 27, 1949, is a Chinese American fashion designer based in New York, known above all for her wedding gown collection. Raised in an affluent family, she attended the Chapin School and the Sorbonne in Paris and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in art history; her mother often took her to fashion shows in Paris. As a youngster she trained as a figure skater and competed at the 1968 United States Figure Skating Championships. She was a senior fashion editor at Vogue, then worked for Ralph Lauren as a design director for two years, and in 1990 opened her own design salon in the Carlyle Hotel in New York, featuring her trademark bridal gowns.
Vera Wang (Chinese: 王薇薇; Hanyu Pinyin: Wng Wēiwei; born June 27, 1949) is a fashion designer based in New York, NY, USA. She is known for her wedding gown collection among other specialties. She is a Chinese American raised in an affluent family and attended the The Chapin School, which both her daughters currently attend, and the Sorbonne in Paris. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in art history. Her mother often took her to fashion shows in Paris. Her father started and owned a chemical company. Her paternal grandfather was a military general in China. Her maternal grandfather was a warlord in China. As a youngster, Wang trained as a figure skater, and competed at the 1968 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. When she failed to make the US Olympic team, she turned to her other passion, fashion.
She was a senior fashion editor for Vogue magazine. She worked for Ralph Lauren as a design director for two years. In 1990, she opened her own design salon in Carlyle Hotel in New York which featured her trademark bridal gowns. She has designed costumes for figure skaters (including Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan) and has made wedding gowns for Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson,Victoria Beckham and Sharon Stone, among others. She has expanded her brand name though her own fragrance, jewelry, shoe and houseware collection. She also penned the book Vera Wang on Weddings which was released by Harper Collins in October, 2001. In June 2005, she won the CFDA (Council of the Fashion Designers of America) women's wear designer of the year.
She currently lives in New York City with her husband, Arthur Becker, the CEO of a company called Navisite. They have two adopted children, Josephine, born in 1993 and Cecilia, born in 1990.
Vera Wang Discussion Group
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Designer Definition (from U.S Department of Labor)
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Wang's first ambition was not fashion but skating. Raised in an affluent New York family — her father owned a chemical company — she was educated at the Chapin School and the Sorbonne in Paris, graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a degree in art history, and grew up being taken by her mother to fashion shows in Paris. Alongside that polished education she trained seriously as a figure skater and competed at the 1968 United States Figure Skating Championships. When she failed to make the United States Olympic team, she turned to her other passion, fashion. The sequence produced an unusually prepared designer. Skating at championship level teaches what couture requires: discipline, precision, an understanding of how a body moves and how costume must move with it — knowledge she later used directly, designing costumes for figure skaters including Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan, dressing the sport she had left for the career it led her to.
Her fashion apprenticeship ran through its two best American schools. She was a senior fashion editor for Vogue magazine, where an editor learns how clothes are judged, styled and presented to the women who buy them. She then worked for Ralph Lauren as a design director for two years, inside the company that had turned American classic style into a complete branded world. In 1990 she opened her own design salon in the Carlyle Hotel in New York, featuring her trademark bridal gowns. The location was a statement: a salon in a grand hotel, not a shop, selling the most ceremonial garment a woman buys. Bridal was then an underserved, conservative corner of fashion, dominated by tradition; Wang treated the wedding gown as fashion — designed with the same seriousness as a couture dress — and made wedding gowns for Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Victoria Beckham and Sharon Stone, among others. Celebrity brides were the perfect advertisement, because a wedding photograph is republished for decades.
From the bridal salon the name expanded in every direction a luxury brand can go: her own fragrance, jewelry, shoe and houseware collections. That expansion makes sense for a wedding designer in particular. A bride encounters a designer's name at the moment she is furnishing a whole new household and wardrobe, so the path from gown to jewelry, shoes and housewares follows the customer's own life rather than a marketing plan. She also wrote Vera Wang on Weddings, released by Harper Collins in October 2001, fixing her authority in print as the expert on the occasion she dressed. In June 2005 she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America women's wear designer of the year award — significant because it honoured her as a womenswear designer generally, not only as a bridal specialist: the industry confirming that the salon in the Carlyle had produced a designer of the first rank across fashion, who happened to have built her house on the wedding dress. She lives in New York with her husband Arthur Becker and their two adopted daughters, Josephine and Cecilia — the Chapin School her daughters attend being the same school she attended herself, one of the neat symmetries in a career that repeatedly turned her own life — skating, weddings, New York — into her subject.
After failing to make the United States Olympic figure skating team, Wang turned to her other passion, fashion. She became a senior fashion editor for Vogue magazine and then worked for Ralph Lauren as a design director for two years.
In 1990 she opened her own design salon in the Carlyle Hotel in New York, which featured her trademark bridal gowns. She has since made wedding gowns for Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Victoria Beckham and Sharon Stone, among others.
In June 2005 Wang won the Council of Fashion Designers of America women's wear designer of the year award. She had also written Vera Wang on Weddings, published by Harper Collins in October 2001.