Vera Wang

Vera Ellen Wang[1] (Chinese: 王薇薇; pinyin: Wáng Wēiwēi;[2] born June 27, 1949) is an American fashion designer based in New York City.

Vera Wang
Wang in 2007
Born
Vera Ellen Wang

(1949-06-27) June 27, 1949
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSarah Lawrence College
Label(s)
Vera Ellen Wang
Spouse(s)
Arthur Becker
​
(
m. 1989;
separated 
2012)
Children2
AwardsCFDA's womenswear designer of the year, 2005; André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award
Vera Wang Spring-Summer 2014 runway show at New York Fashion Week

Early life and education

Vera Ellen Wang was born and raised in New York City, and is of Chinese descent. Her parents were born in China and came to the United States in the mid-1940s. Her mother, Florence Wu (Wu Chifang), worked as a translator for the United Nations, while her father, Cheng Ching Wang (Wang Chengqing), a graduate of Yanjing University and MIT, owned a medicine company. Her maternal grandfather is Fengtian clique warlord Wu Junsheng, who was killed by the Empire of Japan in the Huanggutun incident in 1928.[3] Wang has one younger brother, Kenneth.

Wang attended Friends Seminary,[4] graduated from The Chapin School in 1967, attended the University of Paris, and earned a degree in art history from Sarah Lawrence College. Wang began figure skating at the age of eight.[5] While in high school, she trained with pairs partner James Stuart, and competed at the 1968 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. She was featured in Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd in the January 9, 1968, issue.[6] When she failed to make the U.S. Olympics team, she entered the fashion industry.[7] Wang continues to enjoy skating, saying, "Skating is multidimensional".[5]

In 1968, Wang was presented as a debutante to high society at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf Astoria New York.[8]

Career

Wang was hired to be an editor at Vogue immediately upon graduation from Sarah Lawrence College, making her the youngest editor at that magazine. She stayed at Vogue for 17 years, leaving in 1987 to join Ralph Lauren, for whom she worked for 2 years. At 40 she resigned and became an independent bridal wear designer.[9]

Wang has made wedding gowns for public figures such as Chelsea Clinton,[10] Karenna Gore,[11] Ivanka Trump,[10] Campbell Brown,[12] Alicia Keys,[10] Mariah Carey,[10] Victoria Beckham,[10] Sarah Michelle Gellar,[13] Avril Lavigne,[10] Hilary Duff,[10] Khloe Kardashian,[14] and Kim Kardashian.[15] Wang's evening wear has also been worn by Michelle Obama.[16][17]

She has designed costumes for figure skaters, including Nancy Kerrigan, Michelle Kwan, Evan Lysacek, and Nathan Chen. Kerrigan wore Wang for the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics, Kwan for the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, Lysacek for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and Chen for the 2018 Winter Olympics.[18] Wang was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2009 for her contribution to the sport as a costume designer.[19] She designed the uniforms worn by the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders.[20]

On October 23, 2001, her book, Vera Wang on Weddings[21], was released. In June 2005, she won the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Womenswear Designer of the Year. On May 27, 2006, Wang was awarded the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Wang's evening wear has been worn by stars at many red carpet events, including Viola Davis at the 2012 Academy Awards,[22] and Sofia Vergara at the 65th Emmy Awards.[23]

She was awarded the Council of Fashion Designers of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.[24][25]

In 2006, Wang reached a deal with Kohl's, a chain of department stores, to produce a less expensive line of ready-to-wear clothing exclusively for them called Simply Vera.[26]

Forbes placed her the 34th in the list America's Richest Self-Made Women 2018, her revenues rising to $630 million in that year.

On September 10, 2019, after a sabbatical of 2 years during which she had presented her collections only via films,[27] Vera Wang returned to the New York Fashion Week runway for her Spring/Summer 2020 fashion show, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of her brand.[28] The show got very positive reviews, Godfrey Deeny describing it as a "notable collection by one of the few New York designers with a truly distinctive fashion DNA",[29] while Bridget Foley presented Vera's creations as "Beautiful, seriously designed clothes, presented with gutsy panache".[30] However, the show was marred by several major footwear malfunctions,[31][32] especially during the finale when four models fell down,[33] including Fei Fei Sun, who fell twice in a row,[34] leading chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman to state that "In 2019, no woman should be tortured by what she wears".[31]

Retail

In 1990, she opened her own design salon in the Carlyle Hotel in New York City that features her trademark bridal gowns.[35] She has since opened bridal boutiques in New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney and has also expanded her brand through her fragrance,[36] jewelry, eyewear, shoes, and homeware collections.

"White by Vera Wang" launched on February 11, 2011, at David's Bridal. Prices of the bridal gowns range from $600 to $1,400.[37] In 2002, Wang began to enter the home fashion industry and launched The Vera Wang China and Crystal Collection,[38] followed by the 2007 release of her diffusion line called Simply Vera, which are sold exclusively by Kohl's.[35]

In spring 2012, Wang teamed up with Men's Wearhouse to offer two tuxedo styles available in both the retail and rental areas of their inventory.[39] In June 2012, she expanded in Australia with the opening of "Vera Wang Bride Sydney" and her first Asian flagship store "Vera Wang Bridal Korea", helmed by President Jung Mi-ri, in upmarket neighborhood Cheongdam-dong in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.[40]

In an interview with a CBS reporter, Wang said, "(It's) painful, and not only that, I have no choice. So I think when you start there's a certain innocence because of that freedom, and as you evolve you begin to see the parameters of what you can and can't do. So I make decisions that are very tiny that will affect an hour of work, I make decisions that will impact the lives of the people that work for me. It's in fashion as well, micro work, a centimeter of proportion and then it's macro to see what a vision is on the red carpet."[41]

Personal life

In 1989, she married Arthur Becker in an interfaith Baptist and Jewish ceremony.[42][43] They resided in Manhattan with their two adopted daughters,[43] Cecilia (born 1990) and Josephine (born 1993). Becker was the CEO of the information technology services company NaviSite until August 2010. In July 2012, Vera Wang Co. announced that the couple had separated. The separation was amicable.[44]

Vera Wang enjoys sports and exercise. She spends her day dealing with all the different lines of product she handles, from poring over china patterns to small leather goods at Kohl's. She usually does not take phone calls during the day.[45]

Several movies and television shows have mentioned Wang's works.

In the TV series Sex and the City, Charlotte York found Wang's wedding dress to be the perfect wedding dress and wore it for her wedding to Trey MacDougal.[46] Wang's design was mentioned in the NBC television show The West Wing in the episode "The Black Vera Wang". In ABC's Ugly Betty TV series, Vera Wang makes a cameo as herself, designing a dress for Wilhelmina Slater's wedding to Bradford Meade.

In the film Sex and the City, Vera Wang was among the bridal gowns Carrie Bradshaw wore in her Vogue photo shoot. In the film Bride Wars, Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson wore custom-made Vera Wang gowns.[47]

In the film Diary of a Mad, Black Woman, Madea rips a dress by Vera Wang, which surprises Brenda.

In the Totally Spies! episode "The Wedding Crasher", a villain named Wera Van (parody of Vera Wang), desires revenge on those who rejected her wedding dress designs.

Vera Wang also designed a wedding dress for Sarah Michelle Gellar's character Buffy Summers in the TV Series Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "The Prom".

In the TV series How to Get Away with Murder, the character Michaela Pratt mentioned a custom Vera Wang wedding gown when confronting her fiancé, Aiden Walker, about his sexuality.

In the political comedy First Daughter, Wang, playing herself, takes the president's daughter Samantha Mackenzie (Katie Holmes) and her friend Mia (Amerie) to try on wedding dresses. She is shown to have a close friendship with Mackenzie, cheek-kissing and grasping hands.

In the TV series Gossip Girl, Vera Wang is mentioned in multiple episodes and is one of Blair Waldorf's favorite designers.

Also in Revenge, Victoria Grayson, played by Madeleine Stowe, wears a steel gray Vera Wang mermaid gown in her second wedding with Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny). The dress was actually shown in black at Wang's Fall 2012 show.[48]

At the 2017 Super Bowl, Lady Gaga wore Vera Wang Spring/Summer 2017.

In the second-season episode of Supergirl, "Mr. & Mrs. Mxyzptlk", Mr. Mxyzptlk snaps his fingers and puts a wedding dress on Supergirl. When she protests that he "can't just put [her] in a wedding dress", he responds, "Why not? It's Vera Wang".

Similarly, in The Simpsons episode "My Big Fat Geek Wedding", Edna Krabappel walks out on her wedding to Seymour Skinner. Nelson Muntz refuses to egg her with a canola oil egg per Bart Simpson's request because the dress is a Vera Wang. He eggs Skinner with it instead.

She is mentioned in a film, The Accountant, as the character Dana Cummings describes her as the designer of a dress that she coveted for her senior prom.

She is interviewed in a movie, Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf's, which chronicles the history of the famous department store in Manhattan.

Filmography

Movies

Television

Books
  • Vera Wang, Vera Wang on Weddings, HarperCollins, October 2001 (ISBN 9780688162566).

See also

References
  1. "Vera Wang Wed To Arthur Becker". The New York Times. June 23, 1989. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
  2. Friedman, Vanessa (2014-09-15). "設計師王薇薇的房間，那裡什麼都沒有". The New York Times (in Chinese). Retrieved 2018-06-24.
  3. http://www.5011.net/news/50203.html Archived 2018-01-11 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Going Once, Going Twice" (April 13, 2015). New Yorker Magazine. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  5. Barsamian, Edward (December 20, 2011). "Vera on Ice". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  6. Sports Illustrated, December 15, 2006, p. 66
  7. Krohn, Katherine (2006). Vera Wang (A&E Biography). Twenty-First Century Books. p. 112. ISBN 0-8225-6612-5.
  8. "Vera Wang: Enduring Style". USA Today. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  9. "Vera Wang". Fashion Model Directory.
  10. "The 12 Most Stunning Vera Wang Brides". Vogue. 27 June 2014.
  11. "Gore's Eldest Daughter Weds New York Doctor In Washington". CNN. 12 July 1997.
  12. "NBC's Campbell Brown Gets Married". People. 2 April 2006.
  13. http://celebritybrideguide.com/sarah-michelle-gellar-freddie-prinze-jr-wedding/
  14. "Celebrities who wore Vera Wang on their wedding day". Hello!. 13 October 2013. p. 3.
  15. "Celebrities who wore Vera Wang on their wedding day". Hello!. 13 October 2013. p. 4.
  16. "Michelle Obama Dons Vera Wang". Elle Magazine. 5 December 2011. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012.
  17. "Photos: 10 Best Dressed: Week of December 12, 2011". Vogue. December 2011. Archived from the original on February 15, 2012.
  18. Frey, Kaitlyn (8 February 2018). "Vera Wang Reflects on More Than 20 Years of Designing Olympic Figure Skating Costumes". People. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  19. "Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek in battle at figure skating nationals". USA Today. 22 January 2009.
  20. "Highlights". Philadelphia Eagles. Archived from the original on 2018-04-19. Retrieved 2016-08-08.
  21. "Vera Wang On Weddings". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  22. "Oscars 2012: Stars arrive". BBC News. 27 February 2012. Image 3 of 16.
  23. "Sofía Vergara Talks Wedding Dress: It Has to Be Vera Wang". E! News. 2 October 2013.
  24. "Vera Wang honored for lifetime achievement". The Columbus Dispatch. 5 June 2013.
  25. cfda.com "Vera Wang", Council of Fashion Designers of America.
  26. "Vera Wang - Fashion Designer - Biography". biography.com. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  27. https://news.yahoo.com/vera-wang-returns-hippie-hair-214308733.html Article "Vera Wang returns, with hippie hair and couture lingerie" by Jocelyn Noveck
  28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkax-LFPxmQ Video of the complete show on YouTube
  29. https://in.fashionnetwork.com/news/Vera-wang-soars-yet-stumbles,1135695.html Article "Vera Wang soars yet stumbles" by Godfrey Deeny on fashionnetwork.com
  30. https://wwd.com/runway/spring-ready-to-wear-2020/new-york/vera-wang/review/ Vera Wang RTW Spring 2020, review by Bridget Foley
  31. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/style/proenza-schouler-gabriela-hearst-new-york-fashion-week.html "Vera Wang [...] threw in shoes so acutely angled and vertiginous that her models’ knees shook with the effort to remain upright. Two actually fell, and one limped down the runway with one shoe off and one on", review by Vanessa Friedman for The New York Times
  32. https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2020-ready-to-wear/vera-wang "But the complications of her improbably willowy silhouette proved overwhelming elsewhere, and two models took spills from their sky-high platforms", review by Nicole Phelps for vogue.com
  33. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq4j6kR0IWY Video on YouTube
  34. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6AJf1s9rKE Video on YouTube
  35. "Vera Wang – Designer Fashion Label Biography", New York Magazine. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
  36. "Vera Wang Fragrances". VeraWangFragrances.com. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  37. "White by Vera Wang launches at David's Bridal". David's Bridal. Archived from the original on 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  38. "Pink Collection by Audrey Hepburn". Archived from the original on 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2014-11-03.
  39. "Men's Wearhouse Partners with Vera Wang to Launch Black by Vera Wang". PR Newswire. PR Newswire. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
  40. Lee, Rachel (29 June 2012). "Vera Wang opens 1st Asia flagship in Seoul". Korea Times. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
  41. "Vera Wang talks bridal inspiration, how she applies fashion sense to wedding style". Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  42. "Vera Wang Wed To Arthur Becker", New York Times, June 23, 1989
  43. Todd, Anne M. (2007). Vera Wang. ISBN 9781438100388.
  44. "Vera Wang, Arthur Becker Separate After 23 Years Of Marriage". Huffington Post. July 11, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  45. "My List: Vera Wang in 24 Hours". Harper's BAZAAR. 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  46. Amy Sohn (2004-02-23). Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell. ISBN 9780743457309.
  47. "Bride Wars Wedding Style". Brides.
  48. "Revenge First Look: Victoria Grayson's Vera Wang Wedding Dress – InStyle.com". InStyle.com.
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