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 a while. 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 and flou as 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.