Fashion Icons – Fern Mallis and Vera Wang

Few people in fashion achieved greatness like Fern Mallis and Vera Wang. During her 20 year tenure as the Executive Director at the Council of Fashion Designers of America and a Senior Executive at IMG, Mallis is largely credited as putting New York Fashion Week on the map and on par with Milan and Paris fashion weeks, changing it from 7th on 6th, to what it is today. If there was a person that embodied the Wikipedia of fashion it would be Fern Mallis. To offer a glimpse as an insider into the glamorous world of fashion, Mallis hosts the prestigious series, Conversations with Fern Mallis, at the 92Y. Off the heels of fashion week, Mallis catches up with Vera Wang, both born & bred New Yorkers, for an intimate view of this fashion icon’s upbringing in NYC to her career beginnings and rise to become a $1 billion brand.

Vera Wang grew up with a privileged background on New York’s Upper East Side. Her father was a wealthy pharma executive and her mother was a descendant of a Chinese warlord. She attended Chapin and trained as an Olympic figure skater. Though a bad accident precluded her from participating in the 1968 Grenoble Olympics she turned to fashion and moved to Paris when she was 19.

Mallis: Were you competitive? What did you do next?

Wang: I was competitive not with other people but with myself as the bar. You can’t control how people conceive you, but you can judge your own performance. Very few people find their dream early. I knew at 6 and then quit at 19. I decided to move to Paris with my boyfriend who was in the Olympics.

Mallis: One of Wang’s first jobs was styling the windows at YSL over a summer while studying at Columbia and it was there that she met Francis Patiky Stein, who offered her a job at Vogue when she graduated, and she stayed there for 15 years.

Wang: When I looked at Vogue, I don’t even know where my youth days went. I was happy there.

Mallis: While at Vogue you managed to go to studio 54?

Wang: I couldn’t get a boyfriend but could go to a nightclub.

Mallis: Where did you work afterwards? What was it like?

Wang: I went to work for Ralph Lauren. I was having a hard time after I left Vogue. I didn’t have much of a personal life. I didn’t want to travel every single week for a photo shoot. It was like fashion heaven, anything you wanted, fabric, technique, component, jewelry, magically appeared and that never happened to me in my company. If Ralph believed in you, he gave support. Ralph didn’t want me to become a fashion nun so he told me to go out and get married!

Mallis: How did you meet your husband?

Wang: I met Arthur Becker at a tennis match. He was making movies in California. His best friend’s wife worked at Harpers Bazaar. We were like ‘When Harry met Sally’. We became friends first and were dating off and on. He didn’t like fashion. He worked at Bear Stearns.

When he proposed to me in Hawaii, I was crying because he said there would be no ring for 3 years but I did get married by 39. I can only be motivated by loving someone, being connected with people I live with and we have to grow together and not be judgmental.

Mallis: What was it like searching for your wedding dress?

Wang: I had 7 dresses made. I got a little overexcited. It’s Chinese tradition. You wear a red dress, pink one, then you change into a dance dress. We wanted 30 people. Then Arthur wanted 150. It ended up being 450. The main dress was very classical. It was lace with long sleeves, tiny gold beads, drop waist, flowers, very full skirt. He didn’t want me to look like a fashion freak. David LaChapelle took all my wedding photos. What a departure for him.

Mallis: Then you started a business.

Wang: My dad said it seemed like a good business, keep it small, overhead low, it’s custom made with only 5 fabrics. The downside is that you rarely get a repeat customer. You have to be a corset maker and have to fit every girl. It’s very challenging to mass produce. They are one of a kind in construction.

There have also been massively challenging issues. There were a couple big wars and there were difficult times, like 9-11, and the financial meltdown.

My husband was really annoyed by the business and not a part of it. He was at Bear and started up his own internet business, and he traveled a good deal.

Mallis: Do your daughters want to work in fashion?

Wang: We adopted 2 girls, 22 & 19, both have not found their grail. What’s great about that is that so much more is available. There’s such a wide world to choose from with opportunities that weren’t available for me.

Mallis: Describe the challenge of designing a dress for a high profile client.

Wang: When I design ready to wear, I try to channel myself. Women designers have a special relationship. You can’t help but bring yourself into it. That will affect your work and how you feel about other women. It’s really channeling your own creativity. When you dress for the Oscars or for a wedding, it’s 100% about the client. For Oscars, I’ve always collaborated with the star. It depends on if she’s a nominee or a presenter or performing. It’s a different process for each one.

Mallis: Which was your favorite celebrity wedding?

Wang: Each is so different. On the same day, Alicia Keys was married in St. Tropez 5 hours before Chelsea Clinton. I was in Rhinebeck and I was thinking about Alicia when I was getting up. One dress was for a President’s daughter and one for an incredible artist. One was pomp and circumstance and another was about an artist who was pregnant and wanted to be barefoot on the beach. It was crazy but I was happy for both. I called Alicia but I was with Chelsea.

Mallis: How did it feel to win the CFDA award in 2005?

Wang: It felt like the Oscars. My speech was embarrassing. I never thought I’d win. I was sitting there and Anna had asked me to bring my daughters who weren’t there. I told her I didn’t bring them because what if I didn’t win. They were going to cry and she said to me ‘I don’t sit with losers,’ you should bring your daughters. Anna was trying to give me a lift, after working for 30yrs in the business. That was my moment and she sent for my children to come in.

See more from her interview with Fern Mallis

Mallis: How involved are you with your licenses?

Wang: I’ve been very involved, what is frustrating is that you have to come up to speed in each license quickly. The more licensing you take on, the more responsibility you take. We just opened 14 stores and I don’t think quick expansion is necessarily positive. I do get very worried about it.
I made a deal with Kohl’s, Simply Vera & Princess Vera. It’s an incredible support team. Kohl’s cares about me as a partner. It’s a great business. I can bring my attitude of liking things layered and more comfortable. It’s really a lifestyle brand. The clothing has to be washable and it’s a privilege to dress women across America. People are ready to embrace a designer’s uniqueness without breaking the bank.

Mallis: Any categories left you want to conquer?

Wang: Because I was an athlete, I want to do athletic clothes. Women have such a natural desire to be comfortable. I think it’s joyous to walk around in athletic clothes if you can. And in my NY apartment, my parent’s home, the ancestral home, I have one room dedicated to over 1000 t-shirts all in black grey, and navy.

Mallis: Vera Wang is almost a billion dollar business. How do you keep on top of it?

Wang: I used to love tennis and golf. I don’t get to travel much, California mainly for award shows. Every month there are deliveries to Kohl’s, and ready to wear is 4 collections/year. With all of the licensing, you have to be in your office and available.

Mallis: What’s next?

Wang: Our big push is into all of Asia. I placed 10 pages of ads with Asian models in Vogue China. It wasn’t so easy to find them before, but in the last decade Asian models can be found much more easily.

Mallis: Who do you admire?

Wang: I respect everyone who has courage to makes sacrifices from loved ones and parents, and put yourself up for criticism ridicule. It’s not an even playing field. I have a lot of respect for fellow designers like Junya Watanabe, Rei Kawakubo, Jil Sander is still a great talent, Rick Owens, Marni, Donna Karan, and Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy. I love all my designer friends, some of them are my really good friends.

Mallis: You tend to wear other designers.

Wang: I get bored by the time I’ve sketched it, made the patterns. It’s a woman designing for another woman and by the time you lived with it for so long and shown it, reproduced it and shipped it you want to wear something else.

Mallis: Would you ever do Dancing with the Stars?

Wang: I’d have to give up my day job, and there are the time constraints. I can’t live in LA. I’d love to if I was retired, and I have to be in Asia for the next few years.

Mallis: Do you have a mantra that keeps you focused?

Wang: None. I try every day not to get hysterical and to prioritize. I gave up on perfection long ago. When you become a mom, I just gave up pursuing perfection. I can’t live like Calvin Klein who lives in perfection. I live in chaos. I don’t know anything else.

Mallis: Any special advice for up & coming designers?

Wang: I would work for someone you admire, get a job and get someone to pay you to train you. What you learn is invaluable. If you’re lucky enough to get a job with a design house, just think of the privilege you have from leaning from the great. Later on, if you have the proper financing and resonate with other clients then it’s ok to launch on your own. If not, the next best thing is to work for a design house. I think it’s quite perfect really.

Photo credit to Joyce Culver for 92Y