So I was reading through the financial press
from late 2024, specifically the documents regarding
a massive acquisition deal in December. And it
struck me that we have this very specific, very
polished idea of who Vera Wang is. You say the
name Vera Wang and I immediately think pristine
silence, layers of tulle, the Plaza Hotel, maybe
a bride crying happy tears in a $20 ,000 dress.
Right. It is very soft. It is the fairy tale
industrial complex. It is the ultimate soft power.
That name is synonymous with the happiest day
of your life. Yeah. But if you stop there, you
are missing the actual story. Right. Because
when you look at the actual human being behind
the label and you dig into the sources we have
today, the biographical records, the business
archives and the details of this 2024 sale, the
story isn't about fairy tales at all. Not even
close. It is a story about a woman who is essentially
a gladiator. A gladiator in six inch heels. Seriously.
We are talking about an Olympic level athlete
who failed publicly and was absolutely crushed
by it. We are talking about someone who entered
the cutthroat world of fashion design at age
40, which is practically. geriatric in an industry
obsessed with youth and then proceeded to dominate
the market for three decades. And not just dominate
it, but fundamentally change how the money works
in high fashion. The deep dive today isn't really
about wedding dresses. No. I mean, we will talk
about the dresses, obviously. Yeah. But this
is really a case study on resilience, the brutal
economics of luxury. and perhaps the smartest,
weirdest career pivot in American business history.
And we have a lot to get through. We have the
skating records from 1968, the Vogue archives
where she spent nearly two decades, and the financial
breakdowns of how she managed to sell high -end
couture and Kohl's t -shirts at the same time
without destroying her brand. It's an incredible
tightrope walk. But before we get to the billions,
we have to start on the ice. We have to. Because
you cannot understand the businesswoman without
understanding the athlete. I want to hover on
the skating years for a minute because I think
people hear figure skater in a celebrity bio
and they think of a hobby. Oh, yeah. Like it
was a fun little after school activity. They
think, oh, she took lessons at the local mall
on Saturdays. No, no. This was not recreational.
This was get up at 4 a .m., skate until school,
go back to the rink, do homework in the car,
intensity. This was a full time job for a child.
The sources are pretty clear about this. She
started at eight years old, which is a common
age for this level of session to start. It has
to start that young. Your body is still pliable.
You don't have the same fear an adult does. And
she wasn't just at some local club. We are looking
at sources that place her training in Denver
during the summers. It's a big deal. It's a huge
deal. Now, keep in mind, she's a New York City
girl. She grew up on the Upper East Side, but
she's shipping out to Denver. away from home,
to train with top coaches like Peter Dunfield
and Sonja Klopfer. And these aren't just any
coaches. These are legends in the skating world.
This is like a young musician going to Julliard
for the summer. It's the highest level of training
you can get. She was all in. And she wasn't just
doing solo loops, right? She was a pair skater.
Which is a crucial distinction. Yeah. It's so
much more dangerous. It's so much more technically
demanding. She skated with a partner named James
Stewart. What does that add to the equation psychologically?
Well, if you know anything about physics and
skating, pairs is incredibly dangerous. You are
being thrown in the air. You are doing death
spirals. You are spinning in close proximity
with blades attached to your feet. Literally
blades. Sharp metal blades. It requires a level
of trust and precision that goes way beyond just
skating around. You have to be in total sync
with another human being. Your life is quite
literally. in their hands on some of these moves.
So she's learning discipline, she's learning
artistry, but she's also learning this intense,
high stakes collaboration. Exactly. And that's
a business skill, right? Trusting a partner.
Absolutely. And they were good. They weren't
just participating. They were competing at the
national level. They made it to the 1968 U .S.
Figure Skating Championships. Which is the top
tier. That is the funnel for the Olympics. That's
the competition when the Olympic team gets selected.
This is the moment she had been training for
since she was eight years old. And we actually
found this incredible little nugget in the archives
in the January 9, 1968 issue of Sports Illustrated.
There she is. Vera Wang featured in Faces in
the Crowd. It's amazing. Little black and white
photo. That is wild to me. Imagine flipping through
a sports magazine in 1968. You're looking for
football scores or boxing stats, and you see
the future queen of bridal fashion, but she's
wearing skates, not a gown. And the caption implies
her trajectory is set. It positions her as a
rising star, an athlete on the cusp of greatness.
She is aiming for the Grenoble Olympics. That
was the only goal. It was the singular focus
of her young life. She had dedicated her entire
childhood and adolescence to this one specific
moment, the 1968 Games. Everything was riding
on it. And then the crash. The source material
is a little blunt here. It just says she didn't
make the cut. Which sounds so simple. But the
emotional reality of that. I mean, in elite sports,
that is the cruelest part. There is no second
place prize for the Olympic team. You are either
on the plane or you are sitting at home. And
she was sitting at home. She was sitting at home.
She described it later in interviews as being
devastated. And I think we need to really pause
and empathize with that. Imagine being 19 years
old. You have given up your social life. You
have trained thousands of hours. You have pushed
your body to the limit. Your parents have invested
a fortune. And you are told, no, you aren't good
enough in a public forum. That breaks people.
That is the kind of trauma that sends people
into a tailspin for a decade. I mean, how many
stories have we heard of athletes who peak in
high school and then spend the rest of their
lives at the local bar talking about could have
been. That's the narrative for so many. Exactly.
Or they cling to it. They become a coach at the
local rink just to stay close to the glory, unable
to let go of the dream. Vera Wang did something
very specific, and I think this is the key to
her entire character. She went cold turkey. She
quit. She just walked away completely. She walked
away completely. She recognized with a kind of
surgical precision that that door was closed.
The Olympic dream was dead. So she turned around
and looks for a completely different door. But,
and this is the important part, she took the
work ethic of an Olympic -level athlete and applied
it to a completely different field. She didn't
lose the discipline. She just re -aimed it. She
traded the ice rink for the fashion closet. Precisely.
She has said in interviews that she still views
skating as multidimensional. And I think what
she means is that the discipline, the artistic
expression, the performance aspect, the need
to be perfect under pressure, she just transferred
all that energy into clothes. So the failure
wasn't a waste. It was a training ground. It
was the most important training ground of her
life. But it wasn't an overnight switch where
she suddenly became a famous designer. This is
the other myth we need to bust. There was a long,
long apprenticeship. Yeah, let's talk about that,
because sometimes when we tell these successful
founder stories, it sounds like she failed at
skating. So the next day she opened a shop and
became a billionaire. The highlight reel version.
Right. But there was a 20 year gap there. A 20
year education. And it started with her background.
We should mention she came from a family that
valued education and had the means to support
it. Her father. Chengqing Wang was an MIT graduate
and a tycoon in the oil and pharmaceutical industries.
So serious money, serious intellect. Yes. And
her mother, Florence Wu, was a translator for
the United Nations. So you have this combination
of business acumen from her father and this global
diplomatic cultural fluency from her mother.
So she grew up in a world of high intellect and
high society. Absolutely. The records show she
was a debutante. presented at the International
Debutante Ball in 1968 at the Waldorf Astoria,
that is, serious old -school New York society.
She went to the Chapin School, one of the most
exclusive all -girls schools in the city. Then
Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied art
history and even spent time at the University
of Paris. Okay, so that's a key detail, art history.
She wasn't studying fashion design. No, she was
studying composition, color theory, art movements,
history. She was training her eye, not her sewing
skills. So she had this incredibly refined aesthetic
education. She's studying art history. She's
living in Paris. She's coming from this diplomatic,
wealthy background. And immediately upon graduation
from Sarah Lawrence, she gets hired at Vogue.
And not just hired. She became the youngest editor
at Vogue. Let's unpack that. Youngest editor.
What does that even mean in that era? It means
she was a prodigy. The magazine world then was
very hierarchical. You started as an assistant's
assistant and worked your way up for years. To
be made an editor that young meant she had an
incredible eye and an even more incredible work
ethic. Okay, so we have to do the math here.
She starts at Vogue right out of college. She
stays there for 17 years. 17 years. Let that
sink in. That is a lifetime. In today's job market,
staying somewhere for three years feels like
an eternity. 17 years is a career. A full, complete
career. It really is. And think about what that
job entails. Being an editor at Vogue, especially
in the 70s and 80s under Grace Mirabella, wasn't
just about picking nice clothes. She was a sittings
editor. Break that down for us. What does a sittings
editor actually do? So a sittings editor is the
one on set. She's the one styling the shoot.
She is working with the greatest photographers
in history, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Helmut
Newton. She is selecting the clothes, putting
them on the model, and crafting the entire visual
narrative of the photograph. So she's not just
observing fashion, she's creating the images
that define fashion for millions of people. She
is responsible for the image. This means she
is spending 17 years training her eye to see
imperfection, a crease that's out of place, a
hem that's a millimeter too long. a color that's
slightly off under the lights. It's like a residency
for a surgeon, but for aesthetics. Exactly. It's
thousands and thousands of hours of intense visual
training. She is learning fabric. She's learning
drape. She is learning lighting. She is learning
how a millimeter of difference in a hemline changes
the entire silhouette. But more importantly,
she is learning the commercial side. She is seeing
what covers sell on the newsstand and which ones
flop. She is getting a master class in consumer
psychology. She's learning what women aspire
to be, what images make them dream. And she's
building a contact list that is, you know, basically
a who's who of the entire fashion industry. And
she was ambitious. She wanted the top job. She
wanted to be the editor in chief. She had put
in the time. She had the skills. She had paid
her dues. But the timelines are a bit complex
here, but the gist is that she hit a ceiling.
The top job was promised to someone else. She
realized she wasn't going to get that top spot.
The history books tell us that spot eventually
went to Anna Wintour. Correct. So there's this
moment of succession, and Vera isn't the chosen
one. And once again, Vera is facing a failure.
Just like on the ice. Exactly. The same pattern.
She dedicated herself. She climbed to the very
top. She's right at the finish line, and the
door slams shut. She maxed out. She couldn't
go any higher at Vogue. So at age 38, 39, she
leaves. And this is the part that blows my mind.
She doesn't start her company then. She goes
to work for Ralph Lauren. Why? She has 17 years
at Vogue. She knows everyone. Why not just launch
Vera Wang right then? Because she knew she wasn't
ready. Yeah. And that is such a humble, brilliant
move. She had the humility to recognize what
she didn't know. Which was what? She knew she
had the eye from Vogue, but she didn't know the
business. And nobody, and I mean nobody, knows
the business of lifestyle branding better than
Ralph Lauren. Ralph Lauren isn't just selling
shirts. He's selling a dream. He's selling the
American aristocracy. He's selling the Hamptons,
the polo ponies, the old money aesthetic. He
built an entire universe. Vera Wang spent two
years there as a design director for accessories.
So she's inside the machine. What is she learning
there? She's learning about production, sourcing,
licensing, marketing. How do you take a single
idea, this sort of waspy elegance, and translate
it into a dozen different product categories?
Perfume, sunglasses, home goods, paint. She was
watching how a massive commercial machine worked
from the inside. She was seeing how you take
a feeling and turn it into a product line that
sells in department stores across the country.
So Vogue was her creative education, and Ralph
Lauren was her MBA. a two -year real -world MBA
from the master. So by the time she resigns to
start her own thing, she's 40 years old. She
has 17 years of editorial experience and two
years of high -stakes corporate design experience.
She had contacts, she had taste, and she understood
the market. When people ask how did she succeed
so quickly when she finally launched, the answer
is she didn't succeed quickly. She spent two
decades preparing. That is such a powerful reframing.
We love the overnight success story, but the
20 -year apprenticeship story is honestly much
more reassuring. It makes the success feel earned,
not just lucky. It's all about the prep work.
So she's 40. She strikes out on her own. It's
1990. She opens her first design salon at the
Carlisle Hotel in New York. Why bridal? Where
did that idea come from? The story goes that
she was getting married herself around that time
and was just appalled by the options. It was
a gap in the market that she personally experienced.
What was bridal like in 1990? It was very, let's
say, traditional. Think big puffy sleeves, lots
of lace, sequins, a bit stuck in the 80s princess
fantasy. It wasn't fashion. It was a costume
you wore once. It was almost disconnected from
what was happening on the runways of Paris or
Milan. Totally disconnected. It was its own weird
little industry. It was a uniform. So what does
she do differently? Vera Wang brought a fashion
editor's eye to the wedding dress. She made it
chic. She made it modern. She used sophisticated
fabrics and techniques from couture evening wear.
She stripped away the excess and focused on the
silhouette, the drape, the architecture of the
dress. She treated the bride like a woman who
loves fashion, not just a prop in a wedding ceremony.
Exactly. She gave him options that were elegant,
a little bit sexy, modern. It was a revolution,
and she made it a celebrity essential. Right.
We have to talk about the list because looking
at the source material, the list of people she
has dressed is basically a directory of famous
women from the last 30 years. It is staggering.
Yeah. And what strikes me is the variety. It's
not just one type of celebrity. This is key to
her strategy. OK, let's break it down. You have
the political royalty. She dressed Chelsea Clinton.
She dressed Corena Gore. Daughters of the president
and vice president. That's a huge stamp of approval.
And then on the other side of the aisle, she
dressed Ivanka Trump. Right. So she's bipartisan.
She's dressing the daughters of the powerful
regardless of party. That signals establishment.
That signals class. That tells the wealthy mothers
on the Upper East Side, this is safe. This is
appropriate. It's the ultimate status symbol.
But then... Look at the pop stars. Totally different
world. Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys. Avril Lavigne.
Avril Lavigne. The punk pop princess. And even
the Spice Girls' Victoria Beckham wore Vera for
her wedding to David Beckham, which was basically
a royal wedding for pop culture. That's a completely
different vibe. That's rock and roll. That's
diva. That's edge. It's not the same message
as dressing a first daughter. Not at all. And
then you have the Hollywood A -listers. Sarah
Michelle Gellar at the height of her Buffy fame.
Hilary Duff. Vanessa Hudgens. The young Hollywood
set. And we can't forget the reality TV era.
This is where it gets really interesting. She
dressed Kim Kardashian and Khloe Kardashian.
For their weddings, which were massive media
events. And this is a huge pivot in itself. A
lot of high fashion designers at that time turned
their noses up at reality stars. We saw it as
cheapening their brand. They didn't want to be
associated with that world. They thought it was
tacky. Vera Wang didn't. She understood that
these women were the new icons of influence.
She saw the future. It's genius. If you are a
conservative bride from an old money family,
you see Chelsea Clinton and think, Vera Wang
is classy. If you are a trendy bride who follows
pop culture, you see Kim Kardashian and think,
Vera Wang is hot. She managed to be everything
to everyone. And that celebrity dressing extended
to the red carpet, too. She wasn't just doing
weddings. She proved she was a major fashion
force, period. She dressed Michelle Obama. A
first lady? A sitting first lady. That's another
level of validation. And then she had these huge
Oscar moments, like dressing Viola Davis in that
stunning emerald green gown in 2012. Or Sofia
Vergara at the Emmys. She proved she could do
color. She could do evening wear. She could do
serious fashion. But here is where it gets really
interesting for me from a business perspective.
Because usually when a luxury brand gets this
big, when it's dressing first ladies and movie
stars, they guard that exclusivity with their
lives. Oh, absolutely. They don't want normal
people wearing their stuff because they think
it dilutes the brand. That is the standard luxury
playbook. Scarcity creates value. If everyone
can have it, nobody wants it. You want the consumer
to feel like they are part of a special club?
the velvet rope effect vera wang took that playbook
and threw it out the window she lit it on fire
she mastered the art of what we call mastige
mass prestige mass prestige explain that she
figured out how to sell the dream of vera wang
to people who could never afford a ten thousand
dollar custom gown she built an on -ramp to her
brand let's look at the deals because they are
massive first David's Bridal. This was a game
changer. In 2011, she launches White by Vera
Wang at David's Bridal. Now, for people who don't
know, David's Bridal is a huge national chain.
It's accessible. It's affordable. It's where
most of America buys their wedding dresses. Exactly.
And now, suddenly, you can get a Vera Wang design
gown for $600 to $1 ,400. That is a fraction
of the cost of her couture line. But did it hurt
her couture sales? Didn't the millionaire client
say, wait, my dress is from the same designer
who sells at David's Bridal? That was the fear.
That was what everyone in the industry predicted
would happen. But it didn't. Not at all. Why
not? Because she was smart about it. The white
line had her design DNA. The clean lines. The
elegant fabrics. But it's clearly a different
product. The couture product was still handmade
in her New York at -the -day with the finest
materials. The David's Bridal line was produced
at scale. The customer for the $15 ,000 dress
knew they were getting something different than
the customer for the $1 ,000 dress. So she created
a firewall between the two. A clear firewall.
And what the deal did was make Vera Wang a household
name in every suburb in America. It meant that
a bride in Kansas with a modest budget could
still say, I'm wearing Vera. It democratized
the name without cheapening the core product.
And she didn't stop there. The next move was
even bolder. She went to Kohl's. Kohl's? I mean,
no offense to Kohl's, but it's a department store
chain known for discounts and practical family
clothes. It's not the Carlisle Hotel. Not by
a long shot. When I saw Simply Vera launched
at Kohl's in 2006, I remember thinking, wait,
isn't she the lady who makes dresses for Sharon
Stone? What is she doing next to the toaster
ovens? It was considered heresy by the fashion
elite. They were horrified. In the fashion industry,
exclusivity is the currency. You do not want
your logo in the discount bin. It's supposed
to be terrifying for a luxury brand. So why did
she do it? Was she desperate for cash? No, she
was visionary. She understood something that
most of her peers didn't. The woman buying the
$10 ,000 wedding dress and the woman buying the
$40 cardigan at Kohl's. Sometimes that is the
same woman. Or at least they aspire to the same
aesthetic. Exactly. The wealthy woman buying
couture still needs a black t -shirt. And the
woman on a budget still wants to feel elegant
and sophisticated. She gave them an entry point.
It's creating a brand ladder. A perfect way to
put it. She gave women a piece of that high fashion
magic. Maybe just a cardigan or a pair of sunglasses
or a set of bed sheets at a price they could
justify on a Tuesday afternoon. And from a business
standpoint, the volume at Kohl's is astronomical.
The math is staggering. You sell one couture
dress for $10 ,000 or you sell a million t -shirts
for $20. The t -shirts win every time. That licensing
revenue, the money coming in from Kohl's, from
David's Bridal, from the mattresses and the eyewear
and the fragrances, that cash flow is what allowed
her to keep the couture business independent
for so long. The $40 cardigans subsidized the
art. It's the Medici model, but instead of a
bank, it's a department store funding the art.
It's brilliant. And she even hit the menswear
market. She partnered with Men's Warehouse in
2012 for tuxedo rentals. So now the groom is
wearing Vera, too. She built a lifestyle empire.
fragrance, jewelry, eyewear, china, crystal.
You could eat off Vera Wang plates, wear Vera
Wang glasses, spray Vera Wang perfume, and sleep
on Vera Wang sheets. It sounds exhausting, honestly.
Managing all those partnerships, keeping the
quality control, making sure the kohl sweater
doesn't look too cheap, while making sure the
couture dress looks expensive enough. It is incredibly
difficult, and she's been open about that. There
was this interview she did with CBS in 2013 where
she actually described the transition from journalist
to businesswoman as painful. Painful. That's
a strong word for someone who is making millions.
What did she mean by that? She talked about the
loss of innocence. When you were just starting.
Or when you are a creative, you feel free. You
just want to make beautiful things. You're thinking
about art. But as you grow, you realize the weight
of your decisions. She had this great quote about
the difference between micro and macro work.
Oh, I remember this. She said she makes decisions
that are micro, like a centimeter of proportion
on a dress, and decisions that are macro, which
impact the lives of her employees. That is the
burden of the founder. You have to care about
the hemline. Because that's the product, that's
the art. But you also have to care about the
supply chain, the HR policies, the retail contracts.
Because if you mess those up, people lose their
jobs. Families are affected. It's a massive mental
load. The artist versus the CEO. And she had
to be both for over 30 years. And clearly she
carried it well. By 2018, Forbes ranked her 34th
on the list of America's richest self -made women.
They cited her revenue at $630 million that year.
From zero to $630 million, starting at age 40.
It is just an incredible trajectory. But even
with all this business success, all the red carpets
and the polls cash, she never really let go of
that first love, did she? No. The ice kept calling
her back. It really did. And I find this part
of her story so poetic. It's the ultimate full
circle moment. She couldn't go to the Olympics
as an athlete. That door was closed. So she found
a way to go to the Olympics anyway. By dressing
the champions. Exactly. If you follow figure
skating, you know that the costume is a huge
part of the performance. It has to look beautiful,
yes. It has to catch the light. It has to tell
a story. But it also has to be high -performance
athletic gear. Right. It can't just be pretty.
It has to stretch. It has to breathe. You can't
rip when you do a triple axel. It has to be aerodynamic.
It's a piece of engineering. Who better to understand
that than a former elite skater who is also a
world -class designer? She speaks both languages.
She knows where the seams will rub. She knows
how the skirt will move in a spin. She understands
the athlete's needs in a way that a pure fashion
designer never could. It's the perfect synthesis
of her two lives. We saw her designs on Nancy
Kerrigan in 1992 and 1994. The iconic looks.
The white dress at the 94 Olympics, the one with
the sheer black sleeves for the short program,
they defined an era of skating elegance. Then
Michelle Kwan in 1998 and 2002. Kwan was known
for her artistry, and Wang's costumes just elevated
that. They were breathtaking. Then she moves
to the man Evan Lysacek in 2010. He won the gold
medal in a Vera Wang costume that had this sort
of snake -like design on it. Yeah. Very dramatic.
And more recently, Nathan Chen in 2018 and 2022,
his looks were much more modern, more athletic,
like a cool t -shirt. Which shows her evolution.
She didn't just keep making the same frilly dresses.
She adapted to the sports -changing aesthetic.
She's been dressing Olympic skaters for 30 years.
And getting recognition for it. In 2009, she
was inducted into the U .S. Figure Skating Hall
of Fame. Not as a skater, but as a costume designer.
Can you imagine what that must have felt like?
That has to feel incredible. To stand in that
Hall of Fame, the place you wanted to be when
you were a devastated teenager, and arrive there
on your own terms in a completely different role,
having built an entire empire in the meantime.
It's validation. It proves that the failure back
in 1968 wasn't the end of the story. It was just
a plot twist. It was a thing that forced her
onto the path she was meant to be on. Speaking
of plot twists, let's fast forward to the more
recent years. Because it hasn't all been smooth
sailing. Even legends stumble. And sometimes
literally. You are talking about the Spring Summer
2020 show. Yeah. This was September 2019. It
was her big return to the runway after a two
-year hiatus. It was the 30th anniversary of
the brand. The anticipation was huge. And the
clothes. The clothes were actually reviewed very
well. The critics called them beautiful and seriously
designed. Bridget fully loved them. Gadridini
says she has a distinctive fashion DNA. So creatively,
she delivered. But nobody was talking about the
clothes the next day. They were talking about
the shoes. The shoes were a disaster, an absolute
catastrophe. They were these incredibly high
angled heels. They looked almost like stilts.
And on the runway, four different models fell
down. Four models. That is chaos. Yeah. It completely
derails the show. The focus shifts from the clothes
to the drama. Including Fei -Fei Sun, who is
a top pro. She's one of the best walkers in the
business. And she fell twice in a row. It was
a mess. It was painful to watch. And the press
can be brutal when that happens. It's seen as
a sign of disrespect to the models that the designer
prioritized a look over safety. Vanessa Friedman
from the New York Times didn't hold back. She
wrote, and this is a direct quote, in 2019, no
woman should be tortured by what she wears. Ouch.
That stings, especially for a designer who prides
herself on empowering women. It does. But I think
it's important to include this in the deep dive
because it shows that even at the top of your
game, after 30 years, you can make a mistake.
You can push an idea too far. The fashion industry
is high risk. A live runway show is a high wire
act. Sometimes you fall. But she bounced back,
of course. She always does. Which brings us to
the massive news that dropped in December 2024.
The sale. This is the capstone of the business
arc. After 35 years of independence, which is
rare in fashion, by the way, most brands get
bought up much earlier. Vera Wang sold her company.
Who bought it and what does that mean? A brand
management firm called WHP Global. They acquired
the intellectual property. The IP of the Vera
Wang brand. Okay, so unpack intellectual property.
Does that mean they own the name, the logos?
Exactly. They own the name Vera Wang. They control
the brand. So did she just cash out and retire
to a beach? That's what I was wondering. No,
and that's the interesting part of the deal.
The terms are very specific. She stays on as
the founder and chief creative officer, and she
becomes a shareholder in WHP Global. So she sold
the name, but she kept the job? She sold the
business infrastructure, the operational headaches,
but she kept the creative control. She's still
a visionary. It's a move to ensure the legacy
outlasts her. By bringing in a massive management
firm like WHP, which owns brands like Anne Klein
and Toys R Us, she ensures that Vera Wang, the
brand, can exist for 50, 100 years, just like
Chanel or Dior. They have the capital and the
global infrastructure to keep it going. It's
the ultimate move for immortality. She's ensuring
the name on the door stays there, even when she's
not the one walking through it anymore. And in
the meantime, she gets to keep doing the part
she loves, the design, without maybe having to
worry quite as much about the boring back -end
stuff like supply chains and retail leases. It
reminds me of what happened to Hauston or Donna
Karan, where they sold and then lost control
of their own names. They were eventually pushed
out. A classic tragic story in fashion. It seems
like Vera studied those failures and found a
better way. She always studies the failures.
That's her superpower, her own and others. She
saw how other designers lost their identities
after selling, and she structured a deal where
she stays in the driver's seat creatively. Let's
pivot a bit to her place in the culture, because
Vera Wang isn't just a business. She's a pop
culture character. She pops up everywhere. She
really does. She's a touchstone. A shorthand
for luxury and aspiration. If you watch the West
Wing, they reference her gowns as the pinnacle
of style. And sex in the city. Both the show
and the movie. Charlotte York's first wedding
dress had to be a Vera. When it gets ruined,
it's a huge plot point. Right. And in the movie,
Carrie Bradshaw models a Vera Wang gown for her
Vogue shoot. It's the ultimate fantasy. And she's
not afraid to play herself. She was in Gossip
Girl. She was in Ugly Betty. She was in the documentary,
The September Issue. She has a sense of humor
about her own icon status. She understands her
brand. She knows she's a character in the cultural
narrative. She even designed the uniforms for
the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders. Which is
just another example of that high -low range
we talked about. She can do the Oscars. She can
do the NFL sideline. And she can do a cold sweater.
It's all part of the same universe. Nothing is
off limits. We should touch briefly on the...
personal side just to round out the picture we
know she was married for a long time she married
arthur becker in 1989 right before she launched
her brand it was an interfaith ceremony baptist
and jewish they adopted two daughters cecilia
and josephine they were a new york power couple
for a long time but they separated in 2012 they
did but by all accounts it was amicable And they
continued to co -parent and even work together
on some business ventures. And there's one odd
little detail in the source material that I feel
like we have to mention just for accuracy, even
though it's a bit random. You mean the Epstein
connection? Yeah. It's in the records. It is.
In 2003, she contributed a greeting to a birthday
book for Jeffrey Epstein. She made a joke about
him appearing on The Bachelor. It's one of those.
Weird historical footnotes that shows up when
you dig into the social circles of New York's
elite in the early 2000s. Right. It doesn't seem
to be more than that, but it's a data point.
It shows everyone was in the same rooms at the
same parties. Exactly. It's just there in the
record. But moving back to her professional recognition.
She has been showered with awards. Rightfully
so. The CFDA, the Council of Fashion Designers
of America, gave her the Lifetime Achievement
Award in 2013. That's the highest honor in American
fashion. She received the National Medal of Arts
in 2021 from the president. She was on the BBC's
100 Women list. She is, by every metric, one
of the most successful American designers of
all time. So let's try to pull all this together.
We started this deep dive talking about a wedding
dress. A single, perfect white dress. But we've
uncovered so much more. We have. We have the
story of a heartbroken skater who learned how
to get back up. A diligent editor who worked
for 17 years before getting her big break. A
40 -year -old startup founder who wasn't afraid
to start late. And a savvy businesswoman who
figured out how to sell luxury to the masses
without destroying her brand's mystique. It's
the power of the second act. Or maybe the third
act or the fourth. I think that's the so what
here. Vera Wang represents the idea that your
first dream doesn't have to be your only dream.
Your first failure doesn't define you. You can
be devastated at 19 because you missed the Olympics
and you can still end up a billionaire icon.
The path isn't linear. And she proves that technical
expertise, whether it's the discipline of skating
or the eye of an art historian, can be monetized
in ways you never expect. Who knew that knowing
art history would help you sell tuxedos at men's
warehouse? But it did. It all connects. Everything
is material. Nothing is wasted. That's the lesson.
All those hours on the ice, all those years in
the Vogue closet. It all paid off. I want to
leave our listeners with a thought about that
2024 sale. We mentioned that she sold her IP
but kept her job. In an era where founders are
often the brand, think of Elon Musk or Martha
Stewart, where the person is inseparable from
the company, it raises a question. Can a brand
like Vera Wang truly exist without the woman
herself? Was the sale a savvy business move or
was it the first step in the brand losing its
soul? That is the billion -dollar question. Can
you separate the creator from the creation? Coco
Chanel has been gone for decades, but the brand
is stronger than ever. Can Vera achieve that?
Or was this sale the ultimate move to ensure
that the name becomes bigger than the person?
To finally achieve a kind of corporate immortality
that eluded her on the ice? I think she's betting
that it is. She's betting on the strength of
the name she built over 75 years. Yeah. She seems
to think you can. and she's betting her legacy
on it. A fascinating case study in reinvention.
Whether you are prepping for a wedding, training
for a sport, or just thinking about a career
change at 40, there is something in the Vera
Wang story for you. Absolutely. Never stop pivoting.
Thanks for diving deep with us today. Keep learning,
stay curious, and we will see you on the next
one.