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Photography by Andrea Fazzari
Classic
CAROLINA Designer Carolina Herrera invites us into her New York atelier and shares the inspirations and aesthetic that have kept her at fashion’s forefront for 30 years. | By Susan Weissman
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With steely passion, Carolina Herrera tells me that the fashion world expected her to be on the scene only a year or two, maybe three at the most, after her debut. More than three decades later, she is fashion royalty, with women everywhere admiring her fashions, accomplishments and inimitable classic style. Underlying her chic countenance is the belief that style is less about what you wear and more about how you wear it. From her atelier in New York, she spoke with me about the attention her brand is getting of late, what it’s like to work with celebrities like Lady Gaga and Renée Zellweger, and the personal style that informs her elegant aesthetic.
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How did you get your start in fashion? I had a show in 1981, my first, in New York. It was at the Metropolitan Club, which was really beautiful. It was very glamorous, with everybody there—all the stores, important people and all the editors. At the beginning, I had mixed reviews. Some press people said that I was going to do it for one year, two years, and then I was going to get tired and not do anything else. But I am still here more than 30 years later. Did you have a mentor in the early days? One of the most important ones—Diana Vreeland. Diana was a great friend of my family and of me. And I went to her in the beginning when I decided I wanted to do something in fashion. My idea at first was to design fabrics. She was a very funny lady. She said, “Why would you want to do that? It’s so boring. Why don’t you make a collection and let’s see what happens?” How would you define the Carolina Herrera aesthetic? Carolina Herrera is classic but with a very important modern twist. I don’t like to follow trends. You lose your originality, your individuality. I think for a woman—or a man—it’s very important to have your own style. I am a great believer that women should look beautiful and should know exactly what suits them. What inspires your designs? It can be a beautiful painting, a walk in the street, looking at the people. It can be a conversation, a book that I’m reading, a little colour in a painting that I see and like. You have to have your imagination going all the time—and you have to be curious in order to discover. Colour plays an integral role in your designs. Can you tell us about that influence? Colour is very important in fashion. But black is the most important colour in the world, because it is always there. It’s quite attractive to have different colours, but you must know how to mix them—for example, when you go to a garden and you see many flowers and they all mix well. But it’s not so easy when you take a piece of fabric and you want to include a lot of colours. You have to be careful. Do you have a favourite colour? I like yellow because it is the colour of the sun, and I like sunny days and blue, blue skies. But I also love black. And for very important occasions I always find myself wearing white. Can you tell us a bit about your design process? What goes into the design of a collection? There is always a theme. The last spring collection was influenced by the Bauhaus movement. I had been in Berlin and saw the Bauhaus Museum. I was impressed by the linear qualities and the colours— the red. From there I was inspired to do all the prints and fabrics for the collection. It was quite wonderful that it all came together. I had another collection that I adored that was inspired by Lartigue when he was in the south of France photographing all those wonderful women. In my last collection, the print was inspired by Gaspar, my little poodle. It has been very successful and now Gaspar is famous.
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previous pages, left to right: Exquisite creations from the designer; Carolina Herrera. these pages, clockwise from top left: Images of some famous figures who wear Herrera’s fashions; Herrera at work; sketches and swatches; an Andy Warhol rendition of the designer.
How would you characterise the women who wear Carolina Herrera? There are so many different women who wear my designs, young and old. In the end, though, they have the same sense of style. They all want to be elegant, they want to be sophisticated, they want to be classic. It doesn’t matter what anyone’s age is because you can adapt a dress. I think the women who wear my dresses are very independent. They travel, they work, they have families, they do so many things. You mention that dresses can be adapted to suit any age. How? The same dress worn by a young woman is going to be worn in a very different way by an older woman. A younger woman will wear it with different accessories, different shoes, or she will cut it very short. You give it to somebody more mature and she will want to be more ladylike. Your personality more than your age influences the way you wear something. In the case of miniskirts, if you don’t have the legs or the age to wear them, simply wear something else that looks better on you. You have been working with a number of high-profile young women lately—you’ve dressed Renée Zellweger, Kristen Stewart, star of the Twilight movies, even Lady Gaga. What’s that like? Renée has actually been working with the house for about 10 years. She is fabulous because she has an innate sense of fashion. She knows exactly what looks good on her and she doesn’t use a stylist. So she comes to me and we discuss looks. The most exciting of all is Lady Gaga. She really is incredible. I did the dress she wore to the Grammy Nominations Concert. I did another for a charity event she attended. She’s like a chameleon. She changes dramatically for each event with her makeup, hair, etc. And then I recently did the wedding dress for the star of Twilight. That was a lot of fun. It’s easy to do a dress when a woman is so beautiful. You also have a wedding dress collection. What inspires that line? It’s more or less the same inspiration, but with weddings you can go a little bit further since it’s about romance, fantasy—a dream. It’s the most important day of a woman’s life, and she must wear something that she can move in and that makes her look beautiful. Can you give our readers one piece of advice about what a woman should do to look most beautiful on her wedding day? The bride must wear something that makes her feel confident. I say this since so often the bride comes with her mother, grandmother and aunt, and everyone has an opinion. Sometimes I feel the bride is forced to wear something the mother would really like to wear. I sometimes ask the bride to come alone to choose her wedding dress. What do you like to do in your spare time? I’m so normal. Like everyone else, I like to walk, I like to read, I like to listen to music. Sometimes when I am very tired I like to be alone to organise my ideas. You need that sometimes to recharge your batteries. Regarding travel—how do you look good on the road? You have to be efficient. You need to wear things that are appropriate to the occasion. You don’t go with high heels and tight clothing. You must be comfortable so you don’t get jet lag. You must be conscious that you are going to be sitting on a plane for many hours. One last question: How does a woman remain chic and timeless? Being true to your own style is important. As Coco Chanel said, “Fashion passes, style remains.” You must develop a style that goes with your personality. It has nothing to do with what you’re wearing, but the way you are wearing it. The way you project yourself has to do with the way you move, your taste in books, how that makes you different from others. 4MORE go to FourSeasonsMagazine.com/issueone2012 to see video from our visit to Carolina Herrera’s New York atelier. Susan Weissman is
editor of Four Seasons Magazine.
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