Amsale, Spring 2015
Carolina Herrera, Spring 2015
Amsale and Carolina Herrera use lace in a classic way.
Vera Wang designs tattered lace, and uses goth/vampire models to showcase them. There is a plethora of goth/vampire these days, which is probably what Wang is following, although goth seems a natural progression from her black wedding dresses.
Vera Wang, Spring 2015
That begs the question: Why? I think the answer is simple. It is Wang's lack of talent, and lack of skill. She changed from writing about fashion in Vogue for seventeen years to designing gowns where she found "Vogue was the best training ground any designer could have after." It is easier to design a tattered gown than one which is cut and shaped.
Amsale also came to fashion indirectly. She studied Political Science, but went to the Fashion Institute of Technology to study fashion after she designed her own wedding dress. She didn't have the presumption of thinking that just looking at wedding gowns would make her and expert designer.
Herrera grew up wearing high fashion. But, she too doesn't have the training. Her first designs were a test to see if she had the talent to pursue design. And she did, unlike Wang.
Although all three women had unconventional designing backgrounds, two - Amsale and Herrera - have the artistic talent for their work, and Wang doesn't.
"My bedroom is my sanctuary. It's like a refuge,
and it's where I do a fair amount of designing -
at least conceptually, if not literally."
From Business Insider: August 21, 2014
And there's Wang's work habits. Wang has advertised that she "designs" on her bed. It is no surprise what she comes up with.
Wang is not personally invested in marriage, and consequently in wedding dresses, as contradicory as that may sound. I think she went into wedding dress design as a marketing strategy. She divorced her husband of 23 years and "moved in" with the figure Olympic skater Evan Lysacek, who is some thirty years younger than her (she was 63 at the start of these stories, Lysacek was 27).
Herrera is in her second marriage, but she blames her youth to her unraveled first marriage, and has been married now for 46 years to her second husband. And Amsale has been married for 29 years.
Tattered chiffon and see-through lace have become the trade mark of Wang's dresses, who seems to be putting her marital disappointments and disillusionment into her dresses. And I believe that she is already not a very good designer, but is aggressive enough that she pushes her designs into the fashion world. And goth? Well, that is the life-denying imagery of contemporary art and design, where zombies and ghouls are quick becoming the representatives. It is not surprising that Wang follows this.
Here is Amsale's workspace, which looks like a mini-factory. And Herrera's atelier. Looking for Vera Wang work space through google, I found an image of Wang, in a work space (not bedroom), scribbling on the floor, with dogs running all over the paper. I don't think this was a "photo shoot" but rather an example of the slovenly habits of Wang. It is impossible to draw well on the floor, as my design experience has shown me.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------