Vera Wang Is Ready For A Return To Classic Bridal
Six months ago, Vera Wang proposed her unique take on bridal bohemia and the sexy bride–which translated into nymph-like sheaths, plays on transparency and slick tailoring notes. In her words, "crazy innocence; modern seduction; asymmetry rules." This season, for Fall 2018, she's ready to go back to her bridal roots. "I am seeing that girls today are ready for a return to classicism; there is a wanting for something simpler...it's not necessarily traditional, but with more restraint," said the designer in her exclusive discussion with us on all things bridal. The designer's Fall 2018 collection is "in complete contrast to the styles I did six months ago...that was more adventurous; this season, we're attempting to redefine ball gowns; it's our interpretation of a modern Grace Kelly."
And per usual, even with an inspiration rooted in something as time-honored as one of the most iconic royal weddings in history, Vera Wang's riff is anything but predictable or traditional. She's quick to remind us that she's a fashion designer who focuses heavily on the bridal world, and not solely an arbiter of bridal taste–although her 30 years of innovation in the bridal space are impressive enough to stand on their own. "It's not just a bunch of dresses, it's held together with a common thread," she says, "like ready-to-wear, bridal needs to be a cohesive thought, with a certain point of view."
Her return to a more classically bridal style for the season comes from the intensive market research she and her team are able to accomplish by default–their stores worldwide offer up a window into "different cultures, people's differences, their histories, how girls live, get married, celebrate (or not)–it allows us to see bridal in a different context, it's not truly trend-based." This freedom from trend influence allows for things like veiling, florals, sashes and full skirts to avoid being dubbed passé; they simply get reinvented. This season, shawls and shrugs have been replaced by textural boas, and veils have been swapped out for feathers and brooches worn organically in the hair as "part of the hair," rather than being placed in a coif or atop brides' heads.
Being surrounded by young women like her niece, who is newly married, and brides like Hannah Bronfman–who recently opted for one of her unembellished, clean shapes for her Marrakech wedding to Brendan Fallis–encouraged Wang down the path toward her "own exploration of the world of Dior." It's not evocative verbatim, but the new collection is more of an "embracing" of the late designer's impact. The New Look's influence on the modern ball gown is to credit for its omnipresence in today's bridal vernacular, but these full skirts have "a certain youth and charm and a point of view that," Wang hopes, "is deliberate."
This is all well and good–but we still find it hard to fathom how a designer credited with the invention of fashion-forward bridal could still find ways to reinvent and evolve. Dior may have created the New Look–but he wasn't tasked with creating it season after season within the confines of shades of white. "Bridal is my own specific challenge to myself," Wang admits. "But we've dedicated almost three decades to this part of the fashion world." She's had her moments when the inspiration merits a break out of the standard bridal box. "There was the black and nude collection based on underwear–because women only want underwear in black or soft nude; and there was the pink and red collection inspired by beautiful flowers in bloom in Asia; I had a season where I just studied hems. Just hems–from car wash hems to threaded hems...If you only think in the context of very strict bridal, it doesn't leave much room for innovation."
As for her place in the bridal market, there is a humility in Wang's demeanor that's still hoping brides like what they see, but with a confidence in her gut feeling about how they should be dressing for the aisle. "There's been the naked dresses and the fake see-through looks, and a lot of Hollywood-isms," she says, "but this is a return to my own instincts." It also helps that weddings are one of the few places the world continues to find joy–and it seems that happiness is contagious. "No matter what, people still want to get married–it's about this couple making a bet on their lives together; it's one of the most optimistic things two people can do together."
We can't help but wonder (and hope for the moment) when Vera's more adventurous ideas for brides will finally break through; when will modern women be ready to take a risk for their walk down the aisle? Even after three decades in the industry, she remains patiently optimistic–and her easygoing optimism is encouraging. "Things take time. It's about an evolution not a revolution–but I'll always try for revolutions. For all of us women, if you can't evolve, that's not a life."
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