“I have seen this desire to return to a more artful kind of dress,” Vera Wang said of her latest bridal collection, a couture-level offering of 13 gowns. “[My clients] want dresses that have a sense of importance.” It’s fitting that her clients were her inspiration this season—Wang reworked a few custom gowns she designed for their recent weddings. “It’s a new formality.” That was also evident in a corresponding film Wang shot in Paris in the Luxembourg Gardens with her friend Patrick Demarchelier.
Paris has proven to be an inspirational second home to Wang; she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in February. With this collection, she pushed the envelope with grand yet easy silhouettes: “There’s a volume that’s quite theatrical, in a strange way,” she said, pointing out the generous mix of lace and embroidery. A loosened corset recalled last season’s Romeo and Juliet–inspired gowns, and the garter belts nodded to Wang’s new Spring ’18 ready-to-wear lineup. Her signature sheer dresses had a touch more modesty. “It’s [about] not wanting to look exposed now,” she said.
With each collection, Wang evolves with her bride, offering alternatives to the sweetheart necklines, mermaid hems, and frills found elsewhere. “It’s sort of a new way of looking at grandeur,” she said succinctly.
