In his nearly six years at Carolina Herrera designer Wes Gordon has taken inspiration from many of Mrs. Herrera’s creations, but never from the designer herself. Being one of the most-photographed designers in the world, and by famous names from Horst P. Horst to Robert Mapplethorpe, Herrera is a rich subject. Looking at her biography and the many beautiful images of her collected in a 2004 book subtitled Portrait of an Icon was an instinct, Gordon felt, whose time had come.
Herrera is Venezuelan. She spent the first half of her life, up until 40, in that country, before moving with her family to New York and, in short order, setting up her brand. “Her time at La Vega [her husband’s family’s estate] was like a romance novel, a dream,” Gordon says. “Then she moved here and her wardrobe changed, there was a real working-woman vibe.” His new collection reflects that trajectory, alternating between skin-baring dresses in subtropical colors and a black skirt suit with a feminine curved neckline, or between floral shirt dresses and bouclé tweed separates with gold chain detailing.
The lookbook has been styled with signature Herrera flourishes including a black net veil of the kind she wore in a 1979 portrait by Mapplethorpe and the colored gemstone earrings she chose for a sitting with Andy Warhol that resulted in one of his famous colorful silkscreens. She’d likely approve of a high evening look that combined a white blouse with voluminous sleeves (one of her signatures) with a long column skirt pavéd in crystals. A colorblocked gown with a celadon bodice and a grass-green full skirt captured the grandeur Herrera was known for, but in a more casual register—a nifty trick.
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