Vera Wang bears subtle sales pitch of luxury in her works

By Dini S. Djalal

JAKARTA (JP): Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, so the sigh goes.

But complaints of singlehood are likely the last thing on the minds of bridesmaids slipping into Vera Wang's slinky gowns. More urgent on their concern chart: what underwear to wear under Wang's signature body-skimming jersey, and how to transform those bulging love-handles into love aphrodisiacs.

For Vera Wang, quickly becoming a household name among American brides and bridesmaids, is the name to have on that dress you'll likely only wear once. Wang is hot because she is cool; her pared-down gowns quietly show off your personality, and your body. If you have one to show off.

Simple, sexy, sleek -- these are the words Wang's representatives, in Jakarta this week for Vera Wang's Spring/Summer 1997 trunk show at Glamourette Boutique in Plaza Senayan, use to describe the "Vera Wang Look".

And make no mistake, it's a look even the Average Joe is becoming familiar with. Vera Wang has her flagship boutique in New York, but her cornerstone clientele are in Hollywood. Though 75 percent of her business is in bridalwear, Wang doesn't just design for weddings. Rather, Wang designs for any event requiring a high glamour quotient. Anybody watching the Academy Awards -- what Wang calls "the Olympics of Fashion" -- is unknowingly watching a Vera Wang fashion show, interspersed with the occasional Italian import of Armani, Versace, Prada and Valentino.

That black-and-white column Sharon Stone wore to the Academy Awards when she was nominated for Martin Scorsese's Casino? Only one of many gowns Wang has designed for clotheshanger Stone. In fact, though Wang now counts Mariah Carey, Alicia Silverstone, Holly Hunter, and a slew of other celebrities as walking Vera Wang advertisements, it's Stone who put Wang on fashion's glittering map. They were friends before Stone hit the limelight, and Wang shows her gratitude, referring to herself as "just this little-known designer who was dressing Sharon Stone".

But with Vera Wang Bridal Boutiques now thriving in upscale department stores like Barneys in the U.S. and Harvey Nichols in the U.K., as well as her foray into dressing American figure- skater Nancy Kerrigan of Olympic fame, Wang is no longer so little known.

Female eye

Looking at her past, she seemed destined for success. Wang grew up more privileged than most; her aristocratic parents fled China's revolution and sent their children to the finest schools. Wang was no struggling fashion student, but a Park Avenue debutante who grew up watching her mother dress in Dior. At 22, she became U.S. Vogue's youngest fashion editor, helping define what American high society would buy season to season.

Seventeen years later, she left Vogue to head the accessories division at Ralph Lauren. By the time she opened her own boutique on New York's Upper East Side seven years ago, she was firmly entrenched as a fashion insider. Admitting her own shopaholic tendencies, who but fashion addict Wang knows better how women want to look?

She's tapped into her addiction well. Her bridal gowns and eveningwear share one common theme: sensual elegance. Wang's definition of sexy isn't just decolletage or bare skin -- many of her designs have halter necklines and plunging backs are often sheathed in her trademark "stretch illusion" mesh fabric.

But Wang knows that women want themselves, not their dresses, to shine. A white bias-cut V-neck gown, for example, showcases a woman's femininity without shouting her sexuality with a heaving cleavage or weighing it down with so-called "feminine" ruffles and frills.

Not that Wang isn't a stickler for detail. An otherwise simple gown had satin buttons running all the way down the train, a detail easily overlooked but striking when seen. And the most spare columns often have intriguing geometric back straps or cut- outs. The complexities are intentional: Wang wants her gowns to be "simple and architectural at the same time, so they're not necessarily slip dresses".

Slip dresses they are not. What these gowns are, some one- shouldered while others are corseted, are serious dresses, in stark hues as well as pastel shades as delicate as a whisper. These are gowns with heavy sequins and beading, albeit in no- nonsense fashion. They are glamorous, but it's pure glamour, not glitz.

Yet in Indonesia, glitz is what many want. During the show, a woman in the audience commented, "The dresses are so simple, like in the old days". Perhaps she meant the old days of simple glamour, rather than aspirational brand-name snobbery. Vera Wang doesn't package status in a label. Her salespitch of luxury is more subtle.

Wang also doesn't package casualwear, at least not yet. Her motto fittingly claims that "the biggest events in women's lives are in eveningwear".

Which helps explain how the prices of the gowns are as precious as the design. When asked who Wang's main competitors are, her representatives Jane Glucksman and Blair Dejoux chorused, "Within our price range, there's not really much competition." This price range is "upper-end", starting from Sin.$3,900 and inching up to S$10,000 (including veil and gloves).

Unsurprisingly, Dejoux said that the Jakarta boutique, one of only two in Asia (the other one is in Singapore, also at Glamourette), is not doing as well as Singapore. "In Jakarta, there's only a small population of young women attracted to Vera's designs, and her prices," she said.

Dejoux credits Wang with "starting the trend toward simplicity in bridalwear", but says that it will take some time before Jakarta follows suit. Yet judging by their twice-yearly visit, and the eager customers waiting to be fitted into the yards and yards of silk satin, the future looks optimistic.