His designs favour classic feminine silhouettes that are nipped at the waist. The looks he prefers are very much anti-minimalist, incorporating traditional techniques and embellishment — from feathers, polka dots, and burnout velvet a technique for creating patterns on fabric to pleating. A one-shouldered, silk-chiffon dress embellished with crystals and hand-beaded organza flowers, it was said to have taken hours to complete by hand. Within minutes, Wu became an overnight household name.
Up until then, Wu was known strictly within the fashion industry; by the end of the inauguration, calls and offers from reality television to product endorsements were flooding in. Obama had purchased a Wu dress from Goldman for a Barbara Walters interview. The relationship continued to blossom between Wu and Obama, who wore his creations a number of times during her terms as First Lady.
Obama wore Wu again for the second inaugural ball, this time wearing a custom ruby-red, halter-neck chiffon gown with burnout velvet treatment. In , Wu designed a capsule collection a small collection of key items and produced in limited quantity for Target, a mass retailer, which sold out within hours online and in stores across the United States. The collection made Wu a more recognizable and household name, reinforcing his modern feminine aesthetic featuring bows, pleats and silhouettes nipped at the waist.
The modest price of items in this collection made his designs accessible to the mass consumer. In , Wu launched his debut diffusion line a collection designed with a younger target in mind and retailed at a lower price point , Miss Wu, in tandem with luxury retailer Nordstrom. Michelle Obama wore a Miss Wu green shift in — before it hit the shelves — while on the campaign trail for reelection.
Relaunching the line as Grey in , Wu partnered with Pantone to create a custom grey hue. The Grey collection was one of the first in the fashion industry to operate on the see-now buy-now model, in which consumers can purchase garments immediately, rather than waiting six months to buy them after first showcased on runways. Search The Canadian Encyclopedia. Remember me. I forgot my password. Why sign up? Create Account. Suggest an Edit.
Enter your suggested edit s to this article in the form field below. Accessed 14 November In The Canadian Encyclopedia. But for the longest time, I was like … [ makes whining noise, then laughs ]. WU: Yeah. I remade Barbie clothes. I would buy Barbies and take them apart and then remake their looks. WU: I know. It was a whole process. I had a lot of dolls—like WU: I know—my mom was really indulgent in letting me have them, which was unusual for Asian parents because Asian parents would not let you have that kind of thing.
My mom was really cool like that. WU: He bought me dolls, too. It was so against everything he believes and understands, but he did it anyway. WU: Well, my parents loved me, and I think they realized that I was probably not going to have a normal 9-to-5 job. For the longest time, my dad thought that I was just going to be home until I was, like, 35—which, weirdly, is completely normal in Asian families.
So they just thought I was going to be one of those kids. WU: Yeah, I moved with my mom and my brother. I was really not fitting in at school. My brother was a really good student, but I was having a really hard time, so the move was mostly for me. WU: Vancouver was quiet and there is a big Asian community there.
A lot of Chinese people there thought that was going to make a huge difference, so they started moving to either Australia or Vancouver—those were the two main places. I think it was easier back then than moving to America. I mean, we had friends who did it. We knew six or so other families who did the exact same thing that we did.
Jason Wu. WU: Not when I was in elementary school—that was a bit later … I had a hard time in middle school. My mom hired a fashion student to come teach me how to sew twice a week. WU: Always the most expensive. And all you could buy was like a half-quarter yard.
But I would take that and draft patterns to make clothes for the dolls. She opened you up to the possibility of being a designer. She hired a seamstress and they would buy fabric and she would wear all of his designs.
WU: People say that mothers always know, but in this case, she really did know. I also did some sculpting. It was always very artsy and very feminine, everything that I did. But she just supported me throughout the process.
WU: She did. There are also so many women throughout history who have created a sort of lifeline and developed this collaborative relationship with their designer of choice, and it has defined them. I think clothing is transformative. When you put something really beautiful on, you feel something. I moved to New York for that reason. I think I am a very good example of how you really can do whatever you want to do without having any kind of prerequisite experience of any of kind of connection.
I mean, none of my family members came from this world. WU: I was very preppy. So, again, it goes full circle. They were these completely new houses. Some of them were even expensive, but they were done on, like, a production line.
They all had marble floors and gold railings and faux French-style fencing. They were huge, but sort of generic-looking, like they came from a factory. A lot of Indian and Chinese immigrants bought them.
But I thought these monster houses were the coolest things, because our house was 70 years old and small and had a lot of character—which, to me, was not good at the time. We also had old furniture. Now that I have my own taste, I understand it more. WU: American.
I just find things here and there—like this table. If you could live in any kind of house and decorate it in any way, what do you think you would design? But I would also love to take an old space and restore it to exactly the way I want it. Like an old factory—just something with great bones and lots of character. Like, here, in the studio, I have an old sewing machine from Germany that my dad gave me, and then something else that I got from a friend in India, and a piece of flooring from one of my shows.
WU: Yeah, tons. My inspirations come from everywhere. You have to look at a lot of different things. I remember M. That campaign was amazing—like, red legs for days. So I was infatuated. But he was so tall and glittery and impressive, with the big hair … You know, a fashion-obsessed boy would be into that. After I lived in Canada, I went to boarding school in Massachusetts.
WU: Eaglebrook in Deerfield. Then I went to Loomis Chaffee in Connecticut. I had a difficult time at Eaglebrook, though. I was one of the few Asian kids. I was 12 or I already knew that I was gay. And then my interests were not conventional. So I was very different—in every sense of the word. I never felt like I was hiding anything from them. WU: I love Breathless []. Jean Seberg is always, forever, a great icon. Last Year at Marienbad [] is great, too. And then I love the original The Women [].
I love her. Julie Newmar []? WU: And Wesley Snipes as a drag queen is hilarious. WU: I always have the TV on. I mean, I used to more, when I did more work at home. I like having noise. I need to feel part of the world when I go to sleep. WU: I love coming in on Saturdays when no one is here. WU: Yes, I am. Nothing upsets me more than a wilted piece of clothing, so I restore the clothes when they return. WU: I have to do it.
Now, I take four or five things that are really key to each collection, and I restore them or, in some cases, remake parts of them, and archive them. I also ran into Isabel Toledo. Always keep a copy for yourself because I had to go buy things back and go out and find them. So I save key pieces, as well as any red-carpet things that become iconic.
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