Vera Wang

Vera Wang (Google ())

Vera Wang is one of the most successful fashion designers of all time. She is an inspiration to many young fashion designers and skaters. Vera Wang is a hero.

Vera had a good start to her life. Wang started her life off strongly after being born into a wealthy family. On June 27, 1949, in New York City, Vera Wang was born. As a child, Vera and her younger brother were exposed to the most elite and exclusive places of New York City and Paris because her parents believed that they should have early exposure of the arts and fashion. When Vera was younger her mother would take her to Paris just for a fashion show. Vera's mother had connections with all the fashion designers so Vera always watched them sew and learned some techniques. Vera Wang was a very privileged child growing up.

Vera Wang with her daughters (Google)

Vera Wang's skating career started young. On the Christmas of 1957 Vera received her first pair of ice skates. Vera's father did not know that Vera would spend a great deal of the beginning of her life on skates. While competing on skates Vera had nerves of steel; she would never let the pressure get to her. By the age of 10 Vera was winning skating championships medals and competing all over the U.S.A. Skating was a huge commitment; it meant going to practice for hours before and after school. Vera's school was not easy either. It was called Champin. Champin is a higher class school with a hard schooling program. Vera would excel in all her classes in the hard private all-girls school. On top of skating and school, Vera took ballet. She tool ballet at one of the most elite ballet studios in the country. It was the American Ballet School. Vera's life was busy as a child.

Vera was a skater for a long time. In 1968, Vera failed to win a spot on the U.S.A. Olympic team for skating. After that, Vera gave up on skating and she decided to go to the Sarah Lawrence College to study pre-medicine. In 1969, Vera decided to get back up and join skating, but, this time do pairs skating. Vera's partner was named Jimmy. Vera was full of life doing pairs skating until her partner announced he was dropping out and moving on to singles. Vera was very lonely, heartbroken and depressed.

Nancy Kerrigan wearing designs by Vera Wang (Google)

Vera Wang was very sad and did not know what to do with her life. After Jimmy made that announcement Vera was very depressed. Vera felt worthless so she dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College and moved to Paris to be with her boyfriend. In Paris, Vera worked as a shop girl at a designer boutique named Yves Saint Laurent. Then, Vera enrolled in a school in Paris called Sorbonne. As a young adult, Vera did not know what to do with her life yet.

Vera's life took a great turn in 1961. Vera decided to return home and graduate from Sarah Lawrence College. Vera knew what she wanted to and that was to have a career in fashion. Vera was so excited that she found what she wanted to do until she told her dad who refused to pay for the schooling for fashion. Vera knew what she had to do. She had to come up with her own money to pay the expenses of being a fashion designer. So she got a job with Vogue magazines. After being with Vogue for 15 years, Vera took a job as design director for Ralph Lauren. Vera worked hard to get where she is today.

Vera found love. Vera married Arthur Becker and she was so happy to be married to him. When Vera was looking for a dress for her wedding she could not find one that she absolutely loved. That gave her an idea to design her own wedding dress. Vera discovered that she was good at designing wedding dresses so she quit her job at Ralph Lauren and opened her own bridal studio. At first business was tough, but Vera got through it.

Vera had the perfect location for her bridal studio. Vera's bridal studio was in New York City at Carlyle Hotel after her father invested $4 million for her to start her business. After Vera's business took off she adopted her first child, Cecelia. Soon everyone knew about Vera Wang and people started asking her for custom made dresses. One of the people who asked her for custom made dresses was Nancy Kerrigan who was an Olympic Ice Skater. Soon all of Vera's dresses for Kerrigan were in the tabloids saying "Kerrigan has made a new fashion statement skating in fashion designer Vera Wang's dresses." The publicity from Kerrigan's dresses lead Vera to design dresses for great other skaters. Nancy Kerrigan led Vera to lots of publicity.

Vera has many good qualities. One of Vera's qualities is she is very creative. Vera is creative because she designed dresses no other designer would even think about designing. Another one of Vera's qualities is she is determined. Vera is determined even though Vera's father refused to pay for schooling for her to be a fashion designer she would not let that get in her way. Last but not least Vera is patient. Vera is patient because her bridal studio was slow at first but she did not give up she waited for it to take off. Vera has many good qualities.

Vera had many accomplishments. Vera started to start a family at middle aged 44. In 1993, Vera Wang adopted her second child, Josephine. Soon after that, Wang opened her second bridal studio Maids on Madison for wedding attendants. One of Vera's biggest accomplishments was launching Simply Vera line with Kohl's department store. The Simply Vera line is a line of Vera Wang's name brand clothing for the prices that are unbeatable. Vera still has a line of clothes at Kohl's today, which is a BIG accomplishment.

Vera is a hero to me and would be to any other young person because she taught a lesson that tough times will come but they will pass and you can do whatever you set your mind to. Vera Wang is my hero.