Vera Wang: Spring 2009 Ready-to-Wear

[upbeat electronic music]

[guitar riff]

[Vera Wang] The inspiration was this incredible lady

called Niki de Saint Phalle. She was a sculptress and

an artist, and visually her work was always about

her personal freedom, and that s why Nikki is my girl

this season.

[Lucia Pieroni] We ve kind of gone for the more silvery

bits, she s got these incredible pieces of jewelry

so I wanted to kind of go to the more bejeweled,

sort of diamond look rather than the mad color of

the artist.

[Orlando Pita] Vera s clothes have sometimes

a lot of work done to it and a lot of draping,

but at the same time it feels almost like if you re

putting on a T-shirt and walking out, they have a certain

easy about them. So we re trying to create that ease

with the hair.

Spring 2009 on the New York catwalks is all about

O-word, optimism. Vera Wang has chosen one of the most

optimistic inspirations of the week.

[percussion music]

A lot of color in Niki de Saint Phalle s work,

and they were very kinetic.

[Vera Wang] Well I think this is the right season,

most of all what she gave me was a certain optimism

and a certain love for color and mixing and matching,

sort of throwing it all together.

Vera s always kind of the poet.

She added little elements of clean suiting and

then she builds in that gorgeous color palette.

You know those deep inky forest greens and blacks.

[upbeat rock music]

[Eleanor Ylvisaker] All the silhouettes with volume,

like the kind of balloon shapes, for me that s one of my

favorite looks.

[Linda Fargo] Of course, you can t not talk about

this collection without talking about her accessories.

All that gorgeous jewelry and the motorcycle belts

and the fabulous sort of decorations and ornaments.

I just saw the whole mix was just very light, ethereal,

but very modern.

[Eleanor Ylvisaker] If you just get one piece of hers,

it s just so well made and so well crafted, that you can

put it with, you know, a pair of jeans

or something more casual.

It just pulls the whole look together.

[Tim Blanks] The notion that she can inject so much poetry

into a collection that also looked very very commercial.

[Linda Fargo] Some of them more complex, you might call

artistic clothing can get very difficult.

When the customer sees this kind of crazy mash and mushing,

they don t know how they re going to put that on

their body, but this is very understandable yet

seems to have artistic integrity to it.

[upbeat rock music]

I m always so surprised by Vera, I just think

it s so great that she has this other side of her,

her thoughts about her collection make the clothes

a much better experience.

It s like wearing the headset when you go to the museum.

[upbeat electronic music]