The Golden Gown Maker — Carolina Herrera’s New Top Man Knows Fashion Should be Fearless

When Wes Gordon set out to make a gown for Glenn Close to wear to the Oscars, he knew he wanted it to be extra special. So he created Close’s much buzzed-about long-sleeved wrap gown and flowing cape train made with 4 million hand-stitched beads of gold that weighed 42 pounds.

“She’s the queen of Hollywood so we really approached it like how a queen would show up,” Gordon says while in Houston to showcase the Carolina Herrera fall collection at the Houston Chronicle Best Dressed Luncheon + Neiman Marcus Fashion Presentation. “She’s not going to go there in the same old same old strapless pretty little dress as everyone else.

“She is an icon, so I wanted her to look like she just came down from Mount Olympus and walked into the Dolby Center.”

As the new creative director of Carolina Herrera, the 32-year-old designer believes the best way to appeal to customers in today’s hyper-competitive world is to make clothing that stands out and gets noticed. The gown for Close “was the most extravagant thing we’ve ever made at Herrera,” Gordon notes, and the new Herrera collection has garnered a lot of attention with its super-bright colors, voluminous shapes, wild floral patters and off-the-shoulder ruffles.

“If you want to make a big grand shape, make it the biggest grandest shape. I think it’s the time for exclamation points,” Gordon says.

Following an Icon

It’s never easy to follow a legend, particularly in the fashion world. Such labels as Bill Blass and Halston never recovered after their founders moved on or passed away. But Gordon has been successful in his early foray as the new creative director of Carolina Herrera by continuing to trumpet the style and elegance the fashion house is known for while adding a touch of playfulness to the brand.

“It’s such a wonderful house with an amazing heritage. New York doesn’t have many of those. I certainly respect everything that’s come before me,” Gordon says. “I’m so lucky to have spent a year with Mrs. Herrera before I became creative director. We still have an amazing relationship, we see each other and talk all the time.”

The 80-year-old Herrera, who remains the brand’s ambassador, was on the front row at Gordon’s New York Fashion Week debut last September, and again in February, when he unveiled his fall collection, which is so colorful that some longtime fashion observers noted that it looked more suited for spring and summer, which traditionally has been a time when designers showcased bright shades.

“Whoever decided ages ago that pretty, happy, bright saturated colors had to only be used for summer, I completely disagree with and let’s break that myth that you can’t wear them in the winter because to me the Herrera woman is in a hot pink coat when everyone else is in brown and black.” Gordon says.

“I think the old idea of what a fall collection should look like and what a spring collection should look like is entirely irrelevant in 2019 now. These clothes ship in July and women aren’t dressing anymore with their summer wardrobe, their winter wardrobe, their cocktail clothes, their day clothes. They’re dressing emotionally.

“They’re going into the store and they’re finding pieces that make their heart beat faster and that make them excited and happy when they wear them and that’s something that applies to 12 months of the year.”

The collection’s final look, a voluminous gown made of white cotton shirting, pays tribute to the Herrera legacy as she always took her runway bow wearing a crisp white shirt.

“It’s also a bit of a nod to the classical idea from a couture show that the final look being a bridal (gown). We kind of played with that and we played with the Herrera house code of white cotton shirting and we created this really at once grand and casual dress out of white cotton shirting,” Gordon says.

Before his previous two New York Fashion Week shows, the soundtrack included a lot of songs by Dolly Parton and Diana Ross. Gordon purposely chose the songs to create a lighthearted attitude before the shows began.

“I think everyone takes themselves far too seriously, especially in fashion. And the world is plenty serious right now that the areas we have to create joy and laughter and smiling, we really need to take advantage of,” he explains.

And, he adds, he’s on a mission to keep luxury relevant nowadays by loosening up the way consumers think about expensive clothing.

“We need to shatter the myth that luxury is serious and stiff and that elegance is uptight, because it’s not,” Gordon says. “And Mrs. Herrera is the best example of that. There’s no one that laughs more fantastically than Mrs Herrera. There’s no one who can tell a better joke, there’s no one who celebrates life more.

“It’s just false this idea that elegance is stiff because young people don’t want to be stiff, they don’t want to be uptight, so therefore they think they don’t want to be elegant. It’s a myth that they’re one and the same.”