Carolina Herrera may not have attended the 70th Annual Golden Globes… But her work was in full bloom on the red carpet and awards show stage.
Elementary star Lucy Liu made a bold and unconventional choice when she dressed in one of the iconic Venezuelan fashion designer’s most eye-catching gowns.
“It’s quite different, it has a beautiful romantic twist” said Liu of the whimsical strapless gown, which was part of the designers Pre-Fall 2013 collection.
To let Herrera’s dress, one of the most voluminous of the night, get all the attention it deserved, Liu kept her accessories to a minimum with diamond drop earrings from Lorraine Schwartz jewelry.
“Carolina is an international icon and a brilliant businesswoman. For over three decades, she’s remained true to her elegant design aesthetic in everything — from her signature collection to her bridal, accessories and fragrance collections — while presiding over a global business with a singular focus on excellence,” says Fashion Group president Margaret Hayes. “She has an innate understanding of what smart, chic women everywhere want when it comes to style and beauty.”
Last fall, Herrera gained international attention from new generation of fashionistas and increased her star power when she designed the wedding dressKristen Stewart’s character Bella wore in the The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I.
Past recipients include Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld, Oscar de la Renta and Donna Karan.
In addition to Herrera’s Superstar prize, Haider Ackermann, Gareth Pugh and Derek Lam will also be honored with special awards, and the Marmotti Family of Max Mara will receive the Brand Heritage Award.
As this year’s ambassador, Cruz will don a specially designed T-shirt by noted fashion designer Carolina Herrera that promotes women’s cancer research funding.
Herrera’s limited edition T-shirt will retail for $35 at Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH stores and on saks.com. One hundred percent of the proceeds from each shirt sold will be donated to EIF’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund, benefiting charitable programs dedicated to finding new detection methods, better treatments and eventual cures for women’s cancers.
“By purchasing this year’s SAKS FIFTH AVENUE KEY TO THE CURE T-shirt, designed by Carolina Herrera, you can help continue the innovative research already in progress,” says the Oscar-winning actress. “Cancer has affected each and every one of us in one way or another and I am thrilled to be involved with this wonderful cause.”
Cruz, who bared a shoulder earlier this year in a PETA anti-fur ad, will appear in a national public service announcement wearing Herrera’s limited edition T-shirt. The PSA will appear in major fashion and lifestyle magazines in September and October.
The T-shirt debuts at Saks Fifth Avenue on October 1st.
She’s one of the most iconic Hispanic designers in the world of fashion… And, now Carolina Herrera is preparing to share her designs with a wider audience.
The discount retailer is collaborating with the luxury department store on a holiday collection from 24 noted designers that will span from fashion to sporting goods.
The limited edition collection will be available at all Target stores and all Neiman Marcus locations, as well as online on both retailers’ websites, starting December 1.
More than 50 products from 24 designers, including Oscar de la Renta and Robert Rodriguez, will be available until they sell out. Items in the collection will cost from $7.99 to $499.99, but most will sell for less than $60.
“We definitely have our differences,” Kathee Tesija, Target’s executive vice president of merchandising, said of her company and Neiman Marcus. “They’re high end, and we’re mass appeal. But we both love design.”
Here’s the complete list of designers participating in the Target/Neiman Marcus partnership:
Alice + Olivia
Altuzarra
Band of Outsiders
Brian Atwood Carolina Herrera
Derek Lam
Diane Von Furstenberg
Eddie Borgo
Jason Wu
Judith Leiber
Lela Rose
Marc Jacobs
Marchesa Oscar de la Renta Philip Crangi
Prabal Gurung
Proenza Schouler
Rag & Bone Robert Rodriguez Rodarte
Skaist-Taylor
Thom Browne
Tory Burch
Tracy Reese
Carolina Herrera has been expanding her empire to a new generation of fashionistas by dressing starlets like Jessica Alba, Jordana Brewster and Camilla Belle. But her latest creation could make her the Bella of the ball for the younger set.
The 72-year-old Venezuelan designer is the mastermind behind what could become the most copied wedding dress of the century: the bridal gown worn by Kristen Stewart’s character Bella in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I.
Twilight author Stephenie Meyer specifically asked Herrera to create the dress, which was handmade for Stewart to wear in her on-screen wedding to her vampire fiancé, Edward Cullen
“I was of course inspired by Stephenie’s description of the gown in the book, but I added the touch of Herrera and also took into consideration the personality and the style of the bride,” Herrera tells British Vogue. “A wedding dress is both an intimate and personal for a woman—it must reflect the personality and style of the bride. Bella’s dress is romantic and filled with a timeless sophistication, very similar to the character. In a way, this dress served as a symbol of the character’s coming of age and introduction into womanhood.”
It took Herrera and four seamstresses more than six months to create thedramatic crepe satin and French Chantilly lace dress, which features 152 buttons on the back and 17 on each sleeve. But it only took a second to make an emotional impact on Stewart.
“In the initial fitting when Kristen put the dress on and looked in the mirror, she was very moved,” says the designer. “In that moment she was not an actress or a character in a film, she was a bride, and a happy one at that. It is always very important to make the bride happy, of course, and in this case I was delighted to do so. It was a very special moment for both Kristen and the character of Bella to share.”
Herrera’s classic and sophisticated wedding gowns have been worn by some of the world’s most stylish brides, including Renee Zellweger and Christina Hendricks. So what inspired her to work in the Twilight zone?
“Being a big follower of The Twilight Saga, I was very flattered to be a part of this fantastic project,” says Herrera. “I read the books and saw the first film and have been a fan ever since. You can’t walk down the street and run into someone who doesn’t know what Twilight is anymore, whether it be the books or the movie. Our bridal collections always possess a timeless elegance and sophistication and I found the same elements in Stephenie Meyer’s descriptions of Bella’s dress.”
The floor-length handmade gown—complete with a Bardot neckline and short train—will be sold at Herrera’s boutiques in New York, Los Angeles, Bal Harbour and Dallas starting in January 2012.
