Vera Wang: What Her Second Act Teaches Us After 50
At 40, Vera Wang thought it might be too late for her.
She had spent 17 years at Vogue, missed out on the job she wanted, and was planning her own wedding without a dress she loved.
A year later, she opened her first bridal salon.
Welcome to Episode 11 of The Reinvention Series.
I’m Wanda, founder of Estetika. I started my own business at 50, and now, at 54, I’m building a global beauty accessories brand and still learning every day. Vera’s story is one I think every woman over 50 should hear.
Seventeen years at Vogue, and a closed door
Vera spent 17 years at Vogue. When the top job, editor in chief, came up, it went to Anna Wintour.
She moved to Ralph Lauren as a design director. It would have been easy to see that moment as the end of a chapter rather than the start of one.
Missing out on the job she wanted didn’t stop her. Her biggest chapter came after it.
The wedding dress she couldn’t find
In 1989, while planning her own wedding, Vera couldn’t find a dress she loved.
Her father saw a business in that frustration. She wasn’t so sure.
“I thought maybe it’s just too late for me,” she later said.
A bridal salon at the Carlyle Hotel
In 1990, with her father’s encouragement, Vera opened her first bridal salon at the Carlyle Hotel in New York.
Everything she had learnt came with her. Seventeen years of fashion at Vogue and two years designing at Ralph Lauren became the foundation for her own label.
Today her name spans bridal, fashion, beauty, jewellery and homewares.
Still going at 72
In 2021, at 72, Vera was named one of the BBC’s 100 Women. She told the BBC she finds ageism old fashioned.
Age is not a reason to stop. She is proof of that.
Three lessons from Vera after 50
1. Your best work can still be ahead of you. Vera launched her ready to wear collection in 2000, at 50. Five years later, in her mid 50s, the Council of Fashion Designers of America named her Womenswear Designer of the Year. That recognition came a decade and a half after she started her label.
2. Growing doesn’t mean starting over. In her late 50s she brought her eye to millions more women with Simply Vera Vera Wang at Kohl’s in 2007, and in her early 60s she partnered with David’s Bridal on White by Vera Wang, gowns priced from $600 to $1,400 US. She didn’t throw away what she had built. She found new ways to share it.
3. Keep showing up, and let the recognition follow. In 2013, at 63, she received the CFDA’s Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Ralph Lauren, the man she once worked for as a design director.
Why her story stayed with me
Too late is a feeling, not a fact. Vera felt it at 40 and started anyway. Most of us have felt it too, and I certainly did when I started Estetika at 50.
What I take from Vera is that a closed door isn’t the end of the story, and that everything we’ve learnt comes with us into whatever we do next.
I’d love to hear from you. Has there been a moment you thought it was too late? Leave a comment below. I read every one.
Watch Episode 11 of The Reinvention Series: Vera Wang
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Wanda x
Founder, Estetika