A MOMENT WITH ONE OF ATLANTA’S GREATEST FASHION SUCCESS STORIES.
If you look up the word “wunderkind” in the dictionary, there should be a photo of Wes Gordon.
Here’s a quick primer: Raised in Buckhead, Gordon graduated from The Lovett School and promptly headed across the pond to Central St. Martins, the prestigious design school in London. At 21, he moved to New York to launch an eponymous fashion brand that quickly was lauded and earned him several prominent awards. In 2018, esteemed fashion maven Carolina Herrera named Gordon as her successor, and at just 31-years-old, he became creative director of the storied house.
We sat down with Gordon when he was in Atlanta to receive the SCAD Étoile Award (a few weeks later, he was named Designer of the Year at the American Image Awards).
You put your own line on hiatus to take over Carolina Herrera. Was that a hard or easy decision?
Both. Herrera was a large, pre-existing company. There were stores and employees that relied on Herrera and a lot of opinions about me. So it was scary in the sense that I have terrible anxiety, and the idea that someone is unhappy with what I’m doing really stresses me out. But at the same time, I felt like I could do it because I shared a lot of sensibilities with the house. Now the line is very true to me. Women who have bought Herrera for 40 years are still able to buy Herrera, and women who have never bought Herrera before are able to go into a store and fall in love with a dress.
You’ve had plenty of career highlights, but what is your biggest pinch-me moment?
I’ve had quite a few, but the first was my internship with Oscar de la Renta. It was just elegance incarnate. I spent every penny I had for a wardrobe to go work there, and I would ride the subway standing up so I didn’t get a wrinkle in my linen suits. But Oscar thought I looked well-dressed and was nice, so I got to be his intern and hand him pins all day. It was magic. It was Anna Wintour coming by for fittings, André Leon Talley coming by for styling, models coming and going, Brooke Astor calling on the phone. The whole thing was just glamor.
How have you, as a designer and brand, kept up with the changing retail landscape?
As much as things have changed, they haven’t. At the end of the day, a beautiful product is a beautiful product, and you can see that whether you’re looking at it online or in person. Sure, how we tell stories has changed, but these changes have worked quite well for Herrera because our woman is fabulous. She comes to us for clothes that stand out, so our clothes are immediately attention grabbing on a screen if you’re scrolling Net-a-Porter or the algorithm. It’s more of a challenge for brands that take a more subtle approach to fashion.
How has being a Southerner inspired you as a designer?
I can’t think of anywhere that exhibits such pride in aesthetics as Atlanta. Homes, gardens, dressing your children, dressing yourself: It’s an effort, and to me, it’s an effort that shows respect and self-esteem. It’s an attempt to make things around you pretty, and I think the world needs more of that. So if anything, that is what I took from the South. Prioritizing a pretty arrangement of flowers on the table, window treatments, how you’re getting dressed, things that are often dismissed as frivolous but are anything but: That’s how we paint a beautiful world.
