Carolina Herrera, The Art of Dressing
“I have a responsibility to the woman of today – to make her feel confident, modern and above all else beautiful.” ‐ Carolina Herrera
Establishing a globally recognized style aesthetic, Carolina Herrera has resided at the helm of her eponymous label for over three decades. Proving with each new season that effortless elegance paired with modern refinement is always relevant and embraced. With the encouragement and endorsement of legendary Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, Carolina Herrera presented her first collection of women’s ready‐to‐wear at New York’s Metropolitan Club in 1981. The collection was an immediate success with luxury retailers and fashion press; and from there, her fashion house was born with the Carolina Herrera New York label.
Opening her New York‐based atelier shortly after the inaugural show and cultivating a team trained in haute couture craftsmanship, Carolina Herrera aligned her name synonymously with the city and all things luxury. With wedding gowns often included in her ready‐to‐wear runway shows, Carolina Herrera introduced her bridal collection in 1987. From the beginning, the bridal collection is designed with the same style vocabulary innate in the ready‐to‐wear. Carolina Herrera has become the destination for brides in search of femininity, a touch of romance and exceptional craftsmanship known to the atelier. Since the collection’s inception, Carolina Herrera has outfitted renowned brides such as Caroline Kennedy, Evan Rachel Wood, Amy Smart and Kristen Stewart’s character Bella Swan in “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn”. Finding resonance on the runway, down the aisle and in the pages of global fashion magazines, Carolina Herrera soon found a new home on the red carpet, dressing stars both on the rise and Hollywood’s iconic set such as Oscar winner Renee Zellweger, Salma Hayek, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Tina Fey, Taylor Swift and Zhang Ziyi.
With her ready‐to‐wear and bridal collections firmly in place, Carolina Herrera launched her first fragrance, Carolina Herrera Eau de Parfum in 1988. She has since released 13 additional fragrances for both men and women in collaboration with her daughter Carolina Herrera de Baez, the brand’s fragrance Creative Director.
In 2000, the first Carolina Herrera New York boutique location opened its doors on New York’s Madison Avenue and such began the brand’s retail expansion. Today, Carolina Herrera New York counts three flagship boutiques in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. As a continuation of the runway collection, CH Carolina Herrera was introduced in 2001. This lifestyle sportswear brand is created in the spirit of Carolina Herrera’s design ethos including ready‐to‐wear and accessories for men, women and children with 125 boutique locations worldwide. The House of Herrera’s product portfolio of fragrance, apparel, accessories, and eyewear has over 15,000 points of distribution in 105 countries.
With both a global focus and adoration for the sum of all things beautiful, Carolina Herrera has been hailed as “Fashion’s First Lady”. She was named the CFDA Womenswear “Designer of the Year” in 2004 and honored with the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. Acting as a mentor, critic and inspiration to graduating design students throughout her career, Carolina Herrera received the honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2012. In addition, she was awarded the 2012 Fashion Group International Superstar Award. Recently, she was presented with the Nat King Cole Award for her charitable works and contributions to the EIF Women’s Cancer Research Fund. Carolina Herrera has also served as an ambassador for the American Cancer Society and the Intergovernmental Institution in the fight against malnutrition.
