Designer profile; carolina herrera
One of the most celebrated designers in the fashion world; awards and glory have been a common factor throughout the career of this dynamic force. A recipient of The International Centre in New York’s Award of Excellence, 2004 Womenswear Designer of the Year, “Mercedes-Benz Presents” for her recent spring/summer 2011 collection and Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award. This Goodwill Ambassador for IIMSAM was also presented with the Spanish Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, which was presented to her in 2002 by no less than the King of Spain himself, Juan Carlos I.
Hugely admired and revered on the social circuit for her innate sense of style, Herrera’s career began after she was encouraged into the realms of design by fashion bastion Diana Vreeland and her friend, Count Rudi Crespi and she has never looked back. Although aspiration is clearly a family trait as Herrera’s father became the Governor of Caracas, her professional ambitions have never hindered her from a growing family. Herrera is the mother of four, with two daughters from her first marriage to Guillermo Behrens Tello and two daughters from her marriage in 1968 to then TV presenter and now Vanity Fair magazine special-projects editor, Reinaldo Herrera Guevara.
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Based in New York since 1980 and now an American citizen, Carolina Herrera is a designer that others crafting their trade in both men’s and women’s fashion look up to. Her broad empire now consists of Ready-to-Wear seasonal collections, the CH Carolina Herrera brand, fragrances, global stores and six flagship boutiques in New York, Los Angeles, Bal Harbour, Las Vegas, Dallas and as of October 2011, her home town of Caracas.
Herrera’s elegant styles and homage to classic lines have perfectly complemented the more luxury and opulent materials such as fur and raised the stature of any other fabrics she chooses to utilise by the sheer graceful nature of her designs. Her clever manipulations of textiles and resources married with her choice of colour to accompany, speaks volumes of her natural chic, especially in the realms of fur fashion, as her bold but effortlessly refined statements capture the imagination of her loyal legion of fans worldwide. They join Herrera’s famous clientele, which is both a lengthy and prominent list, including costumes for high profile movies or the likes of Oscar winners and musicians that are in need of her impeccable gown or suit creations for heavily photographed red carpet events. However, perhaps the most prominent string to her fashion patron bow is that she has dressed legendary style icon Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. As Herrera herself once said “I love the idea of elegance and intricacy, but whether it is in a piece of clothing or a fragrance, the intricacy must appear as simplicity”, which is daily displayed in the serene beauty of her designs.



