California Apparel News

Sue Wong is a philosophical designer.

“At our core, we are all feminine and masculine, like yin and yang,” said the designer, whose 18-year-old apparel company specializes in dresses that emphasize a woman’s feminine side. “I am masculine in my role as a businesswoman and feminine in my creative mode.”

This personal philosophy and Wong’s hard-earned industry experience have paid off. Wong’s company has grown during the last 13 years from a small $2 million operation to one that logged $34 million in sales in 2002 and is projecting more than $45 million for 2003.

Additionally, Wong’s collections will be featured in the much-anticipated Mercedes- Benz Shows L.A. during Los Angeles Fashion Week.

Wong started her classic, seductive eveningwear collection, Nocturne, three years ago with help from her business partner and husband, Dieter Raabe. The launch coincidcoincided with the new millennium.

“I wanted to create a collection that people could wear to mark the new millennium but [that could also be] something they could hold on to for years to come,” she said.

Nocturne was the first collection that Wong produced in China. The success of the collection, which features highly detailed dresses at competitive prices, prompted Wong to relaunch her contemporary dress line, Sue Wong Collection, and move its production to China, as well. The 70-piece collection features silk charmeuse, silk chiffon, and georgette dresses with patchwork, lace trims, appliqueacute;s, beading and embroidery. It is sold at better retailers— including Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Neiman Marcus, Burdines, Parisian and Dayton Hudson—at prices ranging from $178 to $300.

“My collections are not of the make-a-quick-buck school,” she said. “At the same time, I have not compromised anything. I’ve pulled all the stops to give the best design and details.”

The designer’s reputation for churning out evening dresses to the beat of retailers’ drums is spreading throughout the industry.

“Our customers like Sue Wong because her collections are very sophisticated and sold at price points they can afford,” said Sheri Aylesworth, a Nordstrom specialoccasion dress buyer for the Southwest region.

Aylesworth said that one appealing aspect of Wong’s collections is the fact that several pieces come with matching wraps.

“Our customers are always saying how difficult it is to find just the right coverup,” she explained. “With Sue Wong, that’s never an issue.”

Design details

On a cloudy February afternoon in an art-deco-style building near downtown Los Angeles, Wong put the finishing touches on her Fall 2003 collection.

Wong’s latest Nocturne eveningwear and special-occasion collection— made with fine silk fabrications and embellished with beads, silk cords, embroidery, sequins and crystals—is the epitome of classic, feminine style. Her styles are similar to those of modern-day, high-end fashion designers, but Wong offers her designs at a fraction of the cost. Retail price points start at $300. The company shipped approximately 100,000 units last season to about 1,500 stores, including Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks and Henri Bendel, said Wong.

“It’s red-carpet quality at realistic prices for those who can’t afford to dish out $1,200 for a gown,” said Wong, whose dresses have been worn by celebrity clients such as Sharon Stone and Anjelica Huston.

For Fall 2003, Wong divided Nocturne into three theme groups— Hungarian Peasant, Chinese Dragon and Native American—with asymmetrical, diamanteacute; and chemise styles.

The same collection offers nontraditional looks in wedding and ball gowns, including ombreacute;-style silk dresses with cutout embroidery, beadwork accents and matching silk shawls. Retail price points range from $300 to $650.

After receiving a wave of interest from retailers, Wong said she is ready to push the envelope even further. She has added eveningwear separates to the Nocturne collection, including kabuki-sleeved tops with antique beadwork and embroidery, panel skirts with beading, and cigarette and pajama pants. The 30-piece collection will retail from $59, for a silk top, to $225, for embroidered coats.

Coming full circle

Wong was born in a farming community a short distance from Guangzhou, China, and moved to Culver City, Calif., with her parents when she was 6 years old.

“It seems that life has brought me full circle—it seems natural for me to rely on my country of origin for my production,” she said.

Wong’s creative mill is in her design studio, where she sketches new styles and patterns for embellishments. She’s been perfecting this meacute;tier since the 1960s, when she fashioned her own designs from recycled apparel and then sold them to young hipsters out of her Venice Beach, Calif.-based boutique. For a while, she dabbled in sportswear, but she realized the category was not the right match for her design vision.

After 30 years in the apparel industry, Wong said she finally feels like she has found her niche. However, she believes her use of centuries-old beading and embroidery techniques, hand-crafted by Chinese artists, is on the wane.

“It is just a matter of time before China is completely industrialized, and even the work of seamstresses will be replaced,” she said. “I want to spend the last quarter of my career creating memorable designs that could someday become collectibles. I want my designs to have the same intrinsic value as any well-constructed gown with handcraftsmanship.”