“White flowers are in all of our fragrances, but what we do with them and how we blend and twist them is what makes the difference,” says Wang, who, in the fringe-laden top that opened her fall 2008 runway show, her signature black leggings and a seriously sexy pair of four-inch-high, strappy Azze-dine Alaïa sandals, appears only about three quarters of her 59 years. “That’s the hardest thing we strive for with all of the juices—to create a mood but one that doesn’t overtake, so no one says, ‘That’s a tuberose’ or ‘That’s a lily of the valley.’ It’s about the mixes.”
And as for the name of her newest mix, it’s a reference to creating one’s own look, which for Wang is paramount in both her personal life and her work. “It’s about how you look from every angle,” she says. “Being a woman designer for other women—we all share the same worries. Do we appear thin enough, tall enough, as good as we possibly can? It’s a central concern for every female designer I know, whether it’s Rei [Kawakubo] or Miuccia Prada or Consuela Castiglioni.” That a woman’s look is how she presents her best self to the world is a concept Wang gleaned from her mother years ago. “She taught me,” Wang says, “that how you dress is an integral part of what you give off."
