photo courtesy of Sue Wong
Every inch of this palatial home was painstakingly restored with the help of Zoltan Papp, an expert in the repair and restoration of antiques, art and interiors of historic buildings. Combining their mutual love and pursuit of opulence, they reconstructed an estate that is almost theatrical, featuring baronial rooms that can easily be imagined replaying scenes from iconic Hollywood movies. (Incidentally some interior scenes from the classic film, Sunset Boulevard, was filmed here).
Sue Wong's profound knowledge of history, architecture, interiors and the arts, plus her extensive familiarity with materials and fabrics, provided a rich resource from which to draw. What she did not design herself, she acquired–from Baccarat chandeliers, 1930s consoles to Jaymes Odgers's "Three Goddesses to other furniture and objects from historic residences all over the world. The result is a thrilling, grandiose home, finished to the nines, fit for a queen or a goddess. The fashion designer has often explained that she undertook the massive restoration focusing not on pomposity of the elite, but rather as caretaker of history. It is a theme she carries in fashion.
For Sue Wong, the everyday woman doesn't have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on gowns and cocktail dresses. So while she uses the same establishments that prominent European couture houses also use to manufacture her designs, she offers significantly more affordable and accessible collections by assembling it in the U.S. Like everything, labeling matters in pricing fashion. Plus Wong also does not believe in massive public relations and advertising campaigns. Ultimately, she suggests, that cost gets passed on to the consumer. And goddesses have to be pragmatic, too.
Despite the everyday woman not really being a queen or a goddess, Wong believes there is simply no reason for her not to dress like one. More importantly, like the little girl who feels like a princess or a goddess when donning a beautiful dress, the everyday woman, too, should feel the same.
Because it really isn't the beads, the sequins or the gems that make a woman shine; it's her spirit. What Sue Wong's dresses do is help them remember and believe once again in her own beauty and magic.
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photo courtesy of Sue Wong
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