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Vera Wang didn’t expect to go viral earlier this year when she shared a photo of herself posing in her sports bra and white denim shorts. “I was totally shocked,” the fashion designer told People magazine. “To be perfectly honest, the real goal of that picture was [to feature] the hair clips I had in my hair. And hair clips don’t exactly show up that well in a picture. So we really had to minimize whatever I was wearing and to keep the focus on my hair and those crystal clips. And the fact it became about my Palm Angels workout top was so crazy.” At the time, fans asked the 71 year old to “cough up the fountain of youth” and share her age-defying secrets.
For someone who is used to being behind the scenes, the attention was “sort of shocking.” “I’m sort of the one that always puts the women I dress upfront,” she explained. “I am a fashion designer. And I have dressed some of the most amazing women over the last 30 years on the red carpet when they’ve actually won Oscars or Golden Globes or Emmys. And so I’m always the one pushing them out the door, and fixing their train at the Met Gala.”
Even during her years as a sittings editor at Vogue, Vera “was always behind the camera.” She said, “So I always thought of myself as somebody who, in all fairness, was the creator and not the subject matter. So it was sort of shocking. I can’t lie to you.”
As for her secret to staying fit? Vera admitted that her workout routine is “sporadic.” “I mean, I was an elite athlete in my youth. I was a competitive figure skater in the United States and a dancer at Balanchine School of American Ballet. I think when you spend the first 16 years of your life that physically engaged, there is such a thing that it sort of stays with you. There’s a muscle memory that goes with that,” she said. “I don’t think I could exist if I wasn’t able to sleep. I had to get rest because I feel it’s a regenerator. So sleep is a very big part and certainly vodka. Because I mean, it’s just so great to be able to unwind with a cocktail.”