Jason Wu
Jason Wu
Jason Wuis a Taiwanese-born Canadian fashion designer based in New York City. He is most famous for designing the dresses of Michelle Obama on several occasions, including during the first and second inauguration of American President Barack Obama...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionFashion Designer
Date of Birth27 September 1982
CityTaipei, Taiwan
CountryCanada
want designer term
As a designer you have to just do whatever you want to do. The second I came to terms with that, it transformed my work.
blonde feels know-me
Anyone who knows me knows that I don't know anything about politics. Every time I go to Washington, I feel like I'm in Legally Blonde.
keys archives pieces
I realized the importance of archiving. So I save key pieces from my collections, as well as any red-carpet things that become iconic. I always ask for that stuff back. I'm like, "It's going in my archives."
keys one-day archives
I woke up one day and I was like, "I don't have anything to save for myself for the future." That's when I started archiving things. I take four or five things that are really key to each collection, and I restore them or, in some cases, remake parts of them, and archive them.
half plastic percent
Actually, I'm probably 99-and-a-half percent plastic now.
feminine wanted sculpting
For a while, I just thought that I wanted to be an illustrator because that's all I wanted to do. I also did some sculpting. It was always very artsy and very feminine, everything that I did.
mom sweat always-trying
I was very preppy in my childhood. I also went through an anti-clothing moment where I just wanted to wear sweats because I'd just moved to Canada. My mom was always trying to get me into proper clothes, but I never wanted to wear them, and now that's all I wear.
mom antiques taste
My mom used to take me to antique shows, which I hated because everything was so dusty and old and there were all these weird ladies selling their antiques. We call them "eclectic" now. But it was really amazing that I was exposed to that when I was younger. Now that I have my own taste, I understand it more.
dad machines pieces
I don't collect things per se, but I do pick up things as I go. Like, in my studio I have an old sewing machine from Germany that my dad gave me, and then something else that I got from a friend in India, and a piece of flooring from one of my shows.
school gay boys
When I was 12 or 13 I already knew that I was gay. And then my interests were not conventional. So I was very different, in every sense of the word. And in an all-boys school, that's tough.
sleep needs world
I need to feel like I'm part of something. I need to feel part of the world when I go to sleep.
two creating next
You're always in the mode of creating the next season. It's so fast, and in two months, the collection you just did is already old, and it's always next, next, next.
want feels satisfied
I don't know if I would want to come back as anything but me. I feel really satisfied. I don't really want to be anyone else. I just feel like I've gotten everything I signed up for as me. I'm happy as me.
dresses imagined knew moved
When I moved to America, I knew I wanted to be a designer. I never imagined one of my dresses would end up in the Smithsonian.