Out Spotlight

Today's is a Taiwanese-Canadian fashion designer based in New York City. He is most famous for designing the dresses of Michelle Obama on several occasions, including during first and second inauguration of American President Barack Obama. Today's Out Spotlight is designer Jason Wu.

Jason Wu was born in Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China)on September 27, 1982 to entrepreneurs who run an import-export business. His mother moved Wu and his brother to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at age nine. “The story of how I learned the English language is how I discovered fashion, really,” his English tutor brings fashion magazines to her nine-year-old charge.

He went on to attended the Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts and Loomis Chaffee, in Windsor, Connecticut. Wu learned how to sew by designing and sewing for dolls, and went on to study sculpture in Tokyo at the age of 14. He continued this career path at age sixteen by learning to create freelance doll clothing designs for toy company Integrity Toys under the lines "Jason Wu dolls" and later "Fashion Royalty". The following year, he was named creative director of Integrity Toys. He decided to become a fashion designer while spending his senior year of high school in Rennes, France before graduating from the Loomis Chaffee School in 2001, and studied at the Parsons The New School for Design, a division of The New School in New York.

Wu launched his ready-to-wear line of clothes with earnings from his years of doll designs. His first full collection debuted in 2006 and won the Fashion Group International's Rising Star award in 2008. In 2008 he was nominated for the CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund award. And that same year fame photographer Bruce Weber shot the designer for W magazine's "Summer Camp" portfolio in their July issue that year.

Wu's early clients included Ivana Trump, January Jones, and Amber Valletta. He also worked extensively with drag queen RuPaul, ultimately designing six RuPaul dolls.

Wu collaborated with CND (Creative Nail Design) for his Spring 2011 collection to create a set of four nail polish colours that was to be retailed from May 2011.

He launched an affordable ready to wear line in collaboration with Neiman-Marcus and also worked with Target to create one of their most successful designer collaboration pop up projects.

In June 2013, Wu was named as the Art Director of German fashion house Hugo Boss overseeing the entire womenswear range.

Michelle Obama is a noted Jason Wu customer. She was introduced to Wu by André Leon Talley, Vogue Magazine's editor-at-large, who had been advising the current First Family on their appearance. She bought four dresses from Wu early in the year, wearing one of them for a segment on Barbara Walters Special shortly before the November 2008 election, prompting many in the media to consider her his "career-launcher". She wore another dress, a custom-designed one-shoulder, floor-length white chiffon gown, at the inaugural balls on the night of President Barack Obama's first term inauguration.

Appearing on the cover of Vogue, Obama once again wore a Wu design, a magenta silk dress. Upon her arrival in London in April 2009 during the First Lady and President Barack Obama's first official European trip, Obama wore a chartreuse silk sheath dress that was designed by Wu; the next day she wore a Wu coat during her visit with the Queen Elizabeth II. On April 2, 2009, Obama paired a "traditional looking" teal Wu dress with a blue-patterned cardigan designed by Junya Watanabe on her visit to the Royal Opera House.

Mrs. Obama again wore a dress that was designed by Wu, a ruby red velvet and chiffon design, at the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Balls.