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
fashion magazines canada
I didn't understand anything about fashion until I moved to Canada when I was 9. That's when I learned English and was exposed to fashion magazines.
bullying school hard-times
I had a hard time in middle school. I was never really quite me until I was 16 or 17, and things like bullying didn't matter anymore.
new-york nice thinking
It's nice to be able to be whoever you want to be. I moved to New York for that reason. I think I am a very good example of how you really can do whatever you want to do without having any kind of prerequisite experience of any of kind of connection. None of my family members came from this world.
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.
fashion the-end-of-the-day done
This is the hardest thing I've ever done, being in fashion business, because that's what it is at the end of the day, a business, and you have to make sure it works.
thinking careers voice
I think it's really important to make things your own in your voice. I started when I was 23, and in the beginning of my career, there was this expectation of a young designer being edgier, cooler, more downtown. But I was never that person.
thinking goal kind
I guess I accidentally became a part of history. Honestly, when you're young and you're a designer, you have a goal, but that is not the kind of goal that you even think it's possible to achieve.
beautiful shoes design
In designing for the first lady, I tried to sort of be in her shoes, but I didn't really look at her as an important political figure. I looked at her as a woman who would like to wear a beautiful dress to an important gala.
half plastic percent
Actually, I'm probably 99-and-a-half percent plastic now.
stars people missing
I miss All Stars, by the way. I was just telling people: how am I going to get by until January?
growing-up growing unthinkable
When I was growing up, you sort of did the unthinkable. You did something that has never really been replicated.
fashion reading magazines
when I moved to Canada in '93, I started reading fashion magazines, and that's where I spotted the M.A.C ad that RuPaul were in. That's sort of how I first "met" you - in the red bodysuit. That was so iconic to me.
mom inspiration years
The way my mom dressed was one of my earliest inspirations, in those '80s suits with shoulder pads and things like that. For years, I ran away from that style. But now, all I want to do is shoulder pads and nipped-in waists and padded hips and peplums and poufed dresses.
jobs dad home
My parents loved me, and I think they realized that I was probably not going to have a normal 9-to-5 job. For the longest time, my dad thought that I was just going to be home until I was, like, 35, which, weirdly, is completely normal in Asian families.