Vera Wang Captures the Essence of Love with Latest Fragrance: ‘It Should Be Celebrated’ (Exclusive)

Vera Wang knows a thing or two about love. 

And on the Friday before the Met Gala, while “working around the clock” to prepare her and Keke Palmer’s Vera Wang Haute designs, the fashion icon took a brief break to share some of her knowledge on the topic with PEOPLE. 

It’s two weeks after her latest fragrance, Vera Wang Love Eau De Parfum, launched on ulta.com, and, it’s two weeks before the fragrance is set to arrive in Ulta stores. To note, 2025 marks 35 years since Wang launched her debut, breakthrough bridal collection. 

On this particular day, Wang is recovering from a case of laryngitis. But that doesn’t stop her from musing about love in all its forms, which now include her fragrance.

“Let’s talk love,” Wang begins. 

But first, a bit more history. Wang’s fragrances are as beloved as her gowns. Her Signature scent won the Fragrance Foundation’s FiFi Award for Fragrance of the Year – Women’s Luxury in 2003, and her Princess fragrance, which was nominated for a FiFi as well, has inspired a dozen-odd flankers, including Rock Princess, for which Wang starred in the campaign.

Still, nothing could have prepared her for taking on Love. “It’s been an incredible, creative olfactory journey,” she says, adding, “and the fact it’s here is, for me, nearly unbelievable.”

Why, you might ask? Because after collaborating for a “lifetime” with brides, Vang explains, this launch is deeply personal. 

“I don’t think anyone has ever, in the history of the planet, done more weddings. Not only designed wedding collections, but actually dressed brides and attended weddings. That is a very unique perspective, believe me,” she says. 

She continues. “I’ve dedicated such a large part of my life towards the concept of romance and optimism. I think, when you get engaged, it is one of the most optimistic things we do. We are really betting on a future, on commitment, on so many things that for me, that’s an extremely brave step.”

Wang not only respects the emotion that comes with the ceremonial gestures — from proposal to “I do” — she embodies them. And so, with great patience (“This was not a rushed project. This was really very, very carefully thought out,” she assures.) Wang, 75, bravely embarked on the project.

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But, for all this talk about love, Wang would not consider herself a “romantic” — at least not in the common sense of the word.

“It’s very funny you would ask. I am proud to say I am a romantic, but I’m not romantic in whatever the definition of romantic is to most people. I’m not a frilly woman. If anything, I’ve been a very disciplined athlete. I trained in ballet at the School of American Ballet. I would say I’m beyond a tomboy. The endurance it takes to try to be an Olympian, and in an era where people didn’t even exercise, is…,” Wang pauses as she takes stock of her fashion sense. “I think I always had that mix of really boyish and yet very fashion forward. There is black swan, white swan, I joke. And, I think I’ve probably worn more leggings than even some dancers because I’ve gone on to live in them my whole life.” 

Aside: Her daughters, when young, hated when the former Vogue fashion editor reached for leggings. “They were horrified by it. They’d say, ‘Mom, you look like you’re in your pantyhose, coming to pick us up at school.’ And I’d say, ‘I have an active life, and I can’t run around only in suits, you know.’”

Wang also knew she needed the “freedom” the item provided. “There’s a very artistic expression with my body that I’ve always had from being a skater and dancer. I don’t think a lot of people really realize that for me, like for most dancers and athletes, for the first 17 years of my life, my body was a tool.”

The “dichotomy” Wang sees in her own approach to fashion was one she sought to bring to this fragrances’ bottle, which takes the shape of a solitaire diamond ring. “It’s romantic, but it’s sleek. It’s sculptural. It’s got an edge — it’s not saccharine. That’s the idea that it was supposed to be, is that it’s a modern interpretation of sophistication and emotion and love.”

Just as no one is perhaps more equipped to capture love, Wang brought her years of jewelry designing into the creation of this bottle. “I’ve been designing jewelry for about 28 years. I do jewelry lines for Jared Jewlers and Zales. I also have done jewelry for Kohl’s and with Chow Tai Fook Jewellery in all of Asia. So, it’s reflective also of that love of jewelry.”

It also helps that Wang is a jewelry collector. Still, the process “was a lot of experimentation and a lot of work — if you knew how many bottles we went through. But I do credit my creative collaborator on this bottle, because she understood me,” Wang says of Suzanne Dalton, who she’d known for decades but never collaborated with until now.

Naturally, the solitaire rests in platinum-like setting, it being a particularly strong metal, which is symbolic of unbreakable love. “It is intended to really embody that moment when you receive the ring,” Wang explains.

“I’ve always tried my best, with wedding fashion, to break boundaries and constantly recreate scenarios. But I know that with this fragrance, the sheer construct of it was so important. We tried many, many variations. But when I saw the ring, I just really said, that’s just such a unique rendering of what so many of us aspire to. It’s gifting, it’s generational, it’s perpetual, really, to me.”

For the fragrance, Wang landed upon a “feminine and confident” amber floral scent featuring Queen of the Night NaturePrint, meaning the ingredient was made for Wang, a far more sustainable option than being sourced from the wild. 

The designer says she gravitated toward the ingredient “because it’s so unique as a scent, but also because it really is very mysterious.” The flower only blooms at night, which “I thought lent romance to the concept of the juice,” she adds. 

The fragrance opens with top notes of Mandarin essence, Pink Pepper SFE (a fresh yet spicy note) and blackcurrant accord before the aforementioned star ingredient, along with warm tuberose and sensual jasmine sambac take center stage. Velvety amber woods, and a hint of vanilla, ground the aroma.

“Having tested so many different combinations, in the end, this was the one that really had a wonderful story to tell and was symbolic of how I’m trying to redefine married love. I think it just all came together, and I have to be honest, not without a lot of thought, a lot of work, a lot of experimentation and a lot of time.”

“I think of love, in this case, as related to romance, but I really didn’t want it to be saccharine,” Wang says. While she still believes in the ring’s symbolism, she explains, “I wanted the project to reflect the times and reflect how modern people are. In a way, this project, Love, is about people. It’s embracing universal concepts, through my eyes.”

Finding the right balance took a long while. “This was not a quick overnight project, and I just kept saying ‘God, help us. I hope this comes out,’ and ‘I hope I’m alive by the time it comes out.’”

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“Given what we’ve all been living through — the uncertainty, the insanity, the pandemic, everything — you learn, with wisdom, that you don’t take anything for granted, ever. However, I feel very, very lucky and really humbled by all of this because, it really has been just one incredible experiment after another, not only for the bottle, but for the juice. And for me, there was probably not a better time for this,” she says. 

The result is “a personal statement” that was well-worth her and her team’s hard work.

At a time when studies say marriage is in decline and social media is stocked with images and videos of failed attempts at partnership, Wang says we need love. 

“I think it’s because my age,” she explains. “I’ve experienced not only a lot of fashion, needless to say when you look at my resumé, but I think I’ve experienced a lot of humanity. And I have to say that I see, now more than ever, that there is a need for this.”

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“It doesn’t necessarily command someone as to how they need to live their life. I’m not here to judge people. I never have been. I’ve always been just to suggest. What we did in bridal fashion was to encourage women to be themselves, to celebrate who they are. There’s no one definition of style. There is no one definition of beauty. This is your life, and that personal connection is something I was trying to create with this fragrance: We’re here to be celebratory, to be optimistic, and to encourage people to embrace love.”

“After all is said and done, we are humans, and connection is still so important. And in the end, ‘I love you’ is one of the most important things you can say to someone. That could be said to your partner, to your children, to your parents, to your friends. It’s a big part of our life, and I think it should be celebrated.”

When Wang reflects on the journey to launch she shares, “I [felt] very pressured to take on Love in a way that I felt proud of. Everybody really understood that this was very much emblematic of so much of my own career and my own company. This was probably one of the most personal projects I’ve ever done, so there’s definitely a lot of emotion involved for me.”

Though the fragrance was a “labor of love,” Wang is already looking forward to interpreting different types of love through more iterations of the fragrance.

“It’s quite exciting as a project because we really planned it to be able to express many kinds of love, but this is the first one,” she says, adding, “I want to celebrate the entire concept of love. It’s something that I’ve always felt is one of the most optimistic feelings that we all want.”