"I imagine a mother and micromanaging boss would be a nightmare," says Carolina Herrera Baez with a chuckle. Luckily, that's not the case for her, she says — her boss "gives me the reins, she's not controlling me" despite the fact that, yes, her boss of the past 14 years is her mother, the legendary designer Carolina Herrera.
Both Herreras stopped off in the UAE in October to open a store in Abu Dhabi and launch their latest men's fragrance in Dubai — after a visit to Saudi Arabia, to work with a local breast cancer charity. Baez was chatting at her Dubai hotel suite ahead of the events, her mother having stayed in Saudi Arabia for an extra day. The question about working with her mother is something she faces all the time, she says, but she understands people's fascination with the unusual work dynamic.
Nurturing bonds
"We don't live in the same cities. The interaction at work is these trips," Baez says. "When we're together I don't relate to her as a co-worker, she's my mother and I still relate to her as my mother. If we have to sit down and talk about business it's still mother to daughter — if I'm in a meeting with her, I don't call her Mum, but that's the extent of it.
"I am not a clone of her, I don't want to be her, and that's why our relationship works," she adds. "We have very independent personalities. We feed off each other, that's the fun part. We talk all the time, we talk every day. But work-wise, weeks go by without mentioning work. Because I don't need to — she gives me the reins."
The two Carolinas (Baez is the third daughter of the Venezuela-born, New York-based designer) have worked together since she was asked by her mother to launch the label's second fragrance, the wildly successful 212, a reference to the NYC telephone code, in 1997.
Simple words
When I asked her to start working on the fragrance division, more than ten years ago, we needed the ideas of someone young who had nothing to do with the fragrance industry," said Herrera Sr by e-mail. "The only advice I gave her was to enjoy whatever she did. Then, she did it so well and she loved it so much that she finally decided to stay in the business."
Baez now heads the company's fragrance division from Madrid, and recently revisited the 212 range, adding the VIP category to what is the label's younger, hipper perfume range. The question of dynasty — as to whether she will be the one to take over the reins from her mother, is another issue that's constantly raised, and which she bats away each time.
I block it out. It's silly to predict the future. Maybe yes, and maybe no. Maybe it's my sister. It's not that simple. No one is going to do what she does. So when she doesn't want to do it any more or is no longer with us, it would be a different thing. It's a normal question to ask. But we don't talk about it actually."
There was no push to make sure a family member was in place, Baez says, calling her joining the company, "very organic, normal". "I've been doing it 14 years. It's not like 4 years ago my mother said, ‘OK we have to push in one of the daughters because let's do a link'."
Sr says there's time yet. "If that is what she wants I will be more than happy, I will be thrilled that she stays in the company. I am not retiring yet," she laughs.
Living and working on separate continents, when they do get together, often it's as a united voice: two women leading a globally renowned fashion company, the perfect platform from which to reach out to other women and inform them about breast cancer. It's an awareness project the brand has been working on for a number of years, taking them all over the world, but for the first time to Saudi Arabia.
"A lot of people ask me, ‘why breast cancer and not something else?' Breast cancer, because I'm a woman, because I felt that I could pass on that voice — I could pass on others, but this is the one I am doing. It's not that I have I personal history, thank God, but really I think it's because I have the luck to have some sort of voice," Baez says.
"At the very beginning, when planning to visit the KSA one of the reasons was to collaborate with a local partner to develop together the same key messages that I have been working on since 2008 when my collaboration with the Breast Cancer campaign started," Herrera Sr adds. "I thought the Zahra Breast Cancer Association, with Princess Haifa, whom I had the pleasure to meet, was the perfect partner to start our work against Breast Cancer in Saudi."
The trip took the mother-daughter team to Jeddah, where they attended a charity gala to raise funds for the Zahra association, and met local women to find out about their breast cancer experience. "In Saudi, it is not that different from other countries," says Herrera Sr, echoed by her daughter.
"It's absolutely the same. The same concerns, the same fright of having a mammogram, of going and getting the check-up, and I've done them with women in most parts of the world, mostly Latin America, but it was the same concerns. Women all over the world when it comes to health and especially breast cancer, they are all the same. I did find that all the women I spoke to, in the interviews and at the gala, were all very strong wilful women. Us not living there have this vision of them being very submissive, being at home, being told what to do. The women I came into contact with were anything but."
Traditional touch
Foreign women in Jeddah are not required to wear a headscarf but both Carolinas wore abayas while in the conservative nation — Baez wore one she was given in Bahrain on an earlier visit, while Herrera Sr used her creativity. "I enjoyed wearing the abayas I designed for the occasion and so has Carolina, my daughter. We all looked so chic. About the headscarf, the only time I wore it was in Abu Dhabi when visiting the incredible mosque, so beautiful, and to be honest I just tied it as I felt better and it looked really nice, I even did to Carolina!
"It has been an incredible trip. At a personal level it has been an incredible experience and I hope, in fact, I am sure that business-wise also it will be very positive," adds Herrera Sr with the word "smile!".
Winning designs
Herrera Sr has a lot to smile about recently. Apart from the ongoing success of her designs, with store openings around the world continuing, including their recent one at Abu Dhabi Mall in the capital, she designed the second-most anticipated wedding dress this year after Kate Middleton's royal gown: the dress worn by Kristen Stewart in the wedding scene in Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1, which released last month. The ravenous Twilight fans had been awaiting the dress for months after it was revealed. Herrera Sr had been personally asked to create the gown by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. The gown features an intricately worked back and long sleeves.
"I was of course inspired by Stephenie's description of the gown in the book, but I added the touch of Herrera and also took into consideration the personality and the style of the bride," Herrera Sr told Vogue last month.
"Bella's dress is romantic and filled with a timeless sophistication, very similar to the character." As to why she took on the job? The 72-year-old designer is a Twihard just like the rest of us.
"I read the books and saw the first film and have been a fan ever since. You can't walk down the street and run into someone who doesn't know what Twilight is anymore." The company has, not surprisingly, decided to make the dress available to the general public, with the crepe satin and French Chantilly lace design planned to be on sale in four US stores — New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Bal Harbour — from January next year.
212 gets the VIP treatment
One of the most iconic scents of the 1990s, 212 has remained successful and inspiring to its creator, Carolina Herrera Baez. That's why she chose to revisit it and create a VIP version, released for women, and this autumn, for men.
"I think they are modern, they are fresh and hip and they have their own character," she says. "They are very New York, from the design of the bottle, to the campaign."
The ads play on the difficulty of getting into a New York nightclub.
"It's definitely with a sense of humour — what does it mean to be a VIP? It is very random who gets in on the door. I did it in my twenties and thirties and I remember it," Herrera says with a laugh. Now a mother, she prefers getting together with friends in a more relaxed setting.
"A night out in New York would just be to hang out with friends, because I don't live there. But the whole nightclub thing is out of our bodies."
