Carolina Herrera

An insider's guide to your favourite fashion brands

Who started it?

Born Maria Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Nino in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1939, Carolina Herrera was introduced to high fashion at the age of 13 when she attended her first haute couture show in Paris (Cristobal Balenciaga) with her grandmother. Her father was governor of Caracas and twice the nation's foreign affairs minister.

A skilled equestrian and avid reader, Herrera was married at 18 to another member of the Venezuelan elite. The marriage ended after less than a decade. While working as a publicist at Emilio Pucci in Caracas, she renewed an acquaintance with childhood friend Reinaldo Herrera, whom she married in 1968. The pair became members of a jet-set elite that included the likes of artist Andy Warhol and Princess Margaret.

In 1980, Herrera began to dabble in design. A fixture on international best dressed lists, she wanted to design clothing based on her own experience and was encouraged by magazine editor Diana Vreeland. She had her dressmaker in Caracas sew 20 pieces she brought to New York City and showed at a friend's apartment. The collection attracted buyers from many upscale fashion stores, but Herrera lacked the financial backing to create a complete collection. This finally came in the form of publishing tycoon Armando de Armas. In 1981, she moved to New York City to open her first design studio and showroom. Herrera showed her first complete collection at New York's Metropolitan Club in April that year.

Initially, Herrera wasn't well-received by the fashion press, but she soon found devoted customers among the likes of Estee Lauder, Nancy Reagan and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and her company began to take off.