We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vera C Wang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vera C below.

Vera C, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry

Quiet Luxury & 90s minimalism are going very strong right now in the Fashion industry. Clean lines, simplicity, and a focus on high-quality, versatile pieces have been trending as a contrast to more maximalist styles. Also people care more and more about functionalities, and sustainability.

I personally like this trend a lot, since I started VERAFIED as a slow fashion brand, and the core of our design is time lasting, modern-chic and minimal. We want people to shop with us with an idea of” Buy less, choose well.” So for us, this is definitely a very fitting trend and a great opportunity for us to grow this year.

Just as consumers reflected their feelings on the state of the world through their fashion purchases back then, they are repeating the cycle today as geopolitical tensions remain high, and inflation, food and energy costs cause consumers to crave the security and simplicity the quiet luxury trend purvey.

Vera C, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Coming from China to New York almost 10 years ago, when social media was the new big thing, I was diving into it. Starting to help bridging fashion and lifestyles brands between the two continents: Making contents, campaigns, helping brands of both cultures to understand each other better and cross-promote to each other’s audience/customers through social media.

I was lucky enough to work with the most established brands in the world when I was just in my early 20s, learning from the best professional team, I was empowered and inspired by the strong minded women around me. So I decide to carry on that empowerment to the next level.

I soft launched VERAFIED in 2017 to create products for the inspiring female leaders to show the symbolic value of individuality.

Slow fashion brand, VERAFIED is rooted in sustainability with just the right amount of New York City edginess. Believing in “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last.”, we make chic and time-lasting pieces that are sober-looking and value conscious.

We release small drops of chic designs made to last with style and quality a focus. Our star-products and current focus are handbags which is also my favorite to design.

What I most proud of is :
We really started to grow during covid times, in 2020, I set up a team in both Shanghai and New York, as an e-commerce business, it allows our team to work remotely anywhere in the world, we managed to double our sales every month in the first year. People really slowed down around that time to think more about their purchase, they value quality and well-made simple design, it definitely worked in our favor.

VERAFIED now has a showroom in New York City and one in the center of Paris. Selling globally, I am planing to open more locations worldwide in the near future.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I started doing social media blogs in early 2014 while going to school in NYU from China, and realized I had a niche bridging two cultures. And after I graduated, I started a PR agency, that was my first company, doing campaigns for brands from both sides to reach different audiences through social media channels.

It was very fun, to start your own company right after school, it was definitely a blast also a big leap as young entrepreneur. Risky and scary as well.

I was having a lot of fun absorbing knowledges and experience from my clients, and in the meantime, I was teaching them something new.

However, after a few years, I figured out PR wasn’t my biggest passion careerwise, I always want to do something on my own, that I don’t need to alter my creatives according to other’s opinion, I needed a platform that I get to do what I have in mind 100%.

That’s when I drafting the brand in 2017. It was definitely a big learning curve, and I do it slowly because I want to do it right, step by step, nourishing it. But most importantly is that I was doing it. Had my mistakes and such, Learned along the way.

However, in the beginning it was still small, not big enough for me to pay the bills or paychecks for team, so I was still doing the PR firm mainly, and tried to squeeze time to grow VERAFIED.

I built a small team in Shanghai and New York, found some good people to help me, they were all doing it part-time as well, it was like a passion project for all of us, hoping it one day will become something.

2018,2019 we started to receive very positive feedback and results, mostly in China market, the brand grows 5x times bigger per year.

and The biggest twist came, 2020. Covid happened.

My PR firm was paused because every clients’ project was paused.

I thought to myself, maybe this is a sign that I devote 100% of my energy and time to the brand. And that what I did.

I couldn’t believe how much I love doing designs, and creating my own campaigns, marketing strategies, I thought it would be scary, but mostly it was just pure excitement and enjoyment.

And that year alone, we grew faster than ever. I was finally relived and happier than ever, that I get to do what I truly love for a living.

As time passes, we are now in 2023, the brand is going stronger and stronger, and I enjoy it more and more. All the learnings paid off, and what makes my heart truly happy is to see many people in real life, on the streets are actually wearing my designs.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

It definitely has to be the product itself.

Of course nowadays, marketing strategies are very important, social media contents, online/offline events, etc.

But my most valuable lesson throughout my PR and brand owner years taught me one thing, once the product is actually good, and organically liked by the market, then it will be way less effort to push it.

It will grow.

So I focus a lot on making the really good products. The reputation grows with words of mouth is pure solid.

Contact Info:

• Website: verafiedny.com
• Instagram: verafied_official
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@verafiedofficial
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@verafied_official https://www.xiaohongshu.com/vendor/6074288f81a4dc0001f1cc9e?naviHidden=yes