t was January 22nd, 2002 when the Veronicas finally met. The two were seated at the same table at a wedding along with VMB’s husband Anson Beard and VSB’s future husband, Jamie Beard. “I told Jamie to get on that,” VMB said about her future sister-in-law. “She was really cool.” “Jamie was making a hard push and I thought, ‘God, this guy is so divine and so sweet,’” VSB recalls. “But then I looked at Veronica [Miele Beard] and thought there’s no way that fate is going to play out and there will be two Veronica Beards. Now there are.” Despite working in two different worlds, the two were kindred spirits when it came to style and they soon began tossing around ideas with one another. A maternity line was one idea, given the eight pregnancies they’ve now had between the two of them. But the theme that stuck was “the uniform”: easy, American sportswear inspired by the utilitarianism of men’s clothing. In 2009, talk turned to action. Their husbands each had jackets with zip-in sweaters that didn’t exist in womens wear at the time. So the Veronicas whipped up some prototypes for their own wardrobes and started wearing them out and about, swapping out the dickies to change their look. VMB’s financial mind took over. There was a business to be built around jackets with interchangeable dickies. “We thought about a girl with this crazy busy lifestyle and a lot of kids and maybe a job and still looking sexy for her husband. Can we have this one superman cape that simplifies this for her?” If it sounds a lot like they were thinking about themselves, that’s no coincidence. “What’s amazing about what Veronica and Veronica are doing is that they’re designing and creating a collection for themselves and the world they live in,” Swanson Frank says. “So often in fashion we lose the conversation with who will be living in and wearing the clothes the designers are designing for. They’ve made this conversation so personal and intimate because it’s a direct conversation they’re having with themselves: women juggling careers, motherhood and interesting lives.” They went to friend Sarah Easley, co-owner of Kirna Zabete, which is, for the uninitiated, one of New York’s most prestigious high-end boutiques. “They showed up at Balthazar both wearing the now famous uniform jacket—one of them had a fisherman dickie and the other one had a hoodie—and they said we have this concept for a transformer blazer. I get hundreds of solicitations a week but I really loved this idea and believed in it. I said make it and we will sell it. That first fall, we reordered three times. At the end of the day the uniform jacket was a shortcut; it’s a polisher piece you can throw on over jeans and go out into the world not looking disheveled.” The uniform jacket grew into a small, concentrated collection in that same spirit. “The concept was to focus-in on those key pieces that are absolutely essential to an active working woman or at-home mother’s wardrobe based on their experience and perfect them—the perfect trenchcoat, the perfect-fitting pant, the most wonderful day into evening dress—items that they felt were key elements of a modern woman’s wardrobe,” says Michelle Stein, who is President of Aeffe and served as an unofficial advisor to the Veronicas at the outset of their business. The clothes are all about real women living real lives who don’t have time for a skirt they can’t get out of a taxi in or a dress that is uncomfortable to sit down in or pieces that are difficult to style. “As female designers designing for women, we have an edge,” VSB says. “You know how a woman’s body is. You know what she’s doing. You know how much and what her needs are. I think male designers have a lot more artistic freedom because they don’t live in the reality of walking in their shoes. While we adore all these male designers who create the incredible fantasy that is fashion, we really strive to design reality.”
VSB wears a Red and White Gingham Top by Louis Vuitton, available at Select Louis Vuitton Stores, 866.VUITTON, louisvuitton.com. Paired with Black Cotton Scuba Slim Trouser by Veronica Beard; available at veronicabeard.com. VSB also wears Yellow Gold, Platinum, and Diamond Earrings by David Webb and a Yellow Gold and Diamond Ring, both by David Webb; available at DavidWebb. com. Black Pumps with Yellow Floral Detail by Rupert Sanderson, available at rupertsanderson.com VMB wears a Black Silk Double Georgette Layered Blouse paired with a Hothouse Floral Scuba Flounce Skirt with Neon Yellow Piping, both by Veronica Beard; available at vernonicabeard. com. Her earrings are 18 kt, Silver and Black Diamond Rhodium Earrings; available at josephstores.com. Her Periwinkle Diamond Webbed Bangle is also from the Rhodium collection; available at the Wynn Las Vegas store. Shoes are VMB’s own by Saint Laurent
MARCH 2014 • AVENUE MAGAZINE | 59