PEOPLE TO WATCH 2017
Clothes Make the Woman
Carine Wang creates her fashion empire
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rom the time she was a child, Singapore native Carine Wang loved fashion and design and wanted to pursue a career in it. At the age of 15 she learned sewing. Later, she attended the Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles, California. She took a career detour after moving to the United States and marrying her first husband. For ten years, they ran an Asian supermarket together in Phoenix. After their divorce, she returned to the fashion industry by working first as a tailor and then as a retail employee before opening her first store in 2002. Wang has expanded her business tremendously. She now has four retail outlets in the Scottsdale and Phoenix areas, and she has created two apparel lines of her own that are carried throughout the United States. She focuses on dressing the hard-to-fit woman who cannot easily find clothes in department or chain stores. “My wholesale business is
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successful because I have the retail stores and I know what women want,” Wang explains. “We offer designer quality and styles at a much lower price point.” “My clients often come from referrals,” Wang says. “They like to come in and buy their entire wardrobe for the season.” Wang is proud that she has a loyal customer base, some of whom have followed her since she opened her first store 15 years ago in the Seville Shopping Center in Scottsdale. “My customers know I will not let them buy something that does not fit them well,” she says. Newport by Carine is a line of colorful, easy-wear shirts that is now available in over 300 stores nationwide. Her shirts are made of soft natural rayon fiber material with spandex. Her second apparel line – Carine – offers high-end designer styles. The wearable ease of Wang’s
clothing is a result of her experience in running her retail stores. She carries other designers’ clothing, especially at her flagship Gainey Village store. Before anything is put on the rack, Carine has her own employees try it on to test the fit, comfort, and fabric quality. “If a style doesn’t make my employees look good, I won’t sell it,” she says. As part of her service to dressing women, Wang offers custom fitting, image design, and alterations. “We save customers hours of wasted time in searching through mall stores,” she says. For 2017, Wang opened a new store at the Phoenician Resort and Hotel for the Spring season. Wang will also introduce another new line made from bamboo fabric in the Fall. For more information, contact 480.483.3888 or www.carineapparel.com Gainey Village, 8787 N. Scottsdale Rd, Suite 210, Scottsdale, AZ 85253.
1/24/17 4:50 PM