In the third in a video series about designers in their offices and studios, Vera Wang, who introduced her ready-to-wear line in 2004 and has won both the designer-of-the-year and lifetime-achievement awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, talks retreat and creation. (The conversation has been edited and condensed.)
王薇薇(Vera Wang)在2004年推出自己的成衣系列，曾获得美国时装设计师协会的年度最佳设计师奖和终身成就奖。在一部讲述设计师办公室和工作室生活的视频系列里，王薇薇在第三集中谈起自己的静居之处和创作过程（下面的对话经过剪辑和浓缩）。

Q. How long have you been out of the garment district?
问：你离开时装区多久了？
A. I have been in this space coming up on three years. I moved here, to Madison Square Park, initially for light, air and a view. I’d been in the garment center for so long, and it was starting to feel very oppressive: the intensity of the streets, the amount of people, the amount of factories still, even now; the amount of showrooms, design studios, all so jammed into a three-to-four block area. I calculated once that just running from 39th Street, where I was, to Eighth Avenue probably had taken ... um, a fifth of my life over 20 years. When I calculated that, I thought maybe it’d be better to go to a less intense neighborhood. Then I found out they shoot movies here, so really, you can’t win any way you look at it.
答：我在这里待了三年了。我最初搬来麦迪逊广场公园是为了这里的光线、空气和风景。我在服装区待得太久了，慢慢觉得非常压抑：密集的街道，拥挤的人流，即使到现在还有很多工厂；数不清的展厅和设计工作室都挤在那三四个街区里。我曾算过，我在第39街到第八大道待了20多年，度过了我人生五分之一的时间。我这么算过之后觉得也许搬到一个不那么拥挤的地方更好。然后我发现他们拍电影在这里取景，这里真的是怎么看怎么喜欢。
How much work did you have to do around the space to make it your own?
问：你对这里进行了多少整修才把它变成自己的空间？
We took the lease completely brute, meaning we put every single thing in. We used to have six floors in our old building, so everybody spent their time going up and down the elevator. Here we have it all on two, so it is infinitely more efficient for us, and also I feel that everybody in the company is more accessible to each other.
答：我们的租约还挺粗暴的，我的意思是我们把所有的细枝末节都写进去了。这幢楼本来有六层，所以大家把时间都浪费在坐电梯上了。现在总共就两层，极大地提高了效率，而且我感觉公司里的人相互之间也更亲近了。
How do you differentiate your office from the rest of the office?
问：你的办公室和这座楼的其他地方有什么不同？
This is my refuge — outside is my design studio/think tank/laboratory. I wanted a space where I could retire from the intensity of that room. I really wanted something that had a very Asian — not only contemporary — but Asian kind of feel. And in all fairness, in my heart of hearts I am — funny for me to say this — but in my own strange way I’m very minimalist. And this space reflects that. It makes me calm down and think more clearly, and it’s very, very soothing. I always come in here, although our real entrance is downstairs. Usually I’m on the phone until I get here, whether about business or my daughters or other parts of my life. Coming through this environment prepares me for the transition into the design space.
答：这里是我的避难所——外面是我的设计工作室/智囊团/实验室。我想要一个空间，能让我从设计室的压力中解脱出来。我真的想要很亚洲的东西——不只是当代的——而是那种亚洲的感觉。平心而论，在内心深处——我这么说有点好笑——我是个强烈的极简主义者，虽然我的方式有点古怪。这个空间反映了这一点。它能让我平静下来，更清晰地思考，它特别让人放松。我总是从这里进设计室，虽然我们真正的入口在楼下。通常，到这里之前我都在打电话，不管是关于生意、女儿们还是我生活的其他方面。经过这个环境的洗涤，我才能做好准备过渡到设计室。
Two things about this office: no desk, no computer.
问：这个办公室有两个特点：没有书桌，没有电脑。
No desk on purpose. I sit at a table in the design studio. When I’m in here, I really like to be focused. I come here to make very difficult phone calls or engage in very complex negotiations, and I don’t need a desk to do that. I also do not work on a computer. I read on a computer a lot. And I carry my mini iPad everywhere.
答：我是故意不放书桌的。在设计室里，我是坐在工作台旁边。在这里我真的希望专心致志。我来这里打非常棘手的电话或者进行非常复杂的谈判，我做这些事不需要书桌。我也不用电脑工作。我用电脑读很多东西。我到哪儿都带着迷你iPad。
Who comes in here?
问：哪些人会来这里？
No one. I only see it as space for me. When I’m here I feel calm, I feel safe, I feel relaxed, and I think I feel like there’s a private part to me that I really do treasure. The exception is sometimes I meet executives from my licensees in here. It’s ironic to see businessmen in suits sitting on a very low sofa but they get used to it.
答：没人来。我把这里看作我自己的空间。我在这里感觉平静、安全、放松，我觉得这里是珍贵的私人空间。唯一的例外是有时我在这里会见获得特许授权的公司的主管。看着西装革履的商人坐在很矮的沙发上有点让人啼笑皆非，但是他们习惯了。
Is there a reason there’s nothing on the walls?
问：墙上没有任何东西是有原因的吗？
Nothing to distract me, everything to calm me. I have art in my apartment — I’m not a major collector but have some Richard Serra, John Chamberlain — and I have personal photos in my bedroom at home. But I don’t have any in the workplace. I want to be free when I’m working, and I need that kind of emptiness in a weird way.
答：我不要任何东西来分散我的注意力，一切都是为了让我平静。我家里有艺术品，我不是个大藏家，但是我有理查德·塞拉(Richard Serra)和约翰·张伯伦(John Chamberlain)的一些作品。我的卧室里有私人照片。但是我工作的地方什么都没有。我想在工作时自由自在，我需要那种怪异的空旷感。
Why do you have barbells against the wall?
问：为什么墙边有杠铃？
I was told that I should be lifting weights to firm myself up, and I like the look of them — they’re black, rubber coated. I thought they were very chic. Actually, they could be sculpture for me. I do think it’d be nice to lift them once and a while, though I keep forgetting they’re there. I am a bit of a sports fanatic, though, which is why I have the TV over the barbells. My two sports are figure skating and tennis. When the U.S. Open is on, which is always right before the show, we tape it, and I’ll just come in and hopefully, if I’m lucky, I’ll hit Nadal and Djokovic or Federer.
答：有人对我说，举重能让我变得强壮。我喜欢它们的外形——黑色，裹着橡胶。我觉得它们很时尚。实际上对我来说它们像雕塑。我的确认为偶尔举一下杠铃挺好的，但我经常把它们给忘了。不过我对体育运动还是有点狂热的，所以杠铃上方有台电视机。我最喜欢的两个项目是花样滑冰和网球。美国网球公开赛期间——它总是在时装秀前举办——我们把比赛录下来，我来这里时，如果幸运的话，能赶上纳达尔(Nadal)、德约科维奇(Djokovic)或费德勒(Federer)的比赛。
So that’s in here; just outside are all the fabrics, the mood boards, the sample rooms. How does a collection start for you?
问：所以里面是这样的情形，而外面是各种面料、情绪板和样品间。你的一个系列是怎么开始的？
I’ll say at any given moment to my design assistants, “Well, maybe it’s Marie Antoinette if she lived today,” because there’s one piece of fabric this time that resonated for me, a brocade. And then I’ll say: “You know, it does look kind of Chinese, but I don’t want to go there. I’d like to see it as something that Marie Antoinette would have worn but executed in a whole different way.” And then, “Well, maybe that’s too dressy because how would I wear brocade if I were wearing it?” And then: “Who is this woman? She was so young, she wanted to be free. She wanted to experiment with how she looked.” It starts like that.
答：我随时可能对我的设计助理们说，“呃，如果玛丽·安托瓦内特(Marie Antoinette)活到现在的话，这也许就是她的造型，”因为这次有一块面料引起了我的共鸣——一块织锦。然后我会说：“你知道，它的确看起来有点中式，但我不想要中式。我更喜欢把它看作玛丽·安托瓦内特会穿的衣服，不过是用完全不同的方式展现出来的。”然后我又说，“呃，也许那样太考究了，因为要是我穿织锦服装的话，我会穿什么样式的呢？”然后又说，“这个女人是谁？她这么年轻，她想要自由。她想尝试各种造型。”开始就是这样。
Of the materials you work with, how much of them actually end up in a shop versus how many do you say, “Oh, that was a mistake, forget it, I shouldn’t have done that”?
问：你用过的面料中，有多少最后真的到了店里，又有多少最后你说，“哦，那是个错误，别管它了，我不该用它。”
I’ve had whole collections that were mistakes. I have thrown away a quarter of a million in fabric for the resort collection, just thrown it in a pile in the corner. Then my staff runs to gather it and says maybe we’ll use it in another season. That really happens. Really.
答：我曾做过一些完全错误的系列。我扔掉了那个度假系列的25万美元的面料，就堆在角落里。然后我的员工跑去把它收了起来，说也许在另一季还会用。后来我们真的用到了。
And what happens at the end of a season, what do you do with all the, the things that are on the boards, all the fabrics, everything, where does it go?
问：每一季结束时，你怎么处理情绪板上的所有东西和所有的面料？这些东西都去了哪里？
It all goes away, and we start all over again. We don’t archive. There are times — “Oh, I remember that great dress with the incredible embroidery in Barneys’ window, where is it?” — and it’s nowhere to be found. Sad, but true.
答：都扔掉了，我们重新开始。我们不存档。有时我会说，“哦，我记得巴尼斯百货公司橱窗里的那件很棒的连衣裙，上面有精彩的刺绣，它在哪里？”——找不到了。很遗憾，但往往就是这样。