Designer Sue Wong Creates Alice in Wonderland Dress Line for Disney

Venerable Los Angeles designer Sue Wong has signed a deal with Disney to create a high-end dress line inspired by the new Disney movie, “Alice in Wonderland.”

Starting in February, the line, whose retail price points will range from $320 to $609, will be selling as a limited-edition collection for Spring 2010 in high-end department stores to coincide with the March launch of the movie directed by Tim Burton.

“[The dresses] will be in the store windows at Bloomingdale’s, and there will be a store within a store at Bloomingdale’s too,” said Wong, who is a regular among the lineup at Los Angeles Fashion Week. “It is going to be very exciting.

Other retailers expected to carry the Sue Wong for Walt Disney Signature collection of frilly dresses are: Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s and Neiman Marcus. It will also be available at www.suewong.com.

Wong, a Chinese immigrant who arrived in the United States with her parents at the age of 6, is a prolific artist who churns out creative looks season after season. Her extravagant runway shows often carry as many as 70 looks.

She said the deal with Disney Consumer Products has been a long time in development. In the 1970s, before she started her own most recent company in 1999, she was working at Arpeja as the head designer of the Young Edwardian line. She met Pamela Lifford, a young design student at the time at Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, whose class was taking a field trip to the Arpeja studios. “I was her inspiration years and years ago,” Wong said.

They kept in contact and eventually Lifford became an executive vice president at Disney Consumer Products. “They have been approaching me for 2 1/2 years to do something with them,” Wong noted. “The right vehicle never came up until now.”

The dress line will feature looks influenced by key story characters and locations, including Alice, the Red Queen, the White Queen, the White Rabbit and the talking flower garden. It will also showcase details inspired by the film, such as Victorian antique lace while offering Wong’s influence of romance and femininity.—Deborah Belgum

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