Vera Wang Shares Throwback Photos from Her 'Dream Job' as a Vogue Editor in the '70s

The wedding dress designer worked at Vogue for nearly two decades, after landing the coveted position when she was just 23 years old

Photo: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock

Before she created iconic wedding gowns for stars like Kim Kardashian West, Victoria Beckham and Jessica Simpson, Vera Wang made a name for herself at just 23 years old when she joined Vogue and quickly became one the magazine’s youngest ever fashion editors.

On Wednesday, the designer shared memories from her nearly two-decade-long career at the fashion magazine — she left in 1987 to join Ralph Lauren as design director — with fans and followers on Instagram, calling the coveted fashion position her "dream job" in a throwback photo from "1979? ish."

“Mustique. Vogue shoot. Me: sittings editor. Focused.....,” Wang, now 70, captioned one faded digital photo, in which she is hard at work on a balcony wearing a white headband and loungewear.

In a third throwback picture, the designer appears makeup-free at a Vogue photo shoot in Jamaica: “Round Hill Jamaica. Romper: Norma Kamali New York City Girl ....Yet another Vogue Shoot.....” she wrote alongside the gorgeous portrait.

“What a life you’ve lived so far. Thank you for sharing it with the world, as well as your talent,” one social media user said in the comment section. A second wrote, “A young Vera. So full of life and unlimited possibilities.”

During her time as an editor, Wang worked with fashion legends including Grace Mirabella, Richard Avedon and current Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (whom she is still friends with today). Speaking with the magazine last year about her experience, she said, "I worked for great women [at Vogue]."

"The Devil Wears Prada is kind of a sanitized version of what life was like at Vogue; I mean, there were no hours," she reflected. "And I traveled a great deal; I think one year I was only home maybe between September and Easter two weekends—and one of them was Christmas. I traveled all over the world."

Vera Wang and Anna Wintour.

Wang continued, "I was never at Vogue for financial gain. I was at Vogue because I want to be educated."

And when the wedding dress designer was awarded France's most prestigious honor in 2017, the French Légion d’Honneur, Wintour wrote a letter celebrating her longtime friend and former colleague in which she said, "No one at Vogue was funnier. Or louder. Or more neurotic. Or more endearing."