Vera Wang Says Turning 75 Is 'a Lot of Pressure' but Plans to Keep ‘Prodding On’ (Exclusive)

For her 73rd birthday, Vera Wang celebrated in lavish — and, might we add, extremely pink — style with “cakes and karaoke,” her own rosé prosecco and a tiara (she's the queen of bridal, of course). When her 74th came along, she threw another bash, but this time with a Western saloon theme that required a chic cowboy hat.

On June 27, Wang will ring in her 75th birthday, and while the countdown has started, she doesn’t know how she’ll celebrate the milestone just yet.

“Birthday plans are up in the air. I mean 75 is a lot of pressure,” the bridal designer and mom of two tells PEOPLE exclusively, as she sits calm, cool and collected in her signature sunglasses backstage at the Fashion Scholarship Fund Gala on April 8. Rest assured, there will be cake (“We're cake people, as you can tell,” she says of her family’s favorite dessert). 

While the festivities aren't in the works yet, Wang is looking toward the future.

“I think maybe a little bit like Warren Buffett [age 93] or Queen Elizabeth II [who reigned the British monarchy for seven decades until she was 96], I'm just going to keep prodding on because I feel as though I'm able to do my best work more and more. I'm really trying to respect that in me, that voice in me, that I feel very happy to be creating. That's what it's all about, really.” 

It’s the kind of self-empowerment that’s kept her and her fashion label running — scratch that, dominating — in the bridal field. This year, Vera Wang the brand — which recently dressed Vanessa Hudgens for her wedding to Cole Tucker and designed a dress for the actress for the 2024 Oscars, where she debuted her baby bump — will also be celebrating its 34th anniversary. “It's a very big year for us," she says.

Wang, a former Vogue fashion editor, started her company in 1990 with a bridal flagship salon at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, reads the house's website. One year later, she debuted a ready-to-wear collection. 

In the 34 years since, she’s won awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and expanded into menswear, beauty, accessories, spirits and fragrances, which just had a relaunch of the 2006 Rock Princess fragrance last April. Fun fact: the name was inspired by Wang’s daughters, Cecilia and Josephine, who were ecstatic about the princess element when the fragrance launched in their preteen years. 

Wang is also the woman behind the luxurious bridal looks featured in pop culture’s royal weddings. When David and Victoria Beckham tied the knot in 1999, she did everything in her power to get the pop star bride in that famous champagne-hued ball gown. She flew to London while Victoria flew to New York — while the gown also crossed international borders.

"I call it the transatlantic dress," Wang recalled to PEOPLE in October 2023.