But the real fairy story is of Wu himself: A 26-year-old designer who, after a scant three years in business, finds his fuchsia pink dress worn on the cover of Vogue by America's first lady - after Michelle Obama wore his one-shoulder white gown, embellished with organza flowers, for the Inauguration Day balls.
"I eat, dream and live fashion - but I never thought anything would happen so fast," says Wu. "I thought I had made a dress as part of her wardrobe - I didn't think it would be my turn yet - not for another 10 years."
It has been a long journey from the 5-year-old boy gazing at store windows in the bridal district of his native Taiwan to the height of uptown fashion in New York. Encouraged by his mother, who took him to Canada at age 9, enrolled him in school in Vancouver, moved him to Connecticut and then Parsons School of Design in New York, Wu has become the success story of every Asian mom's dreams.
"I like dreamy and soft, different textures - and to make clothes where there is more than meets the eye," says the designer, whose delicate touch includes loose pockets, patterns that reveal themselves as narrative drawings and scatterings of embroidered beads (Wu marked every single placement with a felt pen). The result is skilful couture effects but with a youthful sensibility.
The change in the fall/winter 2009 show was a new exploration of day wear, especially the womanly pantsuit that opened the show or a streamlined coat in double-faced wool. For evening, there were romantic ballerina skirts. Wu, who has never met Michelle Obama, studied her figure in order to judge the fit; the president's wife was introduced to Wu's clothes through the Chicago boutique Ikram.
In his small studio, where a raw wood table fills the space that is not taken up with the rail of collection clothes, Wu stores his inspirations and accomplishments, from a painting of peonies that is part of his artistic work to the dolls that he has created since age 18. The designer seems almost as proud of his "corner" in the iconic New York toy store FAO Schwarz as he is of dressing the first lady.
Wu is typical of a new generation of designers of Asian origins in that he has a fresh approach to femininity that is never vulgar and far less in-your-face revealing than 21st-century celebrity dressing. In fact, the designer says that he thinks it is time to downplay the "famous front row," although his own included the actress Gretchen Mol as "a friend" and a few uptown "socials."
Obama herself is clearly looking for a new breed of designer with a young, fresh approach. Hence, she is prepared to be photographed by the iconic portraitist Annie Leibovitz in Vogue wearing a J. Crew cardigan and skirt.
"She should not become a fashion icon," Wu says of the first lady. "She is an inspiration - a mother with two kids. Let's not make her into a celebrity."
