Every fashion house has its codes — the colors, the vibrations, the prints, the patterns, the shapes, the stories, the any number of specific visual elements that are a brand’s lifeblood.

And what, exactly, are the codes at the House of Herrera? The ones that have defined us for forty years, from Mrs. Herrera’s early days in the 1980s to current Creative Director Wes Gordon’s landmark runway shows — plucky Polka Dots, ravishing Rainbow Stripes, bold Big Shoulders, and wild Animal Prints.

Big shoulders have been a mainstay at the House of Herrera since the glitzy, glamazon days of the 1980s. Now they’ve been given a new life by Creative Director Wes Gordon — a sparkling cap sleeve cocktail dress, worn by África Peñalver, is made all the more magic by two poofs of panache

Rainbows are beautiful, but, as an important motif at the House of Herrera, they’re also a symbol of so much more — the power of Pride and the calm, lightness, and clarity after the ravages of a storm. “In a gray, uncertain world,” Carolina Herrera Creative Director Wes Gordon once said, “Herrera should be that rainbow in your wardrobe.”