Leading Women:  Fashionista Carolina Herrera
ANDERSON: They are among the world's most powerful and innovative people, the Leading Women who are at the top of their game, and the focus of what is our new series. This week, Felicia Taylor meets one entrepreneur who has cemented her place in the world of high fashion, Carolina Herrera.</s>FELECIA TAYLOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carolina Herrera has been defining elegance for more than 30 years, with a sense of style she was born with in her native Venezuela.</s>CAROLINA HERRERA, FOUNDER, CAROLINA HERRARA NEW YORK & CH: We only have six left.</s>TAYLOR: As founder and designer, Herrera is the embodiment of her brand, exuding an easy grace even when wearing her signature classic white shirt.</s>HERRERA: You know, the white shirt is so easy. For me, it's like a security blanket.</s>TAYLOR: Herrera's start in fashion was an unlikely one, at the age of 42, with no official training. Her friend, Diana Vreeland urged her to design a collection of dresses. Armed with natural talent, Herrera launched her fashion company in New York in 1981. That expanded to include bridal in 1987, and by 2008, CH was born, Herrera's lifestyle collection that also includes menswear. And today, the Herrera Collection can be found in more than 280 stores in over 100 countries, earning profits that top hundreds of millions of dollars.</s>HERRERA: Fashion never stops. There is always the new project, the new opportunity. So many things going on.</s>TAYLOR: This is Caroline Herrera.</s>HERRERA: It's almost ready. How wonderful!</s>TAYLOR: As a style icon herself, Carolina Herrera ensures each one of her designs lives up to the Herrera name.</s>TAYLOR (on camera): What are you -- what is the prefect definition of the Carolina Herrera brand? I mean, in terms of what you want women to have as the impression.</s>HERRERA: I think women in Carolina Herrera, I like them to be sophisticated and I like them to be classic with a modern twist.</s>TAYLOR (voice-over): Named CFDA Women's Wear Designer of the Year in 2004 and recipient of the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, Herrera is firmly part of fashion's foundation. Celebrities have favored her chic and elegant designs for decades, with Tina Fey most recently wearing one of her dresses at the Academy Awards. On this day, she's doing her final model fittings before the debut of her Fall 2012 line at New York's Fashion Week.</s>HERRERA: I mean, the ribbon can be tighter.</s>TAYLOR: For a designer, Fashion Week is a make or break it moment, so Herrera is hands-on every step of the way.</s>HERRERA: So, you're taking off a little bit of the train? Just a tiny bit? Oh, all right, all right. Gracias. Hola, hola, hola.</s>TAYLOR: Backstage on the day of her show, Herrera is a little hard to keep up with.</s>HERRERA: They are looking wonderful. And then we tone this. How are you?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm good, how are you?</s>HERRERA: It looks great.</s>TAYLOR: Always demonstrating a poised sense of power among the chaos.</s>HERREA: This is the moment.</s>TAYLOR (on camera): Before a fashion show begins, what goes through your mind?</s>HERRERA: What -- before it begins?</s>TAYLOR: Seriously.</s>HERRERA: My darling, I cannot explain it to you. I have my -- my stomach is full of butterflies.</s>TAYLOR: Good. Me, too.</s>HERRERA: You know, what it is is an excitement. If you don't have the energy, then you're flat.</s>TAYLOR: And you're never flat.</s>HERRERA: No, you need the energy because you need the excitement.</s>TAYLOR (voice-over): Adding to the excitement, well-known fashion heavy hitters come back stage to wish Herrera well.</s>HERRERA: Oh, no.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, I was just -- I was just shopping.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you feeling? You look beautiful.</s>HERRERA: And you? I love the way you -- I love the way you look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like it, too.</s>HERRERA: It's like a little kick.</s>TAYLOR: And with a few last-minute adjustments, it's time for the show.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Remember, elegant, happy, pretty. This is not a funeral.</s>HERRERA: Sometimes, when you have shows, and you have I don't know how many editors and press in the shows, you cannot be only showing the classic look that is the one that sells. But you have to show a fantasy. One of the ways we show in this very tall and thin girl, we're showing them because when you have all these people sitting there, they're dreaming that if they buy that dress, they're going to look like that. Fashion is a dream. It's difficult, and there are many aspects of fashion that are very difficult, but if you love it like I do, because I really have a passion, now, for fashion, it's not easy, but nothing is easy in life.</s>TAYLOR: For someone who entered fashion late in the game, Herrera has created a brand that symbolizes timeless glamor. We're learn more about Herrera in the coming weeks, her life in Venezuela, as a mother of four daughters, and how she stays current in a business that's forever changing.</s>HERRERA: Lovely hair. Lovely.</s>ANDERSON: This is a whole series of reports, some of which are done by Felicia, some by me, some by our colleague Kristie in Asia. You'll see much more of this series on the website and discover how men and women measure up in the battle of the boardroom as well as tips on how to get the best tech jobs, for example, not an industry that women show well in, so let's do better. That's at cnn.com/leadingwomen. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD live from London with me, Becky Anderson, 47 minutes past 9:00 here. When we come back, looking to make an Olympic comeback. We're going to take an in-depth look at Mr. Ian Thorpe's quest.