Fashion & Beauty

Design of the times

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Twenty-five-year-old designer Wes Gordon found out that the first lady wore his hounds-tooth embroidered jacket to the 2012 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards via Twitter.

“I’m literally sitting there looking at Twitter on my phone, and I see a tweet that’s like, ‘Michelle Obama in a metallic jacket and leather leggings,’ ” recalls Gordon. “And it sounds so cool. So I click on it, and it was my jacket,” he says.

“It was so surreal.” Except it’s his reality.

Atlanta-raised, London-schooled Gordon is one of New York’s newest fashion darlings. His tailored, refined and just-edgy-enough luxe blazers, full patterned skirts and fox-fur-embellished cashmere sweaters are gaining serious buzz.

“To me, the challenge is always that fine line between looking fashion-forward and cool and young but also designing something that isn’t necessarily obsolete in four months,” says Gordon, whose mature goods (which have grown-up prices — approximately $450 for a blouse to $13,000 for a fur coat) sit next to those by such hailed designers as Giambattista Valli, Lanvin and Bottega Veneta at Bergdorf Goodman.

January Jones sported one of his fall 2012 looks at this year’s Oscars after-parties, and Emmy Rossum and Lea Michele have both been spotted in his outfits. Gordon even had his first documented uh-oh moment earlier this month when Amanda Richman and Victoria’s Secret model Oluchi Onweagba both donned his floor-length blue-and-white striped skirt for an NYC charity gala.

“He’s doing a much more uptown look . . . in a way, I feel like he’s the 25-year-old answer to Oscar [de la Renta]. There’s something very genteel about his designs,” says Christine Whitney, a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar. “He’s had a meteoric rise.”

Indeed, he has. The floppy-haired quarter-lifer was named Fashion Group International’s Rising Star in January. He was tapped to create a capsule collection for Jones New York’s spring line. And, of course, there was that thing with the first lady wearing his clothes.

“[Obama] was definitely big brand exposure,” admits Gordon, who designs out of his Financial District studio (his collection is entirely produced in Manhattan, save for a few knits). “My mom was really excited because there was a picture in People. To her, that’s the ultimate thing.”

Not too shabby for a Southern lad who made his first dress for his high school friend’s debutante ball, and who presented his debut collection merely 26 months ago in a hotel room at the St. Regis during a massive blizzard.

Gordon honed his nipping and tucking (fabric) skills at London’s Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (other grads include Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Phoebe Philo).

During his schooling, Gordon interned for Oscar de la Renta and Tom Ford. At the latter, Gordon says he “always left smelling like [Tom Ford’s men’s cologne] Black Orchid.”

De la Renta and Ford taught Gordon the importance of tailoring, knowing one’s customer — and not stabbing the boss.

“Oscar comes into the office all the time . . . he pins fabric on house models, and so I’d stand next to him, handing him pins,” says Gordon. “[De la Renta] turns to take the pins without looking. So you have to guess where he’s going to grab, and have the pin ready. I remember the first time I held it the wrong way and he reached over and I poked his fingers. I don’t think he bled, thank God!”

In 2009, with the basics, and then some, sewed into memory, Gordon, who refers to himself as a “giant,” moved to Manhattan to start his eponymous label. (“I just had a physical. I always thought I was 6-2, 6-3 but it turns out I’m 6-4. Any taller and it starts feeling a bit like a circus.”)

But he never forgets his peachy roots.

“There’s an aesthetic awareness in the South that’s amazing. People put so much effort into their houses, into their gardens. There’s high value on beauty,” says Gordon, who still says “yes, ma’am” and “yes, sir” when he gets nervous.

And then there’s Gordon’s penchant for monogramming.

“I have my sheets monogrammed . Anything that can be engraved is engraved. My wallet is even monogrammed,” he says. “You go and buy a black wallet; it’s just a generic black wallet until you put your initials on it. And then it becomes a keepsake.”

Which makes all of Gordon’s designs, with their minimal chic labels, essentially keepsakes of the highest order.

For now, Gordon, whose clothes sell at Bergdorf Goodman and Kirna Zabete, is sticking to two collections a year, but the future holds promises of handbags, resort wear and hopefully a boutique.

“It would be a dream come true to open one on Madison,” he admits, “but we’re nowhere near that point yet.”

In the meantime, Gordon’s happy living the fashionable life — even incorporating his fabric mastery in his cooking.

The self-proclaimed “terrible cook” recently braved the grocery store (where he had to buy basics including salt) in order to prep his very first roast chicken.

When Gordon returned to his NoHo pad, he realized he didn’t have the string to tie the bird’s legs together.

“So I ended up cutting the bottom off a T-shirt and tying the legs together with jersey,” says Gordon. “Somewhere in my closet there’s a T-shirt with a little rectangle missing, but I was resourceful.”

Nonetheless, the new star of ready-to-wear learned the value of ready-to-eat.

“The net of it was, the Whole Foods rotisserie chickens are fine.”

dschuster@nypost.com