Internationally renowned celebrity fashion designer Sue Wong might have just celebrated a big birthday, but she shows no signs of slowing down.

A new licensing deal with Commerce’s D.N.A.M. Apparel Industries and a focus on new audiences and modalities is opening up a fresh chapter for the 65-year-old principal of Koreatown’s Sue Wong Studio S Inc. fashion empire. Her shop designs, manufactures, and distributes gowns for A-list Hollywood celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Biel.

Wong’s evening dresses are sold at specialty boutiques and retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale’s throughout the United States and in 25 other countries. Her latest collaboration is a licensing deal with D.N.A.M. that features a new day-to-evening line, Sue Wong Seduction, aimed at young women. D.N.A.M. will manufacture and distribute the collection.

“Fashion is the fastest moving of all art forms,” said Wong. “Architecture changes every decade; in fashion, there are changes every two months. The future of Sue Wong is to be a bigger global brand through a pure licensing model.”

After four decades of success, one might expect China-born Wong to settle down for a while, but as a self-proclaimed “maximalist,” she prefers to go big and go home. She said she’s been creatively inspired by the opulent elegance of the Cedars, a historic Los Feliz mansion she purchased in 2004 for a reported $5.3 million. It was the backdrop for the iconic 1949 film “Sunset Boulevard,” and the former home of Howard Hughes and Johnny Depp, among numerous other Hollywood heavyweights.

“The business of fashion is not glamorous,” said Wong at a star-studded event at her atelier last week. “It’s all hard work. But for me, my life has been the American dream.”

– Kristin Marguerite Doidge