Show Report
Cottons were pebbled, boiled and washed, lapels and waistbands were silver-foiled and satins and chiffons featured messy 'doodle' prints.
There are a handful of designers that pull the crowds in a major way each season in New York, and without a doubt, Alexander Wang is among them. Wang's shows, always held in ridiculously expansive venues that never seem quite big enough for the multitudes he attracts, bridge a middle-ground between rock show and fashion show. The soundtrack (Die Antwood this time around) is turned right up, the front-row is filled with famous faces and it-girls dancing in their seats and directly after the show, there is a mob fighting their way backstage to presumably steal a glimpse of the designer himself. To an expectant and celebrity-studded crowd, which included Anna Wintour, André Leon Talley, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Kim Gordon, Terence Koh, Erin Wasson, Terry Richardson and M.I.A among many others, Wang revealed his vision for S/S 2011. In stark contrast to his Elvira-meets-Clueless crushed-velvet, deconstructed suiting and mini-backpack extravaganza of last season, Wang sent out an optimistic and futuristic collection of sexy-slouchy, sporty daywear conceived in chalk, terracotta and pastel green in unusually textured fabrics. Cottons were pebbled, boiled and washed, lapels and waistbands were silver-foiled and satins and chiffons featured messy 'doodle' prints. Models with clumpy hair that seemed at once swampy and tribal, and yet strangely Sci-Fi, emerged from a gigantic inflatable cloud-like installation at the opening of the catwalk - the silver lining of which appears to be Wang's move away from '90s crushed-velvet and backpacks, in favour of the downtown-NYC unisex aesthetic that we had come to know him for.
