It seemed like immediately after Alexander Wang’s fall 2008 collection walked, girls across the city took shears to their panty hose and stopped washing their hair. After his spring 2009 show, many also probably contemplated sitting in the bathroom with the shower running on hot after getting dressed to get that just-walked-through-a-sauna look. After his fall 2009 show, we seriously contemplated cutting holes in our blazers and cocktail dresses. His collections are so cool, so seductive, we don’t know how they last on the racks without accumulating a massive amount of drool marks. Naturally, his business is expanding at an unbelievable pace, especially for this economic climate. He’ll introduce eyewear for spring. His lower-priced T line will expand to include menswear and pieces that go beyond tank tops and T-shirt basics. But what’s in store for spring 2010? He recently told W:
Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford would always talk about how they’re Seventies kids. And now, I’m thinking about how I’m really a Nineties kid. My ideas come from things that I didn’t notice were trends at the time, like seeing my sister wear Via Spiga and watching Saved by the Bell.
Karl Templer is styling Wang’s spring 2010 show, suggesting we’re in store for a polished, tailored collection in the vein of his fall 2009 show. Wang adds:
[Marc Jacobs is] someone whose career I really watched. The thing about his collections is that there’s always this very identifiable statement each season, but you can go in the store and actually wear [the clothes]. That’s the feeling I like, to get inspired by something and then actually have it applicable to my life.
Wang began with a cash infusion from his family and hasn’t even had to seek outside funding. (His brother Dennis is his company’s chief principal officer, and Dennis’s wife, Aimie, is the chief executive officer.)
He’s been obsessed with clothes for as long as he can remember. In fourth grade he re-created a papier-mâché Versace shoe for art class and glued on a label from one of his mom’s Versace pieces to make it look authentic. He staged his first fashion show when he was 15, at Dennis’s wedding at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco. Three years later, he staged a similar show at his mother’s 60th-birthday celebration in Shanghai. Does he still do parties? Because a lot of people would probably pay good money for that.
Kid Rocks: All About Alexander Wang [W]
Five (more) minutes with Alexander Wang [Editors’ Blog/W]
