With snowflakes falling on the streets of New York yesterday, the setting couldn’t have been any better to reveal Jason Wu’s new capsule collection for Tse. It was full of warm, winter-friendly items that could have come in handy while trudging through the snowstorm. But Wu expanded his collaboration beyond the basics to include flannel blazers, cashmere sweaters, and chiffon dresses. There was even a fox-fur coat, which made our temperature rise a few degrees just by looking at the model sweating in it. “It was really about pushing myself as a designer, and pushing the knitwear material to that next level,” Wu told us at the presentation. “It was really about highlighting the material instead of just being a solid knit-only collection. Tse’s heritage is about that great cashmere sweater and I wanted to expand on that — make a great tailored jacket, dress, and really bring it all back together.”
The cashmere tops, which came in red and beige dual-tone, gray, and black hues, felt as soft as they looked. “I love to wash all my sweaters, so we washed a lot of the sweaters to give them that extra feel,” he explained. “I washed the chiffon after cleaning them to give them that just-washed, velvety look.” And that doesn’t mean throwing them in the washing machine. Wu has never, and would never risk it. “I wash them by hand and hand-dry them — I have that down to a science.” As far as showing two collections in one week (his runway collection showed on Friday), he didn’t seem frazzled by the schedule. “It’s exhilarating, because I felt really challenged creatively and that was really great,” he said. “It was a really positive experience to do something that’s completely outside of character for me and it was really a great experience.” What’s his secret? “I mean, it’s time management.”
