NEW YORK — In fall 2004, a then-20-year-old Alexander Wang was going store to store pitching his debut collection of cashmere sweaters and tops out of a little rollaway suitcase.
“They didn’t even want to see us,” recalled the designer. “They would tell us that the buyer wasn’t there when we knew we were talking to her. It’s funny because now we have stores calling us, the same ones that turned us down.”
Indeed, much has happened since the lanky Taiwanese designer began making those initial rounds. Fast-forward to now, for instance. It’s a week before New York Fashion Week. Wang, once based in his hometown of San Francisco, is putting the final touches on his spring collection from his newly minted studio in the Flatiron district. Models flit in and out for fittings. Polaroids are snapped; the completed looks, ordered and assessed.
Today, he’ll stage his first presentation in a former dance studio on Broadway in SoHo. His old high school friend, Victoria Traina, is styling. “I’m so nervous,” he admitted, “excited and so scared.”
Wang has plenty to be nervous about — after four seasons of building a steady business on his signature knits, which sell at stores such as Barneys New York and Linda Dresner in Manhattan, the designer is launching a full ready-to-wear collection. It’s a far cry from the cashmere basics and witty intarsia pullovers with which his name has become synonymous. There are pleated bloomer shorts, billowy silk georgette tanks, cropped jackets, dresses with lamé piping and even leopard-print trousers, all wholesale priced from $60 to $235.
“I couldn’t believe how fast he developed a full collection,” said Julie Gilhart, senior vice president and fashion director of Barneys New York, one of the few to preview the line. “It’s like he went from A to Z. The dresses are all great, the tiny delicate detailing is sweet, and, of course, the knits are superb.”
“It’s kind of like a classic, eclectic tomboy,” said the former intern to Marc Jacobs and Derek Lam. “It’s offbeat but still recognizable and tomboy in the sense that it’s not too pretty-pretty, but definitely shows a feminine flair.” He paused, then added, “Does that make sense?”
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The designer pointed to his muse for clarification — the M.O.D., or model-off-duty. “I’ve always referenced that and used that phrase with all my friends,” he said. “I’ve admired that kind of natural, tossed-out look, like walking out of bed with messy hair, a dirty pair of sneakers and a Versace dress on. I don’t like things when they’re too perfect or put together.” To be sure, there’s a certain nonchalance to Wang’s new collection. It’s Kate Moss-meets-Erin Wasson-meets-Lou Doillon, as he put it.
But for all the thrown-together ease to his clothes, the collection isn’t without its sophisticated innovations. He uses, for example, a wax mudcloth in blazers and cigarette pants that retains memory when you distress and wear it. Silk crepe de chine fabrics are embossed with a “rhino” print, while jacquards take on a snakeskin texture. Even something as simple as a Peter Pan collar is made novel — “it’s turned this way and that,” made more languid and organic, like an orchid, he explained.
And fans of his knitwear shouldn’t lose heart. The designer is splitting his eponymous label into Alexander Wang and Alexander Wang Tricot. “It’s two separate collections, but they work together,” he explained. “It’s the same price point, same everything. We didn’t want to lose our old customer.”
Still, the upcoming spring collection marks quite a new direction for the 22-year-old designer, and a recent episode in Los Angeles provided an auspicious sign to affirm that. Two years after launching his line, Wang finally saw someone in the streets wearing his designs. “I had always heard from my friends about people wearing my stuff, but I had never seen it myself. To actually see somebody in real life,” he said, “wow, it was the biggest compliment.”