The street is never far from Alexander Wang's mind. It won't come as a surprise to discover that he street-cast his lookbook model, a skater from Philadelphia. (Nor should it be much of a surprise, given Wang's talent for coming out just ahead of the curve, that after the designer booked him, the modeling agency that had all but forgotten it represented him wanted to send him to Europe for go-sees for the menswear collections.) The point is, Wang's key words are street and sport. His burgeoning men's collection may be more refined than the T line out of which it grew, but it hews close to its original.
That's not to say it's not evolving. For Fall, Wang introduced his first men's suit, in an unfussy, slightly boxy cut. "We thought it was important as we moved into ready-to-wear that our guy should have a suit," Wang said. "Even if that's not what we are building our collection about."
Suit-and-tie types should look elsewhere—there isn't a piece of neckwear in sight—but it's all in keeping with the tough, military-tinged vibe the designer has been pursuing. He's tapped into the idiom of protective gear for quilted jackets and spongy knits and has a free hand with leather, shearling, and neoprene. Why all the armor? One of the collection's dominant motifs is a shattered patchwork, suggestive of violence not far at hand. Take from that what you will. The thing about the street is, sometimes it ends up Occupied.
