It snowed in Paris during the menswear week. Not feet, not even very many inches, but enough to send the French into conniptions and lockdown mode. Flights were canceled, hands wrung. Yet one still had to run around the city to shows and appointments. It made every editor wish for an armored parka. And then one got to Alexander Wang.
Wang's focus for Fall was outerwear: oversize, all-covering, all boasting enormous snap-detachable hoods roughly the circumference of space helmets. There were sinister-looking versions in glazed nylon and some in padded leather. Wang incorporated some sportswear details, like raglan sleeves and kangaroo pockets, that have defined his men's collections so far, but also worked in articulated shoulders for better fit, and some higher-end materials, like shearling and Loro Piana cashmere. The look was, as the look has been, dark, streamlined (basically hardware-free), and a little threatening. (The caps, with attached button-close face masks, didn't exactly help.) Being as driven by outerwear as this collection was—cropped pants were the bottom half of most of the looks—it felt, by necessity, a bit constrained. But there's no arguing that Wang at the moment has a lot on his plate. And the showroom—his own, mind you, in the tony first arrondissement—was positively thronged. Give the people what they want, and…
