Alexander Wang has built a call-and-response system between his runway shows and his pre-collections. Fall was about big volumes and roundness. And so, as he said in his showroom this morning, Resort is "about deflating those proportions and flattening the structures." Pleating and darts were his two preoccupations. That sounds like dry, technical stuff, but the new lineup showed off his famous retail savvy. Low-slung, baggy leather pants, a leather cheerleader miniskirt with asymmetrical darts, and a leather dress with batwing sleeves, the results of a pattern cut on the circle, were all instant wardrobe refreshers. Vacuum-pressed pleating at the back of an elongated blazer and the nipped waist of a keyhole-front smock dress were subtler interpretations of the theme. In Wang's world, they qualify as basics.
The big surprise here was the color pink. If it's ever appeared in an Alexander Wang collection, we don't remember it. There were a lot of pastels on the racks, too. "I wanted something sweet but almost saccharine, synthetic-feeling," he said, explaining that candy wrappers were a reference point for the collection's metallic Lurex knits. At this point, the sweatshirt isn't so much a closet refresher as it is a staple. Wang kept his fresh by weaving Lurex with cellophane. He called its spongy texture a mousse knit.
