Jason Wu has been at Boss about a year now. If he seemed like an unpredictable—all right, downright unlikely—fit at first, what with the inauguration gowns and the previous life as a designer of doll clothes, he makes sense now. As he said at a presentation this morning, "I like structure, and I'm very good with organization. I'm not good at mess. A German company is quite structured, so I'm quite good at that."
There has been a sharpness to Wu's collections for Boss from the beginning, but Pre-Fall, in particular, feels strict. Chalk that up mainly to the new silhouette; whereas he showed fuller, mid-calf dresses for Resort, this season it was more about an above-the-knee, slight A-line shape. There wasn't a lot of wiggle room in his houndstooth tweed sheath, not that it'll trouble today's well-toned power woman. Wu showed a two-button suit in windowpane check without a shirt, but otherwise it was all business, cut to command the boardroom. He loosened up a bit when it came to shirting, lowering shirttails past the hips. A generously cut button-down looked surprisingly right paired with a tuxedo jacket cropped at the waist and slim trousers.
Boss' evening offering for Spring was robust; here, it was sidelined. The long black dress looked great from behind, with a deep, ruffled V opening, but sheer insets extending from the bustline to the hem will pose real-world challenges.
