Fashion fell for suiting this season; tailoring was one of the biggest stories to emerge from a solid month of ready-to-wear shows. So it’s noteworthy that Jason Wu, who heads up the women’s division of Boss, the German menswear giant known around the globe for suits, more or less avoided the category. Does he know something that his formerly dress-loving, now suit-designing peers don’t? Do women even want suits? We’ll know soon enough; Fall collections will begin landing in stores in July.
Wu’s focus, instead, was sweater dressing. “With the increasing emphasis on leisurewear and comfort, it’s important to soften the silhouette,” he said from Boss’s 48th floor aerie in lower Manhattan. Chunky ribbed knits and lofty mohair ones were paired with pleated buffalo check trousers (he did land on a trend with checks) and fluid A-line skirts, respectively. He also made ribbed merino separates for clients who need a sleeker look for the office.
When he did turn his mind to tailoring, he knocked the stuffing out of it, as they say. A tuxedo suit was mismatched, and the jacket had an unstructured, soft appeal. Achieving a sense of ease while maintaining the precision that Boss is known for isn’t, well, easy, but Wu did a nice job of it here. Elsewhere for evening, he put that sporty sensibility aside and combined structure and flou on dresses with half-moon midriff cut-outs and delicately fraying pleated skirts.
