Lately Jason Wu has been making a point of loosening up the strict Boss silhouette. The tailoring codes remain, but he’s finding fresh ways to add feminine notes. On the Fall runway, his best collection for the brand so far, that meant flower prints and embroideries, and a real embrace of curving lines. Jackets were softly peplumed or came with asymmetric draped lapels. For Resort, he returned to more traditional suiting, at least as far as the sharp cuts were concerned, but decorated a jacket with deep lengths of silk fringe that reached almost to the ankles. If there was no small drama to the look of that fringed jacket, it’s not the most practical thing going. Watch out for revolving doors! Long scarves trimmed on each end with shorter fringe are a more realistic way to achieve a similar effect.
As the seasons multiply, one thing retailers have been bringing up is the problem of inconsistencies between deliveries. In the worst cases, Fall looks different from Resort, which has nothing to do with Spring. Wu revisited the pistachio green he introduced on his Fall runway here, cutting a cocoon coat in the color, and using it as an accent on a graphic sheath. At a moment when the industry is undergoing such significant and rapid change, small, smart decisions like that can make a difference on the sales floor.
