With his move to a June/December show schedule, Alexander Wang’s Pre-Fall collection got a bit lost in the mix. But the clothes are now in store, and the photos Wang had taken to promote them look good—black-and-white shots of Sade were the starting point—so here we are: reviewing a collection that is “two seasons ago.” Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 are already live on this website.
Rewinding, Pre-Fall looks like a template of sorts for the “CEO” show he did for Fall. It’s heavy on black and white, which dominated the collection that came after, and Wang emphasized hardware here, like he did on the runway. If there’s a difference, it’s the focus on what once might’ve been considered off-hours gear: more LBDs, fewer tailored suits. Though, of course, those sort of hard-and-fast rules don’t really apply to today’s workplace, and Wang’s modus operandi is to hybridize just about everything anyway. Some women will wear the black robe with micro grommets studding the lace hem as a coat, others will prefer to loll around in it in the bedroom. Sexy seems to be the prevailing message. Aside from that generously cut robe coat, the silhouettes are tight and short. Describing the collection himself, Wang offered a caveat: “Sexy but powerful. She’s an alpha woman, making her own money and her own decisions.”
The #MeToo moment, alongside the “broken” runway show system and a backward retail environment (one of the impetuses behind Wang’s move to the June/December cycle), is fragmenting the fashion world. There’s more modest fashion in the marketplace than ever, it seems, but minis are also on the rise. For the women who fall into the latter camp, Wang is going to be their man.
