Today, with spring 2021 collections beginning to arrive in stores—this Jason Wu collection included—the designer is finally releasing his look book. The portfolio, shot by Ethan James Green, stars the model Dilone, who, it was reported, is playing Pat Cleveland in Ryan Murphy’s Halston miniseries for Netflix. Dilone strikes some very Pat Cleveland poses here. That’s a telling bit of synergy.
It’s been nearly a year since Wu put his main collection on the runway, or shown it at all. This signature line had become a showcase for his dressmaker skills, and with special occasions off the table amid the pandemic—not even A-listers have much call for crystal-strewn tulle these days—it required a rethink. And while there’s no line-for-line comparison, these clothes do have some of the unstructured freedom that Halston was famous for in his late-1970s heyday.
“Women still want to look beautiful and feel sensual,” Wu said via Zoom, “but there’s a new relaxed attitude.” He conjured it via a slip dress, a sweatshirt and skirt combo, and one very pretty cami and skirt set that he said riffs on a vintage kimono he bought at a Brooklyn shop before the pandemic set in. All of these pieces feature flowers that are the work of Noriko Takeshita, a Kyoto-based artist who Wu discovered via Instagram.
Engineering the flower prints to align across the hem of that sweatshirt and the waistband of that skirt, and on many of the other pieces here, was made more difficult by the fact that Wu and his collaborators were working remotely. “I’m proud of being able to do all this without going to Italy; 2020 was like being in startup mode again, like going back to basics. It was humbling.” But rejuvenating too. Wu shrugged off much of the formality of his recent work, and the results are more engaging for it.
