Diane Kruger gave Jason Wu’s resort collection its debut when she wore his voluminous off-the-shoulder dress in shocking pink taffeta to the American Ballet Theatre gala last month. Though Wu showed the new clothes to stores back in June, he’s releasing images now. He’s a firm believer in keeping these in-between seasons under wraps until they hit stores. His thinking is: When desire strikes, his clients should be able to act on it, not wait months and miss an opportunity to buy. Meanwhile, Kruger gets to wear a dress that looks custom-made to red carpet watchers, which adds intrigue, stoking desire. Everybody wins.
Wu’s resort is a prelude to the spring collection he showed on the runway at New York Fashion Week in September. “It was really the first collection of 2022,” he said during a preview, and “I was thinking sexier, just, you know, as a reaction to a year of not-so-sexy dressing.” Not everything here is headed to the red carpet, but it’s not office fare either. The colors are vivid; the flower prints are lively, not subtle; and the mood is up. While the volumes of Kruger’s papery taffeta gown are particularly exuberant, he did slinky too, in the form of satin slip dresses with lingerie seaming and cutouts or placement prints. Another flower-print dress barely scraped the thighs. “I actually haven’t done short in a while—I would say years,” said Wu. It suits him, and it’s on trend.
