Few designers are more closely associated with downtown New York than Alexander Wang. He made his name with his model-off-duty stylings of the ’00s and opened his first store on the corner of Grand and Mercer in 2011. This season, though, we returned to his native California with a beach punks collection of sun-washed plaids, spliced tanks, shredded denim, and scuba pieces. He claimed the 20th anniversary of his label as a reason for the callback.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, for sure, but the scuba gave the collection a sporty, fitness-first sort of vibe that distinguished it from the more dissipated sensibility of some of his recent outings, a positive development. He said he sought out a factory that specializes in the material to achieve the sleek, second-skin look. “There’s so much neoprene, and neoprene-like fabrics, but I really wanted to make sure we were using an authentic manufacturer, who welds and seals scuba the way they make wetsuits,” he explained.
The scuba pieces aside, the shapes were boxy and oversize, with the exception of a pair of skinny jeans, whose waistband was sliced and ankle openings were darted for a close fit. Skinny jeans were an essential part of the Wang m.o. Back in the day, but not so much lately. He credited the younger people on his design team for the idea. “I love that they challenge me to rethink things that I was like, ‘oh wow, I thought I was so over that.’ [The point is:] how do we make it new?
Much of the experimenting that took place this season had to do with finishings. The pockets of jeans and jacket collar seams were trimmed with hardware designed to look like keys, coins, and the tabs on top of beer cans—the kind of things you might find with a metal detector on the beach. The can tabs made cool earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, too. The soles of the on-theme webbed sandals were designed to look like they were embellished with his signature Ricco studs. Wang is nothing if not clever about branding. The newly installed cafe at his Soho store is serving custom HeyTea iced teas, with Wang’s cartoon profile on each cup.