Feng Chen Wang knows how to pull in a crowd. And it turns out they’re willing to wait. And wait. In a week as sweltering as this one, that says a lot. Backstage before the show, NBA legend Russell Westbrook III mingled, low-key and entourage-free despite his fame and 23 million followers. Turns out he and Wang met when the designer was first starting out, when he stopped by her boutique in Shanghai to shop. They’ve been friends ever since. So, when Wang asked him to walk in the spring show, the superstar point guard agreed right away. “She’s always been loyal to me, and I’m loyal to her,” he said. Sporting a faux tattoo of bamboo—a symbol of loyalty, as it happens, and a Wang signature—the athlete hinted that this runway turn was just the beginning of a project the two have been cooking up lately.
Inside the venue, the front row swelled with fellow sports stars like Jaren Jackson Jr. and Tyrese Maxey, plus artists including American rapper Lexa Gates, Ugandan pop singer Victor Ray, and the American-born, London-based DJ-slash-astrologist known as Manuka Honey.
With a collection called “A Future in Bloom,” Wang stepped into her namesake brand’s second decade with a strong bid for men to dress like “mature romantics.” Describing her process as a confluence of memory and modernity, she focused on modernized tailoring, a first venture into plaids with ample crossover appeal and, as a counterpoint, inspirations literally plucked from nature.
Some prints here were made using real plants—dyed, placed, sun-dried—on trousers, for example. Bamboo—also an emblem of grace and endurance—returned on a handbag with a cord strap in different colors that had been worked into traditional Chinese knots. Wang excels in kooky accessories, but those were straight-up cute.
A delicate floral lace was worked into a tank top slipped under a black blazer, and box pleats brought movement to blazers and trousers that were accessorized for the runway with bouquets of hydrangea. Layette hues are becoming directional for spring: it will be interesting to see who falls for pretty in pink. Baby blue is running a close second, and Wang worked that shade onto a hand-dyed “blue-sky” nylon bomber with subtle cloud motifs that just happened to match her latest pick for hair color.