Based on the CFDA’s new show schedule for June, Fashion Week came early this year for NYC and Alexander Wang is one of a few designers to present new collections this week (other participating designers include Victor Glemaud, Narciso Rodriguez and Saint Laurent). The calendar move comes as an industry initiative for designers to have more timely delivery dates for collections to go from the runway to retailers- and ultimately to the customer; and acting in good customer service mode, Wang gave out free tickets to his show on Sunday (via his Instagram account), to the first 100 customers that were able to make it to his Soho store before the show started.
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Using clothing as a medium for storytelling, Wang drew inspiration from his parents who immigrated to the U.S., and the theme of immigration appeared throughout his ‘Collection 1’ debut, with leather chinoiserie detailed shirt-dresses, the word ‘Chinatown’ stamped onto pants and shorts, and the iconic fast-food-plastic-bag-phrase ‘Thank You’ (detailed in sequins and palliates) foiled onto mini-handbags.
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Seat placards at his show read, “Today marks a new beginning, a new identity and a new day for my brand,” and Wang stood firm in that affirmation by sending his models out to a soundtrack that included Childish Gambino’s timely call-to-action anthem “This Is America.”
Biker shorts, football jerseys, Wang ‘Jordan’s’ and bandanas also came together on the runway, with a heavy color palette of black, white and red; with some models wearing ornate hair braiding and black face paint in the form of a distorted American flag- idealized references of the neighborhood girls and boys we regularly see throughout the boroughs of New York.
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Moreover, Wang’s collections have always been rooted in street-style and his keen sense of reflecting ‘the people’ in his collections has allowed him to amass major, international credibility with audiences ranging from Millenials to Gen X’ers.
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