The backside of a black car was sticking out of a window on the Grand Street side of Alexander Wang’s Soho store last night. A crash scene? That’s what CCTV video posted to his Instagram Stories earlier in the day suggested.
Talk about a loaded metaphor! His brand is about to turn 20, but provocation has long been part of its DNA and Wang, that car crash footage made clear, isn’t pulling back now. Inside, the boutique was transformed into a sort of deconstructed den of iniquity, with piles of money (faux), a pair of tanning beds (real), and a fireplace (electric) with a sportscar mantle. The first model out, wearing a full-zip bodysuit and sheer tights, crushed a cocktail glass in her hand before making her way around the space, signaling the zero-fucks-given vibe of the night. Also mood-setting: Kim Catrall, brash Samantha to Sex and the City’s Carrie, was in the audience and basketball’s erstwhile bad boy Dennis Rodman walked the runway.
The collection was top-of-the-line Wang: downtown, sexy and skin-baring, and with what seemed like a heavier than usual emphasis on leather. The leather came embellished with studs and cut into a roomy bomber, stamped with a croc pattern and draped into an asymmetrical dress, or used for the thigh-scraping wader boots with straps up the back that accompanied many of the looks. Denim, another mainstay, was downplayed, but a pair of washed and faded low-slung jeans and an oversized shirt looked good, less night out at the club, more street-ready in the old-school Alexander Wang way.
Rodman modeled a roomy leather track suit and Slick Woods, who sported a similar red dye job but not the Ricco studs that the basket baller had glued to his head (the Ricco bag being Wang’s big relaunch this year), was wearing a velour version of the same silhouette. Athleisure or loungewear—whatever we’re calling it these days—is another brand fundamental chez Wang post-pandemic, and a bustier and narrow floor-length skirt made novel use of sweatshirt material. On the dressier side, stretch jersey was spliced and shaped into flared-hem leggings or tube skirts, and a wiggle dress, all with a latticework of peekaboo cut-outs. Origami’d blazers made cool accompaniments to the leggings and skirts.
As the show emptied out onto Grand Street, a crowd of people were overheard talking about an after-party. Any one of Wang’s looks could’ve walked straight off the runway and into the bash and looked right.
