"WANG - FASHION HERO OR VILLAIN ? " - ALEXANDER WANG - DESIGNER GUIDES

Fashion hero or abuser ? What do you think ? Almost immediately after his eponymous label exploded onto the American fashion scene in 2005, Alexander Wang became the proxy uniform maker for a youthful hipster tribe of New York City females. A tribe he bequeathed the acronym the “M.O.D”, or model-off-duty. And a bevy of “it-girls” like Erin Wesson signed on to become his loyal muses. Wang’s tribe were everything the other established designer’s patrons were not. They were hip, savvy, and young, really young, like no one over 30, which was a seismic age shift from the society matrons and Hollywood stalwarts like Lauren Hutton and Tom Ford’s go to, Julianne Moore who were the usual designer front row suspects. This same age, demographic who populated the front rows at Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren, and Marc Jacobs. These ladies were antiques compared to Wang’s posse, who came with Nirvana’s “teen spirit”. With Wang there was no particular look, but rather a youthful hip attitude and sense of effortless easy cool that had that quintessential Wang from the West Coast. Wang was a Californian transplant by way of Taiwan, Wang grew up steeped in genuine beach culture; rather than as some elitist purveyor of status and fantasy, he aimed for something that’s even harder to deliver: “Clothes that girls want to wear.” This uniquely fresh purpose was what no doubt, attracted the powers behind the house of Balenciaga when he was appointed creative director from 2012 to 2015. Alexander Wang