Alexander Wang S/S 11 New York

[liberty33r1b]

the clutches are the best thing about this collection, that's about it.

 

[Les_Sucettes]

I have a feeling Christy Turlington wore all of this before.

 

[simple_elegance]

What on earth IS this? None of this is appealing to me at all.

 

[Aquamarina]

Boring collection. Don't like colors, proportions and shapes. I remember spring-summer collections from early 2000s. nothing interesting

 

[afterrhours]

A lot of it reminds me of Helmut Lang, which you can see in so much of Wang's work anyways.
I would wear some of the white looks as separates but that's about it.
Wasn't a fan of some of the shapes. And the color choices were not successful at all either.

 

[Donatello89]

so fresh ! evening clothes, classy and gorgeous...

 

[Crying Diamonds]

This coat literally looked like the model was wrapped in cling-film

 

[kowie]

I actually like this collection.

I was a bit scared that Wang would be stuck in his own little bubble that has made such a fuzz in the blog world, but this was something new coming from him.

 

[Katnani]

I was adoring Alexander Wang before... This just feels...imature...idk...

 

[mikeijames]

See, I agree with you in that this collection has got many easy and fun separates to wear on their own, but that itself, as well as a stripped-down colour palette resulting in tone-on-tone silhouettes, do not make this appear Helmut Lang-ish at all.

With Helmut, there was something decidedly rigourous and purposeful about his clothes and you could not deny the fact that there was a sense of Middle-European conservative-ness about the silhouette and cutting of his designs... Wang lacks this degree of control and singularity of vision that was so much the trademark of Helmut Lang... so having said that, I do not see how the two would artistically compare at all.

oh, i agree, but i believe he'll grow into that. helmut lang didn't even start his line until he reached thirty years and he presented in europe first. the helmut lang aesthetic we know came about when the man himself stood in his late thirties and forties.

alexander wang launched his line at twenty three in new york. the world has changed, but he has the ability to carry that deconstruction forward to the girl who wears this stuff today.

 

[Scott]

see,as soon as you feel like he's finally starting to create something a little more distinct for himself,he kind of falls back into derivative mode. and it's not helmut lang i see,it has more of a demeulemeester/margiela/branquinho air about it. it's very obvious to me that's what he is trying to work with.

 

[Erin]

I don't like a single thing. What a shame.

 

[rickowensbride]

Afterrhours - it is TOTALLY Helmut Lang again! He doesn't even try to hide his references at all. I find it bizarre as he has been heralded as such a big deal when so much of what he does is carbon copied from 90s Lang....

I have the proof here: http://layersandswathes.com/2010/09...mut-lang-samples-go-to-repopulate”-part-deux/

 

[agee]

This collection is monotonous to the extreme. And what's up with the styling? SS2010 had that sublime side ponytail that made enough of an impact that it was adopted for some of the looks at this year's FNO Fashion Show and then the AW team went wet and greasy for FW 2010. And for SS2011 the styling looks like it was inspired by newly born farm animals before the gunk is cleaned off, hey I guess in its own way that is represents spring.

 

[Phuel]

I can understand people pointing out Wang copping from Lang-- but it's all so heavy-handed. I don't think Wang understands the restraint and the subtle references no matter how radical Lang's designs were. There was always an understanding of classic structure in Lang's asymmetric silhouettes, which made his designs classic, modern and timeless-- something that's always missing in Wang's designs.

As for this collection, is it purposely to be so dated? It's like a student's thesis collection from 1992... Everything from the garments, colors (metallic mint-green?), the hair/makeup, the horrible footwear is an exact carbon-copy of some student's collection from circa 1992.

Best stick with his lux-version of American Apparel.

 

[Dkammern]

alexander wang launched his line at twenty three in new york. the world has changed, but he has the ability to carry that deconstruction forward to the girl who wears this stuff today.

it's the Meatpacking girl of the nineties... she just got rid of the grungy locks of hair in her face, and "all that black" this season.
for that reason perhaps, it reminds me a great deal of Marc Jacobs this time.

 

[Unknownpleasures]

I just realized I actually like this.Not in love with the white colors but I'm sure he's making them in other colors,very wearable. I don't really see this being featured in editorials,though.

 

[Wolkfolk]

I really like this collection actually. I like the slouchyness of it. The clothes look really sleek and comfy perfect for summer. Of course there's some miss, like that fabric which looks like aluminium, the bad hair and those open toe boots.
But in general I like the aesthectic of the collection. A young grungy artist who's not afraid to get dirrty, to get stains on her clothes etc. I think the S/S11 girl is more grown up and less trendy and too hype, as opposed to the urban preppy girl of S/S10.
She's more careless about her look and all. That's how I justify the make-up and hair style. That's also why all the outfits look so homogeneous. Even the whole collection works on combinations of different looks of the same type ( same color, same shape, same prints etc ). There are a lot of good pieces but what is amazing is the fact that you can notice and appreciate those future it-pieces without loosing the spirit of the collection and falling into a commercial "in your face" show.

 

[disco54]

wow Cathy Horyn ripped Wang to bits lol

Even the most talented, surprising postmodernist designer can seem to have his feet planted in concrete compared to the weightlessness of Alexander Wang. Mr. Wang is not a great designer, though he probably would be happy to accept any laurels that people want to toss him, but he is clearly a shrewd guy.

Unlike some of his dreamy peers, he decided at the outset to make affordable clothes. That’s the traditional, pre-Internet way to reach a lot of people. He also must have sensed that fashion’s memory hole was widening in direct proportion to the numbers of young people Googling his name. The designs were cool, but they didn’t have to stand up to much scrutiny — hey, didn’t Marni do those pants last season? — so long as the stuff was widely and easily available. Mr. Wang doesn’t really have courage in the traditional sense of trying something new and difficult, but he does have China. Nearly all of his clothing is now produced there.

On Saturday, at a West Side pier, he presented his latest collection, which was markedly different from his last one, and it consisted of loose white dresses and parachute silk separates based on shapes like overalls, aprons and jumpsuits. There was, then, a work-wear cast to the clothes, and to the stacked-heel construction boots. A scribble print used for painter’s pants and crinkly Tyvek windbreakers could have been a contractor’s marks on Sheetrock.

The collection downloaded the ideas of designers like Ann Demeulemeester and Issey Miyake — naturally, without their sense of energy and intuition — and for that reason, despite some cute looks, the show was a little boring.

But don’t fret for the 26-year-old Mr. Wang: the combined whiplash of globalization and the Internet all but guarantees that these clothes will look new to someone.

 

[disco54]

nytimes.com ^^^