Technically, this week's Balenciaga show was the second womenswear collection on Alexander Wang's watch. But this was the real debut. In hindsight, the first, in February, was merely a prologue. This was the first time he stamped his signature New York sportswear influence on the label. "Last season was an homage," the California-born designer said backstage on Thursday. "It felt important to begin correctly, by paying tribute. And then this time, I got my feet wet."
First on to the catwalk was a biker jacket worn with a micro mini, both in leather: a strong statement of modern, streetstyle intent. But the suit had the ovoid silhouette that is Balenciaga's signature and, on closer inspection, was made from silvery leather twine with occasional wisps of colour inserted so that it looked like tweed, that most classic of skirt suit fabrics. Next came a cropped T-shirt and boxing-ring shorts, a combination more typical of the urban hipsters who worship Wang's own-name label than of the Balenciaga customer. But both were basket-woven by hand for the magical combination of lightness and volume that Balenciaga, master of couture, made his own. This marriage of 21st-century urban sass with mid-century couture classicism was a happy one.
Last season's debut, effusive in its ardour for the Balenciaga archives, was a graceful opening gambit by Wang. The Balenciaga job which he inherited was coveted – but triple-edged, rather than double-edged. Not only is Wang, a 29-year-old designer of contemporary streetwear, walking in the hallowed footsteps of Cristobal Balenciaga, but he is also the successor to Nicolas Ghesquiere, a favourite of the fashion in-crowd who is currently engaged in a bitter lawsuit with his former employer, with Balenciaga seeking damages of €7m (£5.9m) over remarks made by Ghesquiere. Wang's sweetly respectful collection placed, as Dazed & Confused magazine put it, "a white rose down the barrel of a loaded gun".
Before this week's show began, a new venue signalled the designer's decision to make Balenciaga a little more Wang and a little less Balenciaga. Where the first show was in the Balenciaga salon on the Avenue Montaigne, the second took place in the Paris Observatoire. The fashion point of view was no longer that of Balenciaga, but looking up towards the stars – and down over Paris. Carine Roitfeld, the editor of Paris Vogue, told Wang backstage that she had never been inside this beautiful building before; Wang looked delighted to have shown the venerable Roitfeld a new view of Paris.
Wang, who said he "wanted to bring two worlds together", wove strands of Balenciaga DNA throughout this collection. Mirrors were installed at angles around the catwalk in order to give the audience a view of every outfit from every angle: Wang takes seriously Balenciaga's diktat that an outfit does not work unless it is beautiful from every perspective. Asked what aspect of Balenciaga he had focused on this season, Wang picked "ease". He said: "It was about the idea of softness and deflation that you find in Balenciaga. A volume that softens and falls."
The eveningwear section was less successful than the sports-couture daywear. Mesh racer-back corsets with ruffled skirts were neither truly elegant nor truly avant garde, but sat awkwardly between the two. Wang's Balenciaga looks to be a tricky balancing act – but for the most part, this was a beautiful performance to watch.
The pressure on Wang was intensified by the announcement hours earlier that LVMH, the luxury group whose rivalry with Balenciaga's owners Kering is the engine of the Paris fashion scene, had signed a deal with the young British designer JW Anderson which will inject considerable investment into his fledgling brand and see his profile boosted by a new role as the creative director of leather goods brand Loewe.
Anderson is the latest in a string of young British designers to partner with powerhouse investors this year. Christopher Kane entered into a deal with Kering in January, and plans for a major Mayfair flagship store are already under way. Last week, LVMH bought a stake in Nicholas Kirkwood's shoe label.
The deal between JW Anderson and LVMH sees Anderson remain the majority shareholder, while LVMH acquire a significant minority stake. Explaining his motive in signing the deal, 29-year-old Anderson described LVMH as "the Oxford University of luxury goods".
The ascent of Anderson to fashion's premier league has been meteoric. His label, only five years old, already turns a profit. Anderson has certain traits in common with other designers recently appointed to Paris houses: Raf Simons of Christian Dior, Hedi Slimane of Yves Saint Laurent and now Anderson all began their careers as menswear designers, and so bring to Paris a new perspective on this city's love affair with femininity.
This Paris fashion week is seeing the traditional game of designer musical chairs played at breakneck speed. Immediately following the Rochas catwalk show, the house announced that designer Marco Zanini would be replaced by another Italian name, the 50-year-old Alessandro dell'Acqua, who has been a fixture of the Milan fashion week schedule since the mid 1990s. Dell-Acqua will continue to show his own brand, No 21, in Italy. Zanini, 42, who worked in the Versace design team and at Halston before his role at Rochas, is believed to be headed for the house of Schiaparelli, with a first catwalk collection expected in early 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment