Balenciaga Is in Good Hands

BALENCIAGA From left, a swallowtail wool coat,
a crackled knit top, a textured knit jacket and skinny wool pants,
a draped crepe gown with a low back.

Alexander Wang showed on Thursday that he could design for a major house. His debut for Balenciaga was smart and graceful, and the streamlined clothes advanced the codes in a modern way. He may have played it safe but he also didn’t make mistakes.

Mr. Wang had his doubters, on both sides of the Atlantic, who questioned if a designer of moderate-priced clothes with attitude could make the Paris grade. But Balenciaga isn’t a cathedral, any more than Mr. Wang is strictly a T-shirt designer. Times change. The only way to preserve a house is to periodically examine its foundations and then figure out how to make the structure more livable for today.

That’s essentially what Mr. Wang did.

Sticking to a stark but elegant palette of black and white with a smidge of brown and dark green, he poked around in the Balenciaga archive. In the roundness of the opening jackets, in the gentle sweep of coats and in the cap sleeves and loose-back tops, there were allusions to Balenciaga’s 1950s modernity, as well as ’60s evening styles.

But Mr. Wang brought his street smarts to those couture volumes that are indelibly Balenciaga. He minimized them so that they look more realistic for today. In effect, he was offering a top and a pair of black pants, or thigh-high suede boots with small loopy silver bows. But the results were not boringly minimalist.

He was also clever with textures. Jackets and tops that appeared to be stiffened wool were in fact knits. Those crackled leather pieces that came out late in the show? Not leather at all but rather painted knits.

His predecessor, Nicolas Ghesquière, modernized Balenciaga, in part by using new materials that relate to hard, synthetic environments. Embroideries, no matter how exquisite, can look fuddy-duddy. So Mr. Wang did some nice fake-outs. Tops and dresses that looked as if they could have been injection-molded and then rolled in plastic sprinkles were actually embroidered. And some of the loveliest dresses were elongated drapes with hard bodices of tiny French knots.

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CATHY HORYN | February 28, 2013 | Read More. Article Link

Alexander Wang “Extremely Excited” About Balenciaga Debut

ALEXANDER WANG describes his appointment as creative director at Balenciaga as "a dream come true", and has said that he's "extremely excited" to unveil his first collection tomorrow. Speaking after the New York show for his eponymous label earlier this month, it's the first time that the designer has commented on his new role since it was announced that he'd be  succeeding Nicolas Ghesquière in November.

Understandably, the 29-year-old was a little nervous about accepting such a high-profile position.

"My first reaction was: 'I am so occupied, I give 110 per cent to my brand,'" he explained. "Then I thought of elevating my team and being given a chance to do all those things I had at the back of my mind. I am doing something quite different from what I do [at Alexander Wang]."

US Vogue editor Anna Wintour is believed to have been instrumental in persuading the designer to accept the job.  And now the time has come to see the first results.

"I am extremely excited. I am high on life. It's a dream come true," Wang told Suzy Menkes. "It was a surreal experience to look at the whole archive that they had just redone. It was such an incredible tradition. I was taking things out of the box and there were a lot of personal collectibles from Cristobal, personal gifts from Vionnet. I didn't have time to go through everything."

Nicolas Ghesquière helmed the brand for 15 years, and announced that he was stepping down at the beginning of November last year. Wang was confirmed as his successor less than a month later.

"There is such an austerity to [Balenciaga] that is so integral to the house and part of its DNA," said Wang. "I was watching all the videos. Those shows would go on all day! It was such a different world, how they are all dressed and the gowns they would wear on a daily basis just to go to dinner. [Cristobal Balenciaga] was always such a mystery. He managed to give the perception that he might be very private. The great thing about that is that there is a whole unknown side of yourself. I know about me - but I save myself for my friends."

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SARAH KARMALI | February 27, 2013 | Article Link