Alexander the Great

As I’m getting into this whole fashion malarkey, my next designer is a breeze to love. Looking at the clothes on the Vogue website, the images are small and I think to myself, well, it looks a bit strange from far away. But a nice little zoom in from a once inch sized picture to a good view, and I’m in love. As each of the models makes her way down the catwalk, I really see the story. Whether Alexander Wang meant it to be this way or not, this is my interpretation.

I loved the little Gangsters and Molls theme; I could see flashbacks to the twenties, the speakeasy era, and my fond love of the film Bugsy Malone. Everything in the outfit had been moved down a notch and it was very, very clever.

The first model comes out in a simple suit, with each of the clothes getting progressively lower or higher. The waistcoats are dropped to around the hips, and the trousers are dropped so they start at the thigh. Take the current trend for thigh-high boots and socks and turn the bottom of those into trousers and you have Alexander Wang’s A/W 2010 Collection. The trousers start mid-thigh, bootlegging out to the foot almost like a dancers leg warmer with a bit extra at the ends. As everything moves downwards, the waist becomes exposed. I also love the tails of one of the model’s jackets, starting from the hips rather than the usual place.

Her braces are also on the outside, with her jacket tucked into the waistcoat. It’s all very back-to-front, mismatched and too damn clever.

The exciting thing for me about this collection is that I almost definitely wouldn’t wear any this kind of outfit, but I still love it, I appreciate it and I would maybe even go as far to say that I’d take one aspect of it and use it in my own clothing. For example the dropped waistcoat, it’s so clever and looks amazing. I probably can’t convey the excitement that I’m having, for loving a collection and not really thinking outright “I don’t like this, I wouldn’t wear this”. I am thinking it’s clever, and then I think, “well maybe I wouldn’t wear this, but I would wear this”. It’s taken my thought process from amateur to lover of a collection for what it is.

Just to revert back to my old self for a second, I would like to let you know that a few things I would wear from this collection and that I absolutely love is all of the knitwear. My overall favourite is the cable knit grey wraparound crossover jumper. It looks very warm, very cosy, and very stylish. I suppose that’s the practical side in me, always wanting to be stylish and cosy! But back to the job in hand…

I’m so happy that I’ve got a designer that I love and appreciate rather than dismissing his/her work as too out-there. Alexander Wang, I thank you very much!