Taking his sports-infused aesthetic in a more futuristic direction, Alexander Wang paid homage to the humble sneaker for his spring-summer 2015 collection presented during the third day of New York Fashion Week. However, the inspiration was not as literal as one may think.
Last season Wang played fashion games with clothes that changed colour according to body temperature. For summer 2015, he absorbed vivid colour into the collection, including weaves of red, white and blue for a bustier top, or vivid Nike-bright shades used for cute stretch dresses, and strikes a balance between sexy and sporty in long-sleeved jackets paired with perforated mini-skirts.
Wang’s great strength is the energy that he gets into his collections. It was as though the laced-shoe images might burst open at the midriff, or the twisted shoelace effect on the chest stretch open.
But Wang has learnt a lot about fashion and how to temper the pace of a show since he started nine years ago. A soft, cloud grey was interspersed with the bright and cheery sneaker colours, making the clothes seem like a range suited to many generations.
This collection was important because the designer showed his rapid and dynamic fashion maturity – and also fed into American sportswear, which has suffered recently from a fading image.
