view slideshow » .

Alexander Wang: Deconstructed Wall Street Chic

The buzz was palpably powerful before the unveiling of Alexander Wang’s Fall 2010 collection in Pier 94 on the Hudson River Saturday afternoon, Feb. 13, in New York. This was also where another Alexander, the late McQueen, staged his one and only New York runway show.

Wang had exactly the audience a hot young designer on the rise aspires to have in his front row – Vogue editors, Anna Wintour and Carine Roitfeld, teams of buyers from the right places, Harvey Nichols, Lane Crawford, Printemps and Net-a-Porter and a pack of “it” girls, from Alice Dellal to Pixie Geldorf.

More relevantly, Wang also had a hit collection, a crossroads of Edwardian men’s tailoring, haute bourgeois S&M, deconstructed tails and frock coats and street chic demolished men’s wear.

Other impressive elements included saucy seaweed macramé velvet tops, slick ribbed leggings that ended by wrapping burnished leather platforms and faded glitz mohair sweater dresses.

“It’s the Berlin boy meets ‘Belle du Jour,’” Wang said backstage, adding that he began by thinking of Wall Street bankers connecting with cool clubbing girls.

This was Wang stretching himself, adding a higher tailoring quotient to his inventive casual street oeuvre. Best of all was the slick, suggestive cutting, the meeting of classical financial executive pinstripe and naughty late night babe.

That much was clear from the opening look worn by leggy Russia model Natalia Vodianova, in a crosscut mini dress meets men’s business jacket. Waxy haired babes in tweed bondage cocktails or leather minis with men’s pocket details, worn over slinky wool cat-suits, all looked great, and directional too.

Besides staging a hot and clever show, Wang is setting an agenda, which, ultimately is the highest compliment that can be given to this designer. He’s now very much a fashion leader.

		* CFDA 2013 Nominees and Award Winners Announced * Proenza Schouler Women Fall 2013