Drumroll, please. The moment everyone s been waiting for all season finally arrived this morning. Alexander Wang made his Balenciaga debut in the house s intimate salons on the Avenue George V. The TV crews weren t quite as thick as they were at Raf Simons first couture show for Dior last July, but they were a significant presence nonetheless—a reminder that fashion is a story of national consequence in France. Inside, the atmosphere was more subdued, but that seemed quite intentional. At a preview yesterday, Wang confirmed what the show venue suggested: "I m going back to the roots, identifying the codes of the house, and translating them into a functioning, full wardrobe," he said.
A modest plan, perhaps, but no simple task. Plenty have wondered if Wang was up to the challenge of Balenciaga, asking what a twenty-nine-year-old New York-based maker of elevated street wear could bring to the table at one of fashion s most vaunted couture houses. Dior, remember, called Balenciaga "the master of us all." Wang didn t come unprepared. Despite a tight time frame—according to the press office, he began working on this collection in January—the designer has clearly made a study of the brand s archives. The show felt true to Cristóbal s lines. Cocoon coats, jackets with rounded volumes, petal skirts, molded peplums, bracelet sleeves—they all made respectful appearances here.
Wang s runway was faux marble, and it became one of the show s ongoing tropes—a paean, apparently, to the sculptural quality of Cristóbal Balenciaga s clothes, not to mention the monolithic legacy. A marble print first showed up as the lining of elegant tops that spilled open at the back, then as a motif on a bullion-embroidered dress and tailleurs as elaborately embellished as couture, and finally as intarsias on looks that felt the most evocative of Wang s own house style: tiny shaved fox jackets worn with high-waisted velvet lace pants. Shoes with deep toe cleavage and skinny T-straps also reproduced the pattern. Those heels looked a little clumsy, but his first bag, a box clutch with a silver frame handle, was more promising.
Some in the audience said Wang s collection didn t have the shock of the new that even Nicolas Ghesquière s earliest shows for the label did. That may well be true. But if the silhouettes hewed closely to the house s rigorous lines, Wang fused technology and technique to come up with compelling new textiles. The cracked, paint-spackled mohair knits were some of the best things on the catwalk; they made for a nice metaphor, too, about the promise of a young designer ready to break with the past when the time s right.
At the end, Wang came out for his bow in a brisk walk rather than the headlong rush that s become a feature of his New York shows. It seemed an acknowledgment of sorts that the task of helming this historic house is more of a marathon than a sprint. It would be good to see some more of his own personality in the mix next time, but all in all, this was a sure-footed start.
