A year ago, for his first Resort collection at Balenciaga, Alexander Wang took his lead from Cristobal Balenciaga s coastal town in Spain. Today, he returned to the sea, looking at modern sailboats. "At the beginning, it was about the idea of architectural forms and symmetry, the 360-degree view," Wang explained backstage. "Here, I wanted to work with asymmetry, cutting more fluidly."
His sailboat starting point came through in any number of ways. A canvas miniskirt was stamped the way sailcloth is with the house s Paris address. The collection s utilitarian outerwear was influenced by the sturdy shape of foul-weather gear. And on the accessories front, Wang couched clear Perspex clutches in corded silk fishnet sacks, and sent the models out in honest-to-goodness galoshes with python insoles. Silver necklaces and bracelets were cast from real shells. If the bareness of the look jibed with the sailing metaphor, there was a surprising number of exposed midriffs and uncovered thighs. It s a Resort collection, yes, but you want to see Wang stretch a bit more. His most sophisticated variation on the theme came toward the end of the show, in a series of draped tops and jackets with trailing asymmetric hems modeled directly from the triangular shape of sails. We can picture those becoming a thing on dry land.
