At age 18, he moved to New York City to attend Parsons The New School for Design to study fashion design. After dropping out in his sophomore year, he launched his first women's ready-to-wear collection in 2007. The label embodies casually cool downtown style, drawing inspiration from the nineties, French chic, and rock grunge—always finished off with a slouchy, rolled-out-of-bed edge. Wang launched a diffusion line of pre-weathered cotton tees, tanks, and T-shirt dresses in spring 2009, T by Alexander Wang, as well as a footwear collection of towering platform sandals. He won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2008, an honor accompanied by a $200,000 award to expand one's business. His lines are now stocked globally by more than 30 of the world’s premiere retailers including Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Dover Street Market, Browns, Otte and Selfridges.
Wang is known for his edgy, somewhat masculine womenswear designs. After designing a Fall 2008 collection using black as the predominant color, he designed his Spring 2009 collection using bright colors such as orange, dusty purple, aqua and hot pink, and proclaimed, "They wanted color, they got color!". Although he reverted to using mainly black fabrics, he was praised for showing great tailoring skills.
Born to Taiwanese American parents, Alexander Wang went to summer design programs at OTIS. During his late teens, he lived in San Francisco. Alexander Wang attended Drew School and the Stevenson School in California for high school. He also attended The Harker School.
Wang launched his full women’s collection in 2007, selling to over 200 stores. He was nominated for a 2008 Council of Fashion Designers of America in Women's Wear and won a US$200,000 prize as the CFDA/Vogue (magazine) Fashion Fund Award winner. In 2008, Alexander Wang received top honors as the recipient of the Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund. He was featured in the November 2010 issue of Vogue in remembrance of winning the award in 2008, in an article entitled "The Aluminati". In 2009, he was recognized by his peers when he was announced as the winner of the Swarovski Womenswear Designer of the Year and in October 2009, he was the recipient of the Swiss Textiles Award. Alex was celebrated again in 2010 with another Swarovski Designer of the Year Award, this time in the Accessory category.
On February 17, 2011, the Alexander Wang store opened in SoHo, New York. “When the economy buckled, there were heavy casualties in SoHo… Phi [a boutique], showcasing the moto-Deco designs of Andreas Melbostad, was only six years old when it perished in 2009.” Wang has helped to revive an otherwise dissolving area Fashion’s east coast epicenter.
Vogue interview; “Although Alexander Wang isn’t designing uniforms for the 2012 Olympics, his phone will likely ring off the hook next time around now that this collection’s out. “We were inspired by competitive swimmers, cyclists, and girls prepping for marathons,” he said at today’s primary-colored presentation, where perforated track vests, patchwork windbreakers, and utility track pants (accessorized with heeled sneaker-sandals) were skillfully translated for his urban loyalists. It was a focused and confident collection from the young, unstoppable designer who disclosed plans to open a two-story flagship in Beijing in 2012. In designing clothes that will be in his Grand Street store come November, Wang picked up fall’s baton for chic, luxe looks with athletic undertones, leaving behind fur-tipped opulence and concentrating instead on perforated, kinetic wear-ability. “I never really did sports growing up,” he said with a laugh, realizing the irony of the underlying sensibility that’s been with him since the start. “Maybe that’s why they intrigue me. The technology that goes into that clothing is steps ahead, so it’s always been something I look towards.””
On November 29, 2012, Women's Wear Daily reported that Alexander Wang would become the next creative director at Balenciaga after Nicolas Ghesquière left due to friction with Balenciaga's parent company, PPR.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Wang_(designer)
Further Readings:
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Prestel (October 25, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3791347136
ISBN-13: 978-3791347134
Amazon: 50 Contemporary Fashion Designers
Today's designers are savvier and more daring than ever before. Happy to exist within or outside the established houses of haute couture, their reputations are cemented by smart consumers who are willing to navigate the thin line between setting and following trends. This book of the most creative and iconoclastic members of today's fashion scene includes Fashion Week regulars and cutting-edge up-andcomers. Each designer is profiled in double-page spreads that include runway-ready products as well as notes, sketches, and biographical information. These 50 men and women have embraced the global, economic, and environmental.
More Fashion Designers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art
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