Rebel Visionaire: Alexander Wang s/s 2014 collection review.

It was less than two days ago that I posted my review on Alexander Wang for Balenciaga, and today I am called to review the spring/summer collection of his main line, presented this past Saturday in New York.

I'm a huge fan of the Wang simplicity and a huge fan of his forms so I fell more than instantly in love with his clinical, 60s driven dresses in white and hospital-blue (even though they were far from new). The skirtsuits with the constrasting stitching I found j'adore but what I'd kill for is the "Parental Advisory" sweater in white and see through. Now the rest were kind of mediocre. Unbuttoned shirts that ressembled Zara basic design, tons of shorts, some bad skirts, and I mean bad...and the brand's logos in gloves and a few dresses that I found dated and tacky. Commercial wise, it's a "cash-cash" moment, and I know the collection will sell. Creative wise it's a no from me.

In constrast with Alexander, designers like Lagerfeld and Raf Simons are partly allowed to set aside their own lines a little bit, taking under consideration the fact that both of them have met acclaim and recognition in the fashion industry by working with high-end maisons.Wang on the other hand became famous for his own line, Alexander Wang the brand. His appointment as creative director of Balenciaga might have brought his name to a whole new level, making him the hot of the hottest but honestly, he was not in need of that.

Designing four collections a year for a house might sound stressful, but what about eight plus?

It seems like for Balenciaga, Wang will be designing four collections a year, while he will keep his own two lines limited to one per season. And because Wang ain't Lagerfeld, I don't know if he can manage to do that successfully enough, avoiding at the same time a complete creativity burn-out.

It's too early for assumptions though and I feel like sometimes the press is being too "pressy". Maybe what Wang needs is some time to balance between his vision and the one he recreates for Balenciaga. It's more than enough pressure to be praised so much and have your next collection expected with more anticipation than Kim Kardasian's child. So I firmly believe that only time will tell, and I hope that Wang decides what's best for him as an artist and not as a "name" (maybe we'll witness a Tom Ford 2004 moment, who knows).