In the last few seasons (and weeks) we have seen occult coincidences and mysterious correspondences in fashion. One of the most ordinary trends at the moment doesn't consist in recycling an idea from 40-50 years ago, but in relaunching something seen on a runway or in the shops three or four seasons ago.
But let's go back to the beginning: Alexander Wang's show was among the most anticipated ones during that mighty bulimic affair that has become New York Fashion Week. Reports and reviews of the show proved it was well received with critics attempting to spot the future inspirations for the next Balenciaga collection, the first one designed by Wang as newly appointed Creative Director of the historical fashion house.
Wang seemed to have taken a new and improved direction with dropped-waist coats chacterised by a cocooning silhouette, mixes of leather and shearling, mohair jumpers embellished with iridescent fragments of sunglasses and surface elaborations. The looks were completed by fur boxing gloves that at times became oversized paw-like arms that reached the elbows.
Yet rather than stating Wang had presented a preview of Balenciaga, maybe it would had been more correct to say that Wang had pilfered - pardon, moved from, as they say now - Balenciaga.
Wang's massive fur mittens (an idea that also appeared on Altuzarra's runway with models sporting oversized skunk-like boxing gloves - View this photo) and fur sleeves had indeed already appeared in Balenciaga's Pre-Fall 2009 collection.
The trick had actually been adopted also at Max Mara and Sportmax's Autumn/Winter 2010 runway shows. The Guardian defined at the time the oversized fur mittens as "paws", commenting "next season, you will walk the streets as if you are wearing fluffy boxing gloves."
You could also argue that (even though some critics may see the following comparisons as a bit far-fetched) two grey dresses in Alexander Wang's collection seemed borrowed from Nicolas Ghesquière's sci-fi uniforms from Balenciaga's A/W 10 collection; the embellished jumpers could be interpreted as re-editions of the jumpers embossed with bubble wrap details from the same collection, and that Wang's crisscross details or draped elements and motifs were again borrowed from other assorted Balenciaga looks. Yet this is not the main point.
The main point is trying to find out a reason why we don't seem to be able to quickly spot these correspondences and borrowed elements, but we are more interested in proclaiming such young and hip designers as the next fashion genius.
Well, speed and quantity are plausible reasons. Everything moves so fast and we are literally bombarded by so many images that we tend to quickly forget what we saw merely a year ago on a runway.
In a way, it is also easy to justify this attitude from a designer's point of view (even though this doesn't justify or defend Wang who's pilfering skills have touched upon other designers...): creativity is an endless well, but you need a good rest to be able to keep on drawing the creative juices and keep up with high standards. Sadly, very rarely creativity gets a rest nowadays, considering that designers and their teams are put under all sorts of pressures and have to churn out one collection after the other.
Yet, you'd have expected somebody explaining Alexander Wang the difference between studying in an archive and randomly pilfering in an archive. Will all the next Wang collections be games of correspondences with Balenciaga's? Time will tell, but you often wish we would let a designer grow up a bit before idolising them and putting them at the helm of a historical fashion house.
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