Alexander Wang launches his Fall 2011 T Line
Over a scant six years, Asian American designer Alexander Wang has come from being a Parsons Design School dropout to a fast rising fashion house. With the new Fall 2011 T line coming to stores and e-commerce, and an innate overachieving quality I just couldn’t help to investigate, Alexander Wang has proven to be one of the products of our generation.
Alexander Wang’s T line launched last year following his eponymous start-up collection that made waves pinning him as the freshest new design talent. The line is a lower price-point collection that redefines classic t-shirts and tanks. Wang took your staple tees and tanks, filtered everything through his signature black and shades of gray to produce cool, slouchy interpretations with a layering ease. Coining the style term, MOD (Model-off-Duty), Wang mixes high designer pieces with casual basics that capture the look of models in the city running to castings. While this line brings life back into such basic pieces, the designer is now burgeoning his assortment beyond just t-shirts and tanks (skinny pants, blazers, even bras) for a complete lifestyle brand. “T represents fluidity and casual aspect of how t-shirts are worn, but will now transcend into different categories,” Wang says. The good news for all of us is that “more affordable” actually means what it says, with his most expensive piece in this line capping at $285 (a dress), rendering an anomalous gem in the midst of all inflated retail margins.
An inspiring young figure in the creative world, Wang is dismantling the typical Asian American stereotype of a quiet math academic well on an ivy-league trajectory. Quite the contrary, Wang dropped out of college (Parsons School of Design), and started his own first collection based on knits. He then received the 2008 CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Award for young designers and a mentorship with Diane Von Furstenberg, 2010 CFDA Award for Menswear, and most recently, the 2011 CFDA Award for Accessories designer of the year.
Walking in similar shoes as many young Asian Americans, Wang’s parents emigrated from Taiwan to San Francisco before he was born with his 2 older siblings and wanted to start a life in America. His mother worked from being a restaurant dishwasher, to a flight attendant, to a bank teller, and later on found opportunity with her husband in a plastics manufacturing business which they took to China. Growing up with a non-Tiger Mom, Wang says his mother was always supportive of his talent: “I scribbled, drew shoes, picked clothes out for my mom. She really encouraged me. She bought me my first sewing machine and she’d bring home fresh flowers and say, ‘Draw something for me.’”
Wang describes his experience in pursuing a non-stereotypical career in fashion with his parents differently than most would assume: “I’ve always had a very supportive family. There are all these sort of stereotypes that certain backgrounds - Asian families - want to direct you into certain careers but my family has always been, ‘This is where your talent is, let’s go for it.’”
With the line hitting stores (and online) two days ago, a guerilla ad campaign requested the collab with none other than his fellow millennials, music artists Santigold and Spankrock.
