Alexander Wang is the latest designer to embrace the growing “see now, buy now” movement. Thus far, the model — championed by the likes of Burberry, Prada, Tom Ford and Vetements — has intended to reduce the time between a collection being presented to the public and becoming available for purchase. The move is powered by a desire to make clothes available before high street chains have time to produce replicas (or, arguably, before a countless social media snaps render them stale).
Rather than dropping his clothes in store shortly after they appear on the runway, Alexander Wang is tweaking the model and making things considerably more mysterious by showing garments exclusively (and privately) to retailers and editors. That means you won’t get a single glimpse of his 2017 Resort collection until it’s in stores in November. While a handful of shoes and bags will appear in his spring New York Fashion Week show, the rest will be kept under lock and key.
Speaking to WWD, he explained the power of his model: “We have found that this shortened timeline between seeing the collection and it being available in stores creates a sense of immediacy and generates excitement at the retail level.” The designer certainly tested this model before putting it into effect — his men’s collection and the diffusion line T by Alexander Wang both release collection imagery after garments are delivered to store.
Credits
Text Wendy Syfret
Photography Daniel Jackson
Styling Alastair McKimm