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High-priest Wang worships at altar of high fashion

By AFP

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Fashion

King of cool Alexander Wang took over a Romanesque church in New York on Saturday to present a bondage-inspired collection at the altar of high fashion with Kylie Jenner and her rap star boyfriend front row.

The fashion pack braved one of Manhattan's coldest nights in 20 years, cloaking themselves in fur coats to fend off temperatures of minus 12 Celsius (-11 Fahrenheit) that saw the city warn people to stay indoors.

Wang, the young superstar who defines downtown cool, surprised many by renting out the waspish surroundings of St Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Park Avenue for a collection as sexy and as edgy as ever. Wang's beloved black and white was prominent, broken up with wooly orange, dark purple, blue and baby doll pink. Legs were encased in two-tone opaque and see-through leggings with chunky boots.

At the end, Wang made a victory lap, long black hair flying as he ran down the catwalk past his adoring fans, dressed in black with the words "holy smoke" written on each side of his chest.

His models wore bondage-style chokers with buckles, chunky silver interlocking chain necklaces, tweed mini-skirt suits, angora-style fluffy sweaters and the same luxuriant material made into beanie hats. Coats and suiting had a white background with black leaf detail, almost a dalmatian effect and casual jackets were fur-lined. There were studded platform boots with cut-out heels and biker boots.

Femininity was provided in the form of delicately pleated leather dresses and a pink and black chessboard style crepe dress. There were copious lashings of leather, including a beautifully pleated pink skirt. Sweaters were adorned with the black silhouette of a pole dancer and sea-through gauze blouses worn braless.

Emphasizing the increasing cross-over between fashion and music as seen earlier in the week by collections from Kanye West and Rihanna, Wang premiered during the show American producer Baauer's new song "Temple," featuring South Korean singer G-Dragon and British star M.I.A.

Fashion Week is Broken

So says the notes accompanying Rebecca Minkoff's spring/summer 2016 runway collection -- a season earlier than the rest of the style fest.

A pioneer in the realm of where fashion meets technology, she used her digital reach to introduce shop-from-the-runway pieces in the catwalk collection called #SEEBUYWEAR. Twitter, Instagram and Periscope make images and video of the runway instantly clickable across the planet, yet clothes are traditionally not available to buy for another six months.

"By that time, customers were bored. And frankly, I couldn't blame them," wrote Minkoff. She defined her customer as the urban woman who lives life on her own terms and can now buy on her own terms too. The success for her new approach will be keenly watched, with designer Tom Ford and label Burberry to follow suit in September.

James Bond and Skiing

Lacoste, the DNA-fueled French sports brand which aims to define contemporary, non-conformist chic, was inspired by the French national skiing team in the 1960s and the "retro-futuristic ski resort."

"It's a little bit the idea of skiing in the 1960s when Lacoste dressed the French team, it's a little James Bond retro-futurism," designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista told AFP backstage. Fun and quirky, there were 1980s video-game-inspired embroideries of pixellated pine trees and skiers running the length of a poncho dress, astronaut-like coats and velvet jersey leggings.

The neutral palette of steel, earth and wood was livened up with splashs of pink, red, mustard and burnt orange. Lacoste clothes are easy to put on, easy to take off like a quilted velvet tracksuit skirt with elastic waistband, mittens that disappear into jacket sleeves and scarves that harbor hoods within their folds.

The brand likened its quilted jackets and coats to being "just like a duvet cover under which you would crawl" and skirts to tents which can be "zipped and unzipped at will." The brand is dressing the French Olympic team for Brazil 2016 and Baptista said he was impatient for the games to start. "I think they are pretty chic and I am pretty proud," he said. (AFP)


ALEXANDER WANG
Lacoste
New York Fashion Week