Alex the great

Diana at SoFash'on made an interesting point about how it's difficult to draw the line between inspiration and imitation nowadays. She said that a lot of Alexander Wang's AW08 creations mimcked looks we've actually been seeing on the street, particularly that grunge-chick trend with the loose sweaters and oversized tailoring and whatnot. Maybe there's some truth in that. But in Wang's case, I think the problem has more to do with the way the garments were presented on the runway. If you were to take it all apart and examine the pieces individually, my opinion is that his designs are classic, well tailored and very wearable. It's easy to label a young designer who caters to the masses unoriginal and boring, but among many of the overly conceptual or glamorous designs of high fashion, Alex really stands out in that his collection is extremely (and painfully) covetable for the average girl living the average life. I personally loved everything--from the basics to the herringbone to the simple leather bags.
It will be so exciting to see how this guy develops as a designer.