Sculpted with a techno twist

A designer known for his experiments with new techniques and materials, Alexander Wang, artistic director of Balenciaga, skilfully plays around with the sculpted creations made famous by the label’s founder, Cristobal Balenciaga and the totally modern language of 21st-century ready-to-wear.
His latest collections as well as his designs for autumn and winder 2014 were recently introduced by Club21, the sole distributor at the line, in a grand event at Sofitel So Bangkok. Highlights of what Wang terms his “Techno-Couture” hybrid retains the legacy of radical innovation established by Balenciaga in his time and extends this spirit into today’s era of digital speed and the technology-driven urban life.
Materials mix formality and function: luxurious astrakhan and tailored wool are juxtaposed against synthetic sport mesh and polyurethane patchwork. The colour palette is mainly neutral. Peacock blue, plum, blue-grey and few touches of fluorescent hues underscore the sharp silhouettes and graphic quality of the looks. The collection is comprised of separates to layer and mix in a contemporary way. Accessories and clothing silhouettes are focused on fundamental geometric shapes – the rectangle, circle and triangle.
A white leather “Engineer” jacket printed with inky-black stripes uses an intensive hand-weaving technique to achieve a pixelated effect at the waist. The same hand-woven technique engineers the curves of a leather dress or skirt with a retightened waist. A black bonded wool sweatshirt becomes modern armour with spiral embroidered sleeves – a new design twist in the Balenciaga DNA. Tailored “Snowboard Trousers” laced at the ankle with climbing rope add a touch of sport to everyday wear.
The collection’s emphasis on pure geometric shapes is echoed in new sculptural accessories. An “Origami” wristlet in calfskin and brass transforms from a 2-dimensional envelope into a 3-dimensional triangle. A “Geometric Rectangle” cross-body bag features a metal clasp that mimics the curve of the hip. Jewel-tone suede or ponyskin “Snow” shoes borrow from mountaineering and sport motifs and tubular jewellery cast in palladium and enamel finish the geometric silhouettes of the collection.
The Balenciaga autumn-winter 2014 collection, on the other hand, focuses on knitting techniques, newly woven into the classic Balenciaga codes. While retaining the structured architecture of silhouettes, the collection playfully addresses the multifaceted scenarios of daily life, from its most charmingly mundane to the most ceremonial.
For Wang, knits are folded, bonded, shaped, embroidered, laminated and twisted throughout the collection. In this knitwear exploration, the voluminous shapes of the House are reworked to appear familiar-yet-uncanny, with softly sculpted forms balanced by a new asymmetry.
Structured leather dresses in olive or steel grey are hand-lashed together with knit skirts and turtlenecks to inflect a softer hand. A black kimono coat is knit and bonded to black leather, with volume defined at the waist by a metal belt stamped with the historic registration of the House: “10 Avenue George V, Paris.”
Ideas of asymmetry and hybridity expressed first in the embroidered coat are extended in a group of twisted tailored looks in black wool crepe, with a jacket lapel fluidly extending into caped sleeves, or a pair of tailored trousers yielding gently into a skirted panel, with cleanly-finished Nucleus edges.
Looks are comprised of origami-folded sweaters embroidered with dramatic crystal “Sea Urchin” clusters of pearls and rhinestones. Here, knits meld with draped duchesse silk to elegant effect. These jewelled clusters, originally inspired by a pearl and rhinestone brooch from the Cristobal Balenciaga archive, are sprinkled through the collection in clustered cuffs and chokers.