One of the most raucous receptions at New York Fashion Week must have belonged to Alexander Wang’s knockout S/S 09 show. Boasting a front row including the British contingent of Alexa Chung, Henry Holland and Alice Dellal, wolf whistles rang out when the lights dimmed and Raquel Zimmerman strutted out in a cut out white swimsuit, denim and leather jacket and heavy black platform sandals. From then on followed a sporty, hip, muscular collection of chunky distressed knitwear, body con dresses, and sequined blazers that distilled the Eighties ‘Miami Vice’ references into instantly cool and covetable clothes that Downtown girls the world over will love.

It all ended hours later in an industrial Chinatown basement where a recently-released-from-prison Foxy Brown made a surprise appearance at the afterparty (on her birthday no less!) to bring the house down with some sweaty bootilicious jams.

Dazed Digital sat down with Alexander in his studio after the show.
 
Dazed Digital: Congrats – the show was amazing!
Alexander Wang: Thank you! At the end of the day, me and my team do what makes us happy. I’m here for the girls that understand it and wear the clothes. It’s a great feeling when you get the overall positive feedback.
 
DD: This season seems more a step forward in terms of colour with the hot pink and turquoise green.
AW: Last season we did a really big push and it was one of our most successful seasons but people perceived it as kinda grungey, gothic, punky kinda thing and that wasn’t necessarily the thoughts I had in mind when I created the collection. But it was perceived that way when we threw on the beanies and we had the socks. With this season I wanted to strip down everything from last season and start on a clean palette but also to make sure that the girl and the idea of who she is, is still there.

DD: There also seems to be more of a focus on eveningwear this season.
AW: I never like to title things daywear or eveningwear. It’s the context. I see my girl wearing it to a party all night then go to the beach the next day. That’s what it was about.
 
DD: This was the first season not styled by your friend and muse, Erin Wasson (instead it was styled by Alastair McKimm) How was that for you?
AW: Well Erin did the jewellery for the show. It was a natural evolution. We’re still great friends but she’s working on her own clothing line now, she’s working on her other projects, the timing wasn’t right. But y’know, she came in the day before the collection and took a look.
 
DD: You’ve had a successful collaboration with Uniqlo and you’re now launching a diffusion line of t-shirts.
AW: It’s not really a diffusion line. It’s still part of the collection but it’s a wider distribution but taking the fabric, quality and aesthetic of the collection line but to take one aspect of the line and push it a little more.
 
DD: The girl you design for is so specific – New York, tough but chic.
AW: I agree. But it’s also very international too. That aesthetic and attitude can happen anywhere.
 
DD: Didn’t you start off in fashion by designing for a family wedding?
AW: That wasn’t how I started but it was one of the first fashion shows I did was at my brother’s wedding. I was 15. I did a 35 look show! My family are entirely supportive of me. My mom believed in me, even when I said I wanted to leave school!

See Mark Reay's backstage photographs of the Alexander Wang S/S 09 show here.