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Ahead of Balenciaga's RTW show at Paris Fashion Week (which you can live stream here), The Guardian sat down with Alexander Wang, the young designer who has worked his way up to fashion's highest order. He's creative director for Balenciaga, running Alexander Wang and put together possibly the most hyped H&M collaboration thus far.
He's a young designer with a ton on his plate, but he seems to be managing it all. His eponymous brand now has 20 stores around the world, Balenciaga's sales are up, showing double digit growth, and he's essentially become the face of athleisure, even though he never goes to the gym. In his words, "A lot of people find that surprising, but to me the point is that sportswear has a functionality to it. It’s what you see people wearing in the street, carrying in their bags. It has a very direct connection to our lives and that’s what I love about it – it’s not so much about being sporty as about being active and functional and easy."
He was actually spurred into fashion early on through Vanessa Traina Snow, the daughter of murder-mystery author Danielle Steel, who wore castoffs of couture clothing from her mother and still works with Wang as a stylist and consultant when he's working on Balenciaga. If there's a more random story about getting into fashion, I haven't heard it.
While the Wang brand continues to expand, he keeps family on board to maintain the company's identity and casually mentions Ralph Lauren as a benchmark in terms of attaining success, though he keeps things inclusive and informal with his target audience, embracing social media. The H&M collaboration was announced on Instagram, after all.
Wang's probably the leading figure of fashion's new guard and it seems everything is going swimmingly for the guy with fantastic hair.