Prada's designs may be dubbed as "ugly chic", but, given the adverse weather conditions in New York and the emphasis on outerwear designed to keep the wearer warm, Alexander Wang's collection was re-christened "survival chic".
The hottest ticket in New York, Wang's show was also the one that worried most editors and journalists invited for its location – Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn.
Wang tried to hint at extreme conditions, temperature changes and survival via references to a series of outdoor activities and competitive sports – including mountain climbing and camping. But the survival theme was also reinterpreted in a urban key.
The multiple pockets on the opening simple V-neck Space Age tunic dresses matched with a rubberised leather button-down had indeed the same sizes and shapes of contemporary gadgets and accessories including smart phones and notebooks, lipsticks and lighters. In the same way, the bags were combinations of detachable hunting/fishing pockets and flasks, aimed at containing a series of small objects we all carry around with us on an everyday basis.
Sharp and angular silhouettes prevailed together with a lot of surface elaborations: thick knits had indeed a bubble-like texture; there was embossed leather and printed Neoprene, a fur vest for that added urban primitivism and garments (one reminiscent of Charlie Brown's zig zag shirt) made with knotted leather and tulle or woven shoelaces.
Emphasis was on the outerwear with puffers, shearlings, windbreakers with mountain scenes at the hem, and leather coats and jackets with unfinished rugged hemlines.
The final looks, though, were the ones that captured the audience's attention, providing that perfect Instagram moment: lights went down, the edge of the runway started to move and the leather clothes (jackets, city shorts and coats) on the models – heat-activated by the air from special vents – changed colours producing shades that went from black to chartreuse, electric blue and purple.
Despite the media telling you this was sci-fi fashion and despite the eye-catching moment, this spectacular high-tech grand finale wasn't so new. Heat-sensitive garments first appeared on the fashion scene thirty years ago.
In the early '80s Italian designer Cinzia Ruggeri focused her research on finding alternative materials in the same way Otti Berger experimented at The Bauhaus with materials such as cellophane and cotton.
Ruggeri created for her Spring/Summer 1982 collection two designs displayed by the following sketches. The first shows a black skirt suit conceived as a kinetic piece with sections in primary colours that, when hit by light gave the impression they were moving; the second design featured instead a checkered pattern made with liquid crystals graduated at a certain temperature. When the temperature changed they reacted producing different colours. These designs were early environmental garments modified by the changes that occurred in the spaces surrounding the wearer or in accordance with the wearer's body temperature.
What we saw on Wang's runway were the modern versions of these early thermo-chromatic experiments and they obviously look much better as they are made with modern technology that didn't exist in the '80s. What's disappointing about all this is that several hundreds iPhone cameras simultaneously snapping the same scene will not be able to reveal you key moments of fashion history if you haven't studied them, but will only give you instant visual pleasure and make you think you have seen a glimpse of the future. From an Italian perspective it is even more depressing to realise that all the best ideas Italians had are currently being reinvented by designers in other countries who are simply taking the merit. Survival of the fittest? Survival of the copycat more like.
PS For people interested in fashion history - Ruggeri also included in her Spring/Summer 1980 collection garments with unfinished rugged hemlines.
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