Alexander Wang Fall '16 Collection: Take It or Leaf It

If the cannabis leaf has started to experience a fashion moment over the course of the last couple years, thanks to Mara Hoffman’s greenery-filled Spring ’15 collection, for example, or Love Leather’s heavily emblazoned bombers and mesh tanks, circa 2014, its time has officially come. On Alexander Wang’s Fall ’16 runway, the leaf motif reigned supreme. Of course, we know the fashion set isn’t initiating the movement but merely following suit. Then again, all it takes is a mainstream-friendly yet distinctively “edgy” designer, like Wang, to shed light on the fact that cannabis isn’t going anywhere. On the contrary, it’s only becoming more ubiquitous as time marches forward.

Stylistically speaking, Wang’s leaf print is the best imagined by a designer yet. There’s nothing cheesy or botanical about it. Instead, his blurred and abstract, reading neutral on kilt skirts and fuzzy coats, complemented by plenty of wordage (“girl,” “strict,” “tender,” and “violator” make bold appearances on bright beanies and sheer tights), leather dog collars, hardware-heavy detailing, and mohair sweaters. It’s sharp and punchy on baby-sized bucket bags in ironically girlish pastels. A third variation appears as fine, delicate cutouts on a lace-trimmed camisole, as well as both solid leather and satin-paneled mini-dresses. Even the designer’s own shrunken jean jacket spelled “holy smoke” across the front, which you could catch for a split-second as Wang made his trademark run-and-wave bow at the show’s close. The severely shredded jeans; hoodies designed for hiding out; and revamped Wallabees, simultaneously an homage to Jamaican rude boys and laidback desert living, serve to highlight the main attraction: the subtle yet in-your-face pattern.

But this isn’t just about an embrace of cannabis in the arenas of daily life and personal style alike. (Or at least the surface-level representation of an embrace. In fashion, is there really a difference anyway?) It signifies a full-bodied return to the Wang brand girls originally fell for, even more of one than his slouchy, skater-friendly Spring ’16 collection. Call it a new-meets-old era for the designer. After departing Balenciaga last season, Wang is zeroing in on his streetwise, nonconformist, “let’s not take this whole ‘fashion’ thing too seriously” roots.

After toying with sleeker, more traditional investment-grade pieces for several seasons, he’s letting his palatable and consumer-friendly freak flag fly high. Not one to settle for an ordinary New York Fashion Week venue, he showed his Fall collection at Saint Bartholomew’s Church. A hybrid of several fashion archetypes – the feisty punk, lightly tormented grunge girl, fun-having tramp, and most of all, the unapologetic stoner – are rapidly shifting from out-of-place fringe characters, best left on the periphery (while say, the naughty lady-who-lunches, a la Oscar de la Renta, or bohemian glamazon, as seen on Altuzarra’s most recent runway, consistently receives plenty of time front and center) to serious style stars. No one is heralding this movement like Alex Wang. (Except for maybe Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent, but his “bad girls” are more disingenuous than certifiable.) The result: It pays to make no apologies. The collection is already being hailed as what’s sure to be a commercial success. No surprise there. It’s becoming clearer and clearer: People love their plants, both on their clothes and in the air. 

Originally published on PRØHBTD.