SCADstyle might just be my favorite week in the history of forever, or really just since attending SCAD. For a fashion student or any others that appreciate fashion, seeing the list of announced designers, entrepreneurs, and icons released in mid-May is the equivalent of a child opening up presents on Christmas morning. No lie, and let me tell you, this year Santa (SCAD) did well.
Luminaries of this year’s SCADstyle week included; Domenico de Sole of Tom Ford, Sagmeister, Christine Barberich Editor-in-Chief of Refinery 29, jewelry designers Eddie Borgo and the sisters of DANNIJO, Bridget Foley of WWD, Steven Kolb CEO of CFDA, Kate Lanphear of The New York Times Style magazine, Sally Singer of Vogue and *drumroll please* Alexander Wang and Prabal Gurung (Atlanta Campus). These are just some of the highlights, the list of all speakers goes on and on. When I tell you my jaw dropped, and I couldn’t breathe when I found out Wang was speaking, I’m not exaggerating. He is absolutely one of my favorite designers at the moment, from the techniques he uses, his craftsmanship, concepts, and not to mention how humble he is in interviews all across the web, its not hard to love him. Seeing him front row after waiting 6 hours in line, only furthered my obsession with the designer.
The moment Wang and his interviewer, Domenico de Sole, stepped on stage at 6 p.m. at Trustees theater, packed full of perfectly dressed SCAD students, teachers and other guests, everyone went wild. “You’ll have to excuse me if I get a little choked up because these things make me, really, really, nervous” Wang said. How cute is he?! Wang then launched into how he got started in the fashion industry with no previous connections to fashion in his own family. He held internships at Marc Jacobs, Vogue and Derek Lam before he went on to launch his own line in 2005.
In 2012, right after Paris fashion week, the CEO of Balenciaga had called asking to meet with him. In the meeting they broke the news that they were going to be parting ways with Nicolas Ghesquiere the current designer at Balenciaga. Wang said he initially didn’t know what to say. They then offered the position on the spot, he initially said “You’re kidding right? This is just something that I can’t take on right now.” Being in the midst of managing his own brand in New York and with on going collaborations he felt that it would be too much of a responsibility. They understood that it may have been a lot to ask of him but at the very least invited him to see Cristobal Balenciaga’s archive. He agreed, as who would turn down an offer like that, and went later that night. Seeing the archive, as a creative person “immediately put sparks into [me]” he said. He got back to New York that week and on Monday they called him and told him he had three days to consider it. He agreed as long as he didn’t have to relocate from New York or compromise his own brand. A month later the news was announced to the public officially that he was the new designer. From that point he had a month to create the fall collection, which if I do say so myself, is pretty f***ing amazing and it was a huge success. Wang then went on to tell us a little bit about his collaboration with H&M that will be in stores November 6th. I know I’ll definitely be the first in line for that as well. Shoutout to SCAD for providing students and other guests with yet another amazing SCADstyle week; I can’t wait to see what we get next year.