Will Pre-Fall 2011 Spell Sales Spike For Alexander Wang?

Photos via WWD

The pre-fall collections are still trickling in which worries us a bit since Fall 2011 Fashion Week is a mere month away and over the weekend, Alexander Wang revealed his largest pre-fall collection to date. He presented a spread of the very things that made him famous: Perfectly draped motorcycle jackets and dresses, distressed denim and leather and a whole lot of black (a far cry from his all-white Spring showing).

Although the brand has only been around for a few years, the collection was as close to “classic Wang” as it could get, and it’ll surely be a huge seller. “Im giving the buyers the bread and butter, the designer told WWD, and the dessert later. By dessert, he means the increasingly directional runway shows, that let’s be honest are a much tougher sell.

Judging by the sheer amount of merchandise available at his sample sale and on the discount racks at department stores, his Fall 2010 line must not have performed as well as past seasons. As much as I’d love to be able to wear a cropped blazer, I don’t have the tall, thin frame the collection was designed for. The beautiful, Belgian-inspired deconstructed silhouettes he showed for Spring 2011 were also met with mixed reviews, and don’t seem nearly as wearable as Wang’s past collections.

Personally, I think it’s great that Wang has reached a level of success that allows him to experiment his company has turned from a family run operation to a booming design empire in only half a decade. But you can’t keep a business afloat on studded handbags alone. Do you think the designer should continue to push the envelope even if the profit margins aren’t quite the same?