'China edition' blends past with present
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The Hiver Peacock Dress of 1958 is one of the iconic pieces from the house archive of Balenciaga. Photo provided to China Daily |
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"I think the artistry and innovation of Balenciaga will speak to the contemporary times and tastes in China," Wang says.
A total of 13 new forms have been created exclusively for the Beijing show and will only be available to the Chinese market. They include short tops, mini suits, skirts, robes and cocktail attire.
Wang was raised as a Chinese-American. His family is from Shanghai and he has lived in both Shanghai and San Francisco.
He went to the Parsons School of Design in New York and introduced the first full collection of his own eponymous label in 2007. In late 2012, Wang succeeded Nicolas Ghesquiere as the creative director of Balenciaga at the age of 29 while maintaining his own brand.
In 2012, Wang opened the second global flagship store of his own brand in Beijing after New York. Balenciaga has 15 stores on the Chinese mainland. Wang shifts his time between New York and Paris.
"At Alexander Wang, a lot of the energy is raw New York, the energy of how people dress on the street, the music. It's more irreverent and focused on the everyday," Wang says.
"Balenciaga has an artistic, innovative legacy that is linked to the Paris and European fashion tradition. The scale is grander. Its history is complex and multilayered. So the identities are quite separate - but what I try to bring to both are my personal experiences and my own energy and ideas, so that both brands can evolve in their own ways, in their own traditions."
If you go
The Balenciaga China Edition exhibition will be open to the public for free for two days.
12 am-6 pm, May 16; 9 am-6 pm, May 17. Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, 1704 Wenhua Yishu Xin Jie (Street), Gaobeidian, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-8773-9533.
