I think most of us, me included, thought that there was a decent chance Alexander Wang might fall flat on his face at the helm of Balenciaga. Maybe not probable, but not exactly impossible, either. Thankfully, Wang’s results in two seasons as Balenciaga’s creative director have yielded the exact opposite – two focused, luxurious, modern collections that are built solidly atop Balenciaga’s historic foundation. That extends to the collections’ handbags and shoes, including the cleverly closured bags from Balenciaga Spring 2014.
Over his tenure at his won brand, Alexander Wang has developed a pattern with his bags – he only shows a couple during runway shows, and they’re all from a very slim portion of the brand’s eventual offerings. That’s true to some extent for all brands, but Wang does it in extreme, both at his eponymous label and at Balenciaga. We only got one type of bag during the brand’s show, and it was a hand-held oversized clutch (and eventual shoulder bag, no doubt) that bore a faint structural resemblance to the similarly scaled clutches in Wang’s spring show several weeks ago. This version is several orders of magnitude more refined, though, even if the the framed closure is straight-up jacked from a Dunkin Donuts Munchkin takeout box.
In addition to black, the bag made appearances in white, soft grey and pale pink, all of which have been recurrent colors throughout the Spring 2014 accessories collections. There were also two crocodile versions, indicative of the important place that exotics have earned in the business, particularly when it comes to enticing the most lucrative customers at the top end of the market. Check out the bags that made an appearance during the show below.
