NEW YORK (AP) – Designer Alexander Wang is, by his own description, a total sneakerhead. He once even designed a whole clothing collection around them, with dresses, tops and handbags emulating his favorite sneaks, like the classic white-and-green Adidas Stan Smith.
Now, Wang has taken his sneaker love to a new level, partnering with Adidas for a line of apparel and footwear that seeks, in his words, to “disrupt” the famous Adidas look while still preserving its familiarity. One example: rotating the well-known trefoil logo upside down. Another: “deconstructing” the Adidas sneaker. Also, the entire collection is unisex: Pants, tops, shoes.
Wang, who introduced the new line as a surprise finale to his New York Fashion Week runway show Saturday night that included a teaser film and then an army of models marching down the runway in the new clothing line – all in black. Wang said the key challenge was to change up the Adidas look so it feels fresh – but not to the point that it’s unrecognizable.
“It was really about saying, how do we take something and shake it up a little, disrupt it, but at the same time not change it so much where it doesn’t feel right,” Wang said in an interview this week.
The 32-year-old designer is recognized as one of the most talented and busiest of his generation. He launched his own, eponymous label 11 years ago, at age 21. Last year, he ended a prestigious three-year stint as creative director at Balenciaga, a job that had him splitting his time between Paris and New York. Since then, he’s been back fulltime at his own label, where he focuses heavily on streetwear – and is a favorite of the celebrity set.