Miss Alexia gets up close and personal with designer Jason Wu’s debut offering for this classic-with-a-twist brand
Words: Alexia Petsinis
Photography: Joshua Montebello
Here’s a ‘classic’ conundrum to kick off your Tuesday: how to exude first lady elegance while assimilating the edgier aesthetics of contemporary fashion? Jason Wu’s first womenswear collection for Hugo Boss, recently presented by Russh magazine at the brand’s Chadstone store, offers this solution: classically tailored cuts re-invigorated by strikingly modern fabrications and palette.
As one of the world’s leading fashion houses for all things tailored, Hugo Boss presents swoon-worthy ensembles, classic shift dresses and jacket styles in varieties of the finest silks and woolen blends, season after season. But for a young(ish) lass beginning to dabble in the realm of luxury womenswear, the idea of a pristine structured suit may seem a tad…daunting?
Cue Jason Wu.
“Jason is really about taking high quality pieces and making them into very wearable and comfortable forms,” says Jess Blanch, Russh editor-in-chief. Assuming the creative reigns of the label’s Boss Woman line more than a year ago, Wu’s designs incorporate the cultural fabric of the past, present and future, so engaging existing Boss clients while attracting new attention to the brand across a variety of style persuasions.
A blocky shift dress from Wu’s debut collection(pictured above), for example, demonstrates this refreshing harmony of the elegant and the edgy. Underpinned by an exploration of Bauhaus design and weaving techniques integral to the entire range, the dress cuts a sleek, unmistakeably Boss silhouette, with contemporary geometric details expressed in its illusiory surface texture.
Another standout is a printed jacquard coat (below) inspired by the monochromatic palette of American minimalist painter Ellsworth Kelly. Evidently, Wu’s Woman is a little bolder, slightly more daring than the Boss Woman we have previously seen.
In the new season gent’s range, classic wardrobe silhouettes such as the Boss blazer also make room for more adventurous incarnations. “The bomber jacket is the must-have piece for the season,” says Matthew Keighran, managing director of Hugo Boss Australia. “We have reinvented this style through the use of technical fabrics; it has changed from when we last saw it in the 90s.”
A swathe of polished guests attended the Chadstone store showing, including stylist Lana Wilkinson and Luc Wiseman from men’s fashion portal D’Marge. Many agreed; there’s just something about ‘the Boss’ that entices a return every season for those key investment pieces that work with everything in a wardrobe. Might it have something to do with the Bauhaus ideology of classical architecture in its purest form, free from excess and ornamentation? It’s a balancing act. Whatever it is, they keep coming back.
Jason Wu’s Womenswear collection for Hugo Boss can be seen here.
Miss Alexia (main photo, top) is dressed by Hugo Boss, info@voxfrock.com.au
