In New York this season Jason Wu emerged as one of the strongest designers to make an earlier than usual start, thanks to an altogether more mature approach to intricately constructed garments. He allotted this to a collection of beautiful gowns and explored the possibilities of frayed ruffles, elegant two-piece separates that structured lithe figures of models sternly but gracefully and also deep, plunging cut-outs that exposed large but varying chunks of décolletage, yet framed the face masterfully all the while.
Wu also stuck to a characteristically calming colour palette of organic seabed hues, injecting the odd stream of bright coral and some equally forthright snakeskin in murky dark green that the designer wasn’t afraid of figuratively going to town with.
Beyond this, and perhaps most significantly, Jason Wu’s depiction of ladylike gentility for the woman of the upper east side was came along leaps and bounds in comparison to its somewhat more commercial renditions of the past. This polish, present in cropped jackets that partially recall the sublime eye of Giorgio Armani, standout trench coats and silky t-shirt dresses that screamed modernity but not to the point of deafening, rounded off SS16 as a collection that further qualifies Wu for a bright fashion future.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of Jason Wu