Who What Wear: NYC Fashion Week

Follow Katherine and Hillary as they go behind the scenes at New York Fashion Week. In this episode, they visit designer Alexander Wang's showroom and get a sneak peak at his Fall 08 collection.

Katherine Power: New York Fashion Week happens twice a year. As Fashion Editors it's our job to go to the shows at Bryant Park, source up incoming clothing and accessory lines and meet with established designers. This winter Hillary and I headed to New York to do just that. Over the next few days you will get an inside peek at what our trip was like. Our first stop was the SoHo showroom of one of our favorite designers Alexander Wang. We met up with Alex and his Stylist Erin Wasson to get a sneak preview of his new collection. Katherine Power: So, we are here with Alexander Wang and Erin Wasson who is actually working with Alex to style the show and I think what's interesting is, a lot of people don't know that, a stylist actually gets involved with the fashion show. So, can you explain a little bit about your collaboration and what that process is? It's like -- Alexander Wang: It was like Erin came in, I was just showing her the clothes. She was trying to style it together and I was like Erin you should just style the show and put all the outfits together and it kind of just happened like that. Erin Wasson: The luckiest day of my life. Alexander Wang: We just do everything really natural and what feels like just to being ourselves and like we are playing around and having fun with clothes. Katherine Power: And what's the collection about, and what's the inspiration or story behind it? Alexander Wang: I mean, it kind of started with a little bit of me wanting to do something a little bit more richer and more evening wear based. So, we are doing like really baggy pants and like beaded vests and like a lot of like stuff like, skirts and tops and jackets and all the prints are kind of inspired by like scuffs and holes and tears and stuff like that. And it's like girls like, kind of like running around the middle of the night like having fun and just relaxing. Erin Wasson: Yeah, having fun and just relaxing a little bit. Hillary Kerr: We loved every single piece of Alex's line. But we were most excited about his new handbag collection. Alexander Wang: So, we would kind of started with two bags last season and basically the first one was a classic bag that we did, done in like wash leather and then we picked it this one. Basically, something a little bit smaller but I just like a really small bag with a really long kind of this neat little chain on it. Hillary Kerr: Which one is your favorite? Alexander Wang: I like the bag. Katherine Power: After running to a few more appointments we met out with Erin backstage before the show to talk about how she styled the collection and her new line of body jewelry. Erin Wasson: Everything is under the clothing. So, as the girls come down, when the light hits, you will sort of just see like a little something under there and you won't quite know what it is. So, as you can see like Freya, because Alex did all these really beautiful sheer tops and then we did, this is the all oxidized version of the body chain. I think we have got seven girls in total wearing the body chains, and one girl with the crown of thorns. Every single solitary thing in this collection I would wear. We have got Dick Page doing the makeup and Guido doing the hair, which is sort of the ultimate dream team in the fashion world. The aesthetic is you know, it's really sort of undone and loose. There is a lot of beanies in this show, so it's sort of like you woke up in the morning, you are going out and you throw a beanie on. You don't really care what you look like, the eyes is just sort of like a burnished brown, sort of color. Hillary Kerr: How do you decide, how to style something, I mean, I am sure obviously it's organic to a degree. Erin Wasson: I mean, when I walked into the clothing rack, I looked at it as if it was my own closet and I was sort of dressing myself and how you put the things together. It's really simple, we just want the girls uniqueness and personalities to come out as much as possible. We are not looking for a cloned look or like some sort of fantasy girl or anything. Katherine Power: Well, we are really excited to see it. Erin Wasson: Yeah, I am so glad. Thank you guys so much. Katherine Power: Thank you very much. Hillary Kerr: Thank you. Katherine Power: Stay tuned for the next part of our fashion week series, when we meet up with world renowned costume jeweler Kenneth Jay Lane.