With Kanye West and Alicia Keys front row at his show, and a cheering section in  back, there's no doubt that Alexander Wang is New York Fashion Week's reigning rock star.

On the runway, Wang's love affair with the masculine/feminine look played out in a more mature and dressed-up way than ever before, using the poncho (of all things) as a starting point.

Wang showed nearly a dozen different ponchos, from a tough-looking black leather and taffeta version (a kind of hybrid poncho-parka), to a soft, touchable style in blush angora and satin (part poncho, part dressing gown). And each one was more covetable than the next.

The ginormous fur coat was remade as an oversized mink boyfriend jacket, worn with sunglasses with a matching mink goggle strap (pimpin' in a good way), and black silk track pants with satin cummerbund.

In Wang's hands, Yves Saint Laurent's classic le smoking style went glam rock, the tux reimagined as a billowy, sheer black poncho shirt with pleated bib, worn with merino trousers; or a black angora sweater cape with amazing-looking blue glitter drainpipe jeans. To finish the look? Sky-high tassel pumps in mirrored metallic leather.

But the sex kitten was also prowling, in a pink crepe satin bias-cut streamer tank dress, worn over wool pants, and stilettos covered in fur and outfitted with mud flaps.

Wang is a very clever guy, and he can take that to the bank. He opens his first boutique this week in New York (at Grand and Mercer in SoHo), and I'm sure there will be many more to come.

-- Booth Moore in New York

Alexander Wang Fall-Winter 2011 runway collection photo gallery

Photos: Looks from the Alexander Wang Fall-Winter 2011 runway collection shown during New York Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson and Peter Stigter / For The Times.

The spring-summer 2011 runway season ended in Paris on Wednesday with the same color and optimism that started nearly four weeks ago in New York.

Marc Jacobs' Louis Vuitton show was Shanghai grand, perhaps because China is the luxury brand's newest retail frontier.

In electric brights, the clothes walked the line beautifully between classy and campy, with silk mandarin-collar suits and slender heels swinging tassels, and evening gowns shimmying with a rainbow of beaded fringe.

The collection was a jewel box of cheongsam-style dresses in popsicle stripes or orchid prints, some worn with low slung sequined obi belts. There were tiger stripes in this year of the tiger too, abstracted into disco prints. China's beloved giant panda even made an appearance, silhouetted on a sequin T-shirt.

Compared with the glitz of the clothes, the bags were understated. Long clutches and compact flap bags came color-blocked or covered in the all-important (to new luxury markets at least) LV logos.

Louis Vuitton spring-summer 2011 runway collection photo gallery

The party continued at Miu Miu, where Miuccia Prada's rock 'n' roll wannabes looked like they stepped off the bus in Hollywood and into a vintage store full of leather jackets by the famed 1960s-era East West Musical Instruments Co.

Flashing metallic flower and star cutouts, leather jackets were the headliners, paired with pleated school girl skirts or satin dresses, and neon sandal booties. 

Miu Miu spring-summer 2011 runway collection photo gallery

Snippets of audition tapes played on the soundtrack while Rihanna sat front row. In the words of Joni Mitchell, Prada was "stoking the starmaker machinery of the popular song."

-- Booth Moore in Paris

Photos, top and middle: Looks from the Louis Vuitton spring-summer 2011 runway collection shown during Paris Fashion Week. Photos, bottom: Looks from the Miu Miu spring-summer 2011 runway collection. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter / For The Times

 

A new generation of designers has turned the page in New York, and Alexander Wang is the leader of the pack. His runway show on Saturday had all the energy and anticipation of a Marc Jacobs show. Except that Wang (who more than almost any other designer working here today) really designs for the way young people dress today in that he has a point of view, but more than that -- it's about picking out the pieces and making them your own.

His knockout spring show was about rebirth. If his fall collection was all about deconstruction, with Wall Street banker suits ripped apart at the seams, this one was about reconstruction, with all the requisite carpenter pants, drafting doodles and paint splatter-like prints that go with it.

Is it any wonder that his set piece was a bizarre sculpture that resembled an overgrown larvae?

The look was about white-on-white multi-textural layering -- a sheer scribble print organza button-down shirt under a carpenter vest with a silver foil strip reminiscent of Duct tape down the side; and parachute pants with knit boy shorts peeking out. (We're lucky that's all that was peeking out, if Wang has spent any time with construction workers!)

A paneled vest with a foiled lapel was expertly constructed and worn over sheer pajama pants and a terry sweater. Wang had lots of new ideas -- an easy-fitting, doodle-print washed silk shirt dress in a fresh, ankle-grazing length; loose Carpenter pants cropped just below the knee and worn with knit leggings peeking out of the bottom. (Could this finally be the end of skinny pants?)

And yet, each piece was special enough to stand on its own, including a "knitted rubber" raffia jacket so extraordinary looking, it could have been couture.

Wang ended with several riffs on the trench coat in light-as-air white silk viscose, the best with extended wing flaps that made you wonder whether the model could have taken flight.

It was a triumphant moment for the designer, and one that felt particularly poignant on this date in New York City, Sept. 11.

-- Booth Moore

Photo: A creation from Alexander Wang's spring-summer 2011 collection. Credit: Peter Stigter and Jonas Gustavsson / For the Times.

Get a sneak peek at the resort 2011 collection Yves Saint Laurent will show in New York on Thursday. [WWD]

And you can see what Alexander Wang has to offer too. [WWD]

Shorts are coming on strong, retailers say as they report double-digit increases in sales. I kind of hope it doesn't mean a return to 1970s-style hot pants. [WWD] (Subscription required)

Dame Elizabeth Taylor, one of the great beauties of all time, graces the cover of Vanity Fair's July issue in a swimsuit shot that must hail from sometime in the 1960s and a headline declaring "Greatest Romance of the Century." In the accompanying interview, she shares some excerpts from Richard Burton's love letters. [People]

Stars like Halle Berry, Megan Fox, Brian Austin Greene and Audrina Partridge are hitting the beach. See what they are wearing, if you need some inspiration of your own. [People]

All these "Sex and the City 2" premieres are getting pretty ho-hum. But there was breaking news at the Tokyo red-carpet event Tuesday: Kim Cattrell was wearing a bob. Gasp! [Huffington Post] 

How many pairs of shoes are too many? It's a question men and women have been, um, debating for years. Even celebrity couples, apparently. Orlando Bloom is caught fussing at his gorgeous girlfriend Miranda Kerr after a too-long day of shopping at Bergdorf Goodman's. [New York Post]

If you're still disappointed over not finding her limited-edition shoes at Target this spring, turn your attention to summer clothes: Twelfth St. by Cynthia Vincent is offering a range of warm-weather styles in cool candy colors. [FabSugar] 

Bridal and eveningwear designer Angel Sanchez is launching a new contemporary line, Sanchez. [WWD] (Subscription required.)

Can one bar of soap really do it all, even if it is named the Wonderbar? [StyleList]

Five sunny summer beauty finds for under $20. [BellaSugar]

L.A.-based Rodarte teams with Knoll Deluxe to design drapery fabric. [Racked NY] 

-- Susan Denley

Photo: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor in "Cleopatra."

The zipper sunglasses, the studded-base handbags -- Alexander Wang is the coolest thing in New York fashion right now. And this season, he let loose his tough 'n' trashy aesthetic on the men's suit.

Although we've seen this exercise in deconstruction many times before (Jean Paul Gaultier, Junya Watanabe), Wang gave it his own pseudo-Goth night-crawler spin with the addition of velvet thigh-highs and lace-trimmed swallow-hemmed dresses. (And let's not forget his more accessible price point.)

L.A.’s own Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte have been nominated for the Council of Fashion Designers of America Women's Wear Designer of the Year Award. The Pasadena sisters, whose collage dresses were a highlight of New York Fashion Week last month, are up against Marc Jacobs and Narciso Rodriguez. Another local designer, Scott Sternberg of Band of Outsiders, was nominated for the Best Men's Wear Designer of the Year Award alongside Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein and Michael Bastian. Thakoon Panichgul, Jason Wu and Alexander Wang are contenders for the Swarovski Award for up-and-coming women's wear designers. The board of directors Special Tribute Award will be given to First Lady Michelle Obama, who has boosted the American fashion industry by choosing clothes by emerging designers, including Rodriguez, Panichgul and Wu.

The awards, which are the fashion industry's Oscars, are scheduled for June 15 at Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York.

--Booth Moore

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All the Rage's New York Fashion Week coverage

Photo: Rodarte designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times.

NEW YORK -- Alexander Wang is ready to go from beer-stained honky-tonk to professional concert arena thanks to a rumored influx of cash for his label, and a Council of Fashion Designers of America award.

For fall, his rocker chick is all grown up (and you can bet Wang's prices will go up too). Instead of ripped fishnets and rolled-up jean shorts, she's wearing oversized leather bomber jackets swinging fox tails, stovepipe pants with stud detailing down the sides, and leather jumpsuits -- all black of course. Calling all pop divas.

But Wang also makes beautifully cut blazers, which were elevated to a new, more sophisticated level this season. The best in show was a black off-the-shoulder style with lacing across the bare shoulders.

Despite so many L.A. boutiques shutting their doors these days, West 3rd Street shop Satine seems to be doing pretty well.  Owners Jeannie Lee and Virginia Pereira have hosted some of the year’s hottest designer soirees including Jason Wu and Alexander Wang in the store, and they’ve also got their own design projects.

They’re designing the new uniforms for the Palihouse locations in West Hollywood and Hollywood. The uniforms, which Pereira describes as “prep school punk” will hit the hotel staff in April.

Lee and Pereira also have a new intimates line called Bacini (Italian for “little kisses”), which will be in their own store and Anthropologie in a few days. The collection of bralettes, panties and knickers are what Pereira describes as “sexy, but not provocative. It’s not for a girl who wears it to get a man to pay her rent. It’s for a girl who pays her own rent.”

-- Melissa Magsaysay

Hurricane Hanna hit New York on Saturday, the rain came in sheets, and still the glossy editors wore their stiletto sandals and booties, God bless 'em. Me, I wore my Havaiana flip-flops and almost lost one when I stepped into a puddle up to my ankles trying to steal a cab ahead of the teetering flock on the corner of 21st and 10th Avenue.

Luckily, trucking around in the soggy weather was worth it. The shows have been good, and from the handful I have seen, it seems to be all about the body for spring. Maybe it’s the Olympics, or fashion's
never-ending love affair with the 1980s, but skin is in; skirts are short and tight.

Up-and-comer Alexander Wang has got the look down like nobody else. His show was in a garage-like space with concrete floors that his helpers sprinkled with water to create that hot and sweaty after-a-night-of-partying vibe. They needn’t have bothered. We could have all just shaken out our umbrellas.

Wang's collection was raunchy and fun -- an awesome mishmash of sportswear and the street, with a touch of "Miami Vice" in the form of neon pinks and aqua blues. Crockett and Tubbs ARE due for a fashion comeback. And I loved the quote he put in his show notes: “Anyone can get all dressed up and glamorous, but it is how people dress for their off days that is the most intriguing.”