Alexander Wang

Be honest with yourself about why you're buying. Owners who resell Alexander Wang bags rarely recoup even half what they paid — the secondary market treats them very differently from heritage houses that hold or grow in value. The flip side is that the studded, near-anonymous designs without loud logos age quietly and stay wearable for years. Buy a Wang bag because you want to carry it, not because you expect it to pay you back.

Reviews run hot and cold. At its best the brand delivers substantial leather, heavy hardware and the kind of meticulous make a luxury price implies; at its worst, shoppers report a broken heel or rhinestones shedding after a few wears. The safest read is that quality is inconsistent across the range, so it pays to inspect a specific piece — stitching, hardware, sole — rather than trust the label alone.

They came to define the same luxe-streetwear moment, and Wang's club-ready, all-black aesthetic was arguably eclipsed as Virgil Abloh's Off-White reshaped that market. Pick Off-White if you want graphic, logo-forward statements; pick Alexander Wang if you prefer minimal, urban tailoring built around black with hardware doing the talking. One shouts; the other smoulders.

Urban-inspired, street-rooted design and an almost devotional use of black. Wang debuted his label in 2005 with a knitwear-heavy collection, showed his first full women's ready-to-wear on the New York catwalk in Fall 2007, and launched his first handbags in 2008 — the accessories that turned a young knitwear name into a recognisable brand.

The main Alexander Wang label is the runway collection — the tailoring, hardware and statement pieces shown at New York Fashion Week. 'T' is the more relaxed, everyday tier built around elevated basics: the jersey, knits and easy separates that carry the same downtown attitude at a gentler entry point. Start with T if you want the aesthetic without committing to a runway price.

Wang launched his eponymous label in 2005 in New York after leaving Parsons School of Design two years in, beginning with that knitwear collection. He came to real prominence in 2008 after winning the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, and opened his first flagship store in SoHo, in lower Manhattan, on 17 February 2011 — a shop often credited with helping pull that pocket of downtown into fashion's orbit.

It stayed a family business. In 2016 Alexander Wang himself became CEO and chairman of the brand, taking over from his mother, Ying Wang, and his sister-in-law, Aimee Wang, who had run it before him. So the designer's name on the door is also the person steering the company — a single, clear voice behind the label.

Yes to both. From November 2012 to July 2015 Wang was creative director at Balenciaga, succeeding Nicolas Ghesquière and showing his debut Fall–Winter 2013 collection at the house's Paris salons. Separately, he created a widely sought collaboration for H&M that launched on 6 November 2014 — the mass-market drop that put his hardware-and-black aesthetic on a lot more bodies.

Two stand out. In 2012 a labour lawsuit accused his company of mistreating workers; it was reported dismissed that August, with both sides said to have reached an undisclosed settlement. Far more serious, in late 2020 multiple people publicly accused Wang of sexual assault, which he initially denied; he later spoke with his accusers and published an apology on Instagram in 2022. Worth knowing before you buy.

Counterfeiting has been a real problem for the brand — in 2016 Wang won a largely symbolic 90-million-dollar judgment against dozens of defendants running hundreds of sites selling fakes in his name. Buy from the brand's own store or established luxury retailers, scrutinise the hardware weight and finish (a Wang signature), check stitching and the interior stamp, and treat a price that seems too good as the warning it usually is.

As a rule with contemporary labels like this, the deepest, most reliable markdowns land at the end of each season — late winter and high summer — when retailers clear runway stock. If you've got your eye on a current-season piece, buy it when you see it; if you're flexible, the patient shopper who waits for end-of-season clearance usually does better. Either way, judge the individual item rather than chasing a sale for its own sake.