Alexander Wang was born and raised in San Francisco, California, to Taiwanese-American parents. He moved to New York city at eighteen to study fashion design at Parson’s. He dropped out after only a year of studying fashion design at Parsons to launch his namesake collection in 2007, immediately winning over the top fashion editors. Wang has won numerous awards including the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2008, CFDA’s Swarovski Women’s wear Designer of the Year in 2009, GQ’s Best Menswear Designer of the Year in 2011 and the CFDA’s Best Accessories Designer award.
His meteoric ascent through the fashion industry quickly established him as one of fashion’s greatest sensations. He reinvented the sexy street smart wardrobe of the urban it girl popularizing leather leggings. Wang’s label embodies the “model-off-duty” style, drawing inspiration from the 1980s, French chic, and rock n’ roll grunge — with a slouchy rolled out of bed look.
His first women’s collection was launched in 2007 to great acclaim and is available internationally in more than 700 stores worldwide such as Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Berdgorf Goodman, Dover Street Market, Browns and Net-a-Porter.
In 2012, Wang became the creative director for Balenciaga, which makes him the first American designer in over a decade to design for a prestigious French fashion house. He is also the youngest designer ever to attempt to run two houses simultaneously. Celebrities regularly seen wearing Alexander Wang’s include, Megan Fox, Mary-Kate Olsen, Nicole Richie, and Gwyneth Paltrow.