Eric Wilson

Tongues are still wagging about Alexander Wang's appointment as the creative director at Balenciaga: Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, and some other powerful industry players have now chimed in on his new job.

Eric Wilson talked with Wintour, von Furstenberg, and a number of other people who have observed Wang's work since his career started. Like Karl Lagerfeld and much of the Twittersphere, many of the people Wilson interviewed wholeheartedly support Wang's move. Below, the rest of the industry reacts to Wang's big news.

Anna Wintour on whether Wang's age is a problem: "Oh, please, come on. How great is it to be young? That is when designers are at their most fearless. That is when you do your most creative work."

Wintour, again, on Wang winning the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund: "He was so articulate. He said he wants to dress the girls of his age and his generation. That's what you see in everything he does. He lives and breathes the Alex brand."

PPR chief Francois-Henri Pinault, who is similarly unconcerned about Wang's age: When he started at Balenciaga, Ghesquière "was designing uniforms for Air France, and who would have said that Nicolas would become such a great talent?"

Isabelle Guichot, CEO of Balenciaga: "We're not asking him to be an entrepreneur. But luxury fashion is a business with some rules, and he understood that very early in his career, without ever compromising the creativity."

Robert Burke, industry consultant: "There were some feelings after what happened with John Galliano at Dior that the brands were promoting the individual designers too much. Now they're thinking, what is it going to take to keep a brand relevant and alive?"

Diane von Furstenberg on whether Wang is ready for the new job: "It was a coup for Alex, and a coup for American fashion," she said, adding, "he's going to need some mentoring in Paris."

And one designer who chose to remain unnamed, on Wang and other designers like him: "They're not fashion designers. They're fashion curators. They're sitting at a computer copying other peoples' ideas."

Photo: Wintour and Wang in 2010.

>> Karl Lagerfeld, often a quick detractor, seems to approve of Sarah Burton's wedding dress for Kate Middleton, and The New York Times's Eric Wilson agrees: "It was an enormous success for the bride, and a triumph for Ms. [Sarah] Burton. The gown was a triumph not merely because it was pretty — or flawless, actually, a dress that is destined to create a global demand for long lace sleeves." Robin Givhan also echoes the sentiment: "The bride’s gown was a true stunner. It was not a designer’s indulgence. It did not play to our culture’s need for grotesque ostentation. It did not overwhelm the woman — the princess — herself. And with that Herculean act of restraint, Sarah Burton, exceeded all expectations."

Though Middleton's gown is being widely praised, some are questioning whether her sister and maid of honor Pippa Middleton, who also wore a white McQueen dress by Sarah Burton, overshadowed Kate at the wedding. The Sun, for instance, declared: "Gorgeous Pippa is a style hit." But unlike the US, where bridesmaids and wedding guests are told not to wear white out of respect for the bride, it is said to be a superstitious tradition in the UK for bridesmaids to dress similarly to the bride to ward off evil spirits. In fact, all of Princess Diana's bridesmaids wore white dresses similar to her wedding gown.

Wilson notes: "It was a controversial, though savvy, decision for her sister and maid of honor, Pippa Middleton, to wear white, also by McQueen. When Pippa picked up the bride’s train, their matching dresses made the sisters appeared almost as one entity, distinct from the royals but still part of the family."

>> As if the fates of enough designers aren't already in question, now Hannah MacGibbon's future at Chloe has come up. Sources knowledgeable about the house told the New York Times's Eric Wilson that MacGibbon's contract is up after this season, and the reaction to today's show could determine whether it is renewed. However, Wilson points out: "It’s unusual for a designer to negotiate a new contract so close to the expiration date of his or her last one, and what’s more, Chloe is said to have already interviewed other designers."

Vogue UK reports, on the contrary: "A spokesperson from the label told us a statement will be released later today to confirm there is no truth in the allegations that MacGibbon's contract is up after this season."

>> Is fashion's minimalist revival going to be over come Spring? In the wake of Paris Fashion Week, a number of insiders seem to think so.

Marc Jacobs is on board with the idea — the campy Spring 2011 Louis Vuitton collection spurred Vogue.com's Sarah Mower to write: "The excitement of stylized, decadent fun, running rampant as a backlash against minimalism [is] an idea that fashion editors will take up." Style.com's Nicole Phelps, too, made note of Jacobs's about-face from last season: "Not unlike his seventies-inflected signature show back in New York more than three weeks ago, this was a flat-out refusal of the minimalism that was all over last season's runways, his own included."

The New York Times's Eric Wilson chimes in: "It was striking to see jarring pink-and-orange combos at a number of shows: Martin Grant, Yves Saint Laurent, Cacharel, Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane and Marc Jacobs. (Not buying it was Karl Lagerfeld, who, at the Chanel show, told Cathy Horyn of The Times: 'I really don’t think women want to go around looking like a Saint Laurent shopping bag.') Regardless, it made last fall’s foray into minimalism feel like just a blip on the fashion radar." Paper's Mickey Boardman adds: “After the Céline-ification of fashion, everything became about good taste and beige. I think we all hungered for hot pink.”

Retailers seem to be feeling similarly. Ed Burstell, managing director at Liberty of London, told WWD: “I think there’s going to be some boredom for minimalism [by Spring]. I’m not sure everyone’s willing to walk away from things that are a little more fun and sexy to [looks more suited to] a Connecticut soccer mom heading for lunch.” Lane Crawford's Sarah Rutson agrees: “The customer has had enough of neutrals from fall. We need to set the sales floor alive with color and print."

>> French heritage houses like Nina Ricci and Vionnet have both been reinvented in the last couple of years with a more contemporary approach; now, add Carven to the trend.

Founded in Paris by couturier Madame Carmen de Tommaso in 1945, Carven was originally launched for petite women.  Two seasons ago, former Givenchy designer Guillaume Henry was tasked with kickstarting the label again, and judging by the reception, he's succeeded.

Last night, Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet feted Henry in London, where she gushed: "The clothes . . . Not only did we love them — the Parisian street attitude really struck a bell with us — but we just couldn't believe the amazing prices. Does this guy look like a young Saint Laurent or what?  . . . These clothes are going to change your life. I'm really looking forward to watching this man blossom and to seeing what he becomes in 20 years time."

The New York Times reports "raves" over the line »

>> Soon after Maybelline announced it would be be taking over from five-year Bryant Park cosmetics sponsor MAC, MAC — presumedly, as New York Times' Eric Wilson put it, tired of having to share "a rather circuslike stage with other sponsors who were competing for attention, sometimes including makers of doughnuts, cameras, toilets and Big Macs" — announced that it would be producing the tentatively-titled MAC and Milk Fashion Week with Milk Studios at the same time as the traditional New York Fashion Week.

The event can be seen as either a complement or a competitor to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, but on the record, anyway, there seem to be no hard feelings.  Milk Studios founder Mazdack Rassi says of the initiative: "This week is not an alternative show space, it's a way of cultivating designers and helping them come up with new ways of selling their clothes."  And Zach Eichman, a VP of IMG Fashion, which produces the shows at Bryant Park, told the New York Times last week the company welcomed the MAC and Milk event and that bus service between shows would be available when possible. “We can’t do every show in the tents. We hope they will be successful.”

Alexander Wang will be there, so will Preen »

>> In the March 2008 issue of Vogue, premier retoucher of fashion photographs, Pascal Dangin, tweaked a total of 144 images, from ads to editorial spreads, and in The September Issue, which focuses on the making of Vogue's September 2007 issue, Anna Wintour definitely displays a reliance on retouching, asking Mario Testino to superimpose cover girl Sienna Miller's head from one shot onto her body in another shot, and requesting that a cameraman's gut from an editorial shot be diminished, to Grace Coddington's dismay: "Everybody isn't perfect in this world.  It's enough that the models are perfect."

When digital manipulation programs first came into use in the early '90s, reports Eric Wilson for The New York Times, art directors originally used them to create a heightened sense of reality like images achieved through movie special effects — "hyper real" style, as former The Face art director and current Love creative director Lee Swillingham coined it — as a reaction against the images of supermodels that looked too perfect. Editors weren't suggesting the resulting look be attainable, Swillingham explains: “We were trying to create a future fashion. You could do something that looked gritty and real or something that looked like plastic.”

Now, some major photographers are pushing for less plastic, more real »