{NM Daily}

Ken Downing and Alexander Wang catch up in NYC.

KEN DOWNING: Alex, you are considered one of the most brilliant and, might I say, coolest young talents on the American scene today. How old were you when you started your first collection?

ALEXANDER WANG: I was only 20 years old. It was my sophomore year of college. I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing, but I was determined to make it work. It was only six sweaters. I didn’t know what a line sheet was. I had no merchandising skills. All I knew was I wanted to design.

Alexander Wang, Spring 2013.

…I find that I’m inspired by others around me, how people dress on the streets. It was a real challenge for me in design school. I found the ideas of fashion I was being taught were very one dimensional to my ideas of what high fashion was all about. You know, the idea of what was agreeable, what was considered luxurious. I always felt T-shirts and sweatpants, when well designed, can be the most valuable things.

Alexander Wang, Spring 2013.

KD: You have always loved a nod to the idea of gymnasium chic. You were one of the first designers in recent history to reengage with locker-room themes. You really put the whole idea of a sportif motif in motion. I think yours was one of the first shows where we saw running shorts walk the runway in quite some time.