Wer ist alexander wang

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Alexander Wang has secured his first-ever outside investment, a significant move for his hitherto family-owned brand as it attempts to recover from sexual assault allegations made against the designer in 2020.

The deal has been in the works since just before the pandemic and is now coming together despite the impact of the allegations. Wang has confirmed the undisclosed minority investment from two China-based entities: venture capital fund Challenjers Capital and Youngor Group, an institutional investor whose main activities are clothes manufacturing and property development.

Once the hottest ticket at New York Fashion Week, whose edgy, androgynous designs won him the coveted role of creative director at Balenciaga in 2012, Wang has been dogged by controversy. He is hoping the fresh influx of resources the deal unleashes, alongside a matured design aesthetic that draws more heavily on his cultural heritage, will propel the brand he launched in 2005 to new, global heights.

The investment will be used to support the brand’s rehabilitation efforts, which began with a comeback runway show in Los Angeles in April. Wang projects that the funding, along with the external expertise that accompanies it, will help to double the company’s revenue within five years — it currently turns over $200 million annually, he says. Additionally, according to Wang, the brand has posted double-digit revenue growth and double-digit EBITDA since 2019.

After initially dismissing the multiple allegations made against him in 2020 and 2021 as “false, fabricated and mostly anonymous”, Wang later met with his accusers and issued a statement that said: “I regret acting in a way that caused them pain.” He vowed to “do better”. The accusers’ lawyer, Lisa Bloom, subsequently released a statement on Twitter to say they acknowledged Wang’s apology and were “moving forward”.

Speaking with Vogue Business via Zoom, Wang concedes: “When this occurred, I was very confused by it all… I was angry… and responded poorly.” Reflecting, he adds: “What I’ve learned is how much responsibility I have. It was a tremendous learning, to have a greater sensitivity and a greater awareness.”

Nearly 18 months later, can this new investment help push Wang’s brand beyond that darkest moment in its history?

Models walking at the Alexander Wang “Fortune City” Runway Show in April in Los Angeles.

The company is well-equipped to expand in Asia, where its new investors’ expertise largely lies, says luxury consultant Robert Burke. The region has been a reliable growth engine for Alexander Wang, generating 50 per cent of its revenues. But there’s also ground to gain elsewhere — 30 and 20 per cent of revenues come from the US and Europe, respectively. With the investment, Wang plans to open three new stores in the US in the next year.

Youngor’s apparel and real estate interests are of evident appeal, while Challenjers was founded by internet entrepreneur turned beverage industry disruptor Tang Binsen. Wang says of Challenjers: “They have a unique outlook and support the ambitions I have for growth beyond the typical fashion landscape." He adds of both investors: "We are a global brand, and they really support our global perspective, in terms of growth... Even though a lot of the growth has happened in the last few years in Asia, specifically China, that's not going to be the total shape of how we mould our trajectory.”

Wang wants to build a new-age version of the American lifestyle brand, something that’s been in gestation ever since his six-season stint at Balenciaga ended prematurely in 2015. “I’ve always had the ambition to be a lifestyle brand,” he says. “When I think of the American lifestyle brands I’ve always looked up to, Ralph and Calvin, I know it’s never going to be the same as them. But I get excited by the opportunities presented by what’s never been done before. And there’s never been an American luxury lifestyle brand with an Asian American name.”

The California-born designer moved to New York aged 18 to study at Parsons School of Design before dropping out to found his family-backed fledgling brand in 2005 with a small knitwear collection. A full womenswear collection followed in 2007, then accessories. He won the $200,000 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2008, and by the close of the aughts, he had emerged as both the most creatively and commercially compelling young designer in America. Wang’s late-night Saturday shows — and even later-night post-show parties — became a buzzy tentpole of New York Fashion Week, while his designs won him the call from Balenciaga in 2012. Wang says: “The earlier years of my business were so reflective of my youth, my life and New York.”

Now, he wants to demonstrate that his brand has matured. In 2018, Wang began to graduate beyond the sleek party-centric juvenilia of his first decade of design, turning instead to his own cultural heritage to inform and enrich his aesthetic. This is a process that continued in his most recent show in LA, where he presented his Fortune City collection for Autumn 2022. “We have been thinking beyond just being a fashion brand to work towards understanding the purpose and depth of the story behind it,” he says.

He’s also flexing his skills as a marketer in an effort to “turn fans into customers”, capitalising on exposure generated by past collaborations with H&M, Uniqlo and Adidas, and shifting attention to direct-to-consumer sales, which now account for 55 per cent of his business. Wholesale previously took up the majority at 80 per cent of sales two years ago. Current stockists include Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Selfridges, Harrods, Ssense and Net-a-Porter.

Alexander Wang.

He’ll add new categories next, starting with bodywear. “And I want to move into categories that you would never expect from a fashion brand.” Asked for an example, however, he ripostes: “There is this quote I like, ‘don’t announce moves, confirm arrivals’. So I will tell you in the next 12 months.”

Briefly sandwiched as his was between the wildly successful Balenciaga stints of Nicolas Ghesquière and Demna, does Wang nurse any sense of ambition unfulfilled — and harbour any ambitions to return to the helm of a heritage luxury brand? He says: “I don’t think so. When that opportunity came, although I wasn’t really searching for it, it was really exciting. I never finished school, and I saw going to Paris and being able to work for one of the most iconic houses as grad school.” He adds: “But I always knew deep down that I have a brand that I started from scratch. I’m an owner, and I need to make the calls, to be responsible, both for when it’s good and when it’s bad… I want to be a business owner. I don’t want to be an employee.”

Wang’s business currently employs “approximately” 178 people, the designer says, and will shortly move from its home of 12 years in Soho to a new 45,000-square-foot space in Lower Manhattan’s Seaport area. “It’s great timing,” he says: “A milestone that will help us move into this new chapter.”

As for any lingering reputational damage, especially domestically, hindering Wang’s next stage of development, Burke believes the worst is behind him. “At that moment of the allegations, he initially did not seem to handle it well,” but he went on to address the accusers directly, Burke notes. “I don’t see that as an obstacle now.”

Wang says he’s proud of the “dedication and the hard work” his team has put in to get through “these difficult times”. “With the new investors and my employees, my priority is to give them the confidence and stability to move forward.” 

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