After the Alexander Wang show last Saturday, The Observer talked to photographer Ryan Mcginley, who used a novel point of reference to size up the designer’s collection: “There were some pieces that reminded me of Blade Runner,” he told us.
We nodded because yes, some of the looks did have that 80s-vision-of-the-future feel to them, a feel that is embodied by the classic Harrison Ford sci-fi flick. But by the time we were playing skee ball and eating sweet potato chips at the Alexander Wang after party, the film was far from our minds.
At yesterday’s Alexandre Herchcovitch show, however, it became clear that the prescient Mr. McGinley was really onto something. As the first models emerged from the curtain and onto the glowing runway, The Studio at Lincoln Center hummed with glassy synths punctuated by stabs of lazer beam zappings — music not far removed from the iconic Vangelis score that underlies the entirety of Blade Runner. At this point we were already sold on the comparison, but more evidence kept rolling out: the shoulder pads, boldly colored lipstick and some of the hairstyles seemed reminiscent of Harrison Ford’s love interest in the film, played by Sean Young.
British R&B singer Estelle was placed a few seats down from us in the first row. She had been to the Herchcovitch show last year, she told us, but the influences she mentioned didn’t quite overlap with the Blade Runner imagery in this year’s collection. “The last show I went to of his was pretty romantic, a little bit Braveheart-ish, a little bit gypsy-ish,” she said. “I liked it, it was kind of cool.” She also mentioned that this show would probably be her last — she said she has to get back in the studio to finish her new album.
Also, The Observer saw, for the first time, a work of fiction under a chair in the front row, and this work of fiction happened to be Keith Gessen’s All The Sad Young Literary Men. Make of that what you will.
