FFM Headlines:

Created on Friday, 01 March 2013 11:04

Written by Anna Marevska

Just like the debut of Raf Simons for Dior last season, the fashion crowd was anxiously anticipating the Feb. 28 debut of Alexander Wang for Balenciaga. Was he able to fill the shoes of the adored Nicolas Ghesquière?

He did. And the fashion crows was charmed, including Anna Wintour.

"I am very proud," Wintour told New York Times' Eric Wilson right after the show. “It was such a restrained show. I thought everything was very wearable, with obviously lots of bows to Balenciaga himself. I thought it was a very smart way to start, by not giving us too many fireworks.”

Linda Fargo, the fashion director for Bergdorf Goodman said she was "glowing."

“I’m going to state the obvious," Fargo told Wilson, "but he took the codes of the house and interpreted them beautifully. It was nice to see these sculptural volumes that were still very reasonable and done in a way that was appealing.”

And Cathy Horyn, the New York Times fashion critic who is not exactly known for being gentle with her reviews, wrote in her review that "Mr. Wang delivered an impressive collection on Thursday that should silence his critics for a while."

Indeed the cocoon coats, jackets with rounded volumes, cap sleeves, petal skirts, and peplums were all paying homage to the roots of the house of Balenciaga. We cannot wait to see how Wang will build on this for next season.

Photos by Monica Feudi/FeudiGuaineri.com via Style.com