News broke yesterday that Alexander Wang is launching a denim line. As we’ve come to expect from Wang, the jeans combine cool factor (on-trend cuts lifted from vintage men’s styles) with a serious dose of technological experimentation. “I wanted to do denim for a long time, but it’s a hard [category] to revolutionize,” he said. “Most black denim starts fading after three washes, but ours lasts eight before fading.” The jeans go on sale online and in his own stores next week, and it won’t take long for them to infiltrate the closets of cool types.

His new Pre-Fall collection is similarly customer-focused. Back in June at his Resort presentation, Wang was keen to set an agenda; boxy, utilitarian shapes that called to mind firemen’s gear predominated. Here, his touch was much more nuanced. Wang was looking at menswear, loungewear, and uniforms, but he didn’t hit you over the head with the details. You almost missed the black flight suit lacing down the side seams of an army green silk slipdress, and a leather wrap coat clearly inspired by a bathrobe remained polished and elegant. Another clue that Wang has shrugged off conceptual clothes—at least for the moment—came in the form of a capsule collection of eveningwear, made after multiple requests from his retailers. There was nothing revolutionary about the minimal black and white gowns hanging on a rack, but they looked unarguably chic.