The blockbuster Constantin Brancusi exhibition at the Centre Pompidou this summer made an indelible impression on designer Uma Wang.
“Immediately, I had a very strong feeling to transform my collection…like he always plays with different material, wood and marble and stone. So I want to play with different fabrics of different colors and different weight to make a balance,” Wang said backstage about the work of the 20th-century artist, whose aesthetic was recently described by The New Yorker as “austere yet playful.”
The same can be said of her spring 2025 collection, a spectacle of soft sculptures to be admired at all angles from the pews of The American Cathedral where she held her show.
She focused on shape and fabric, using crinkled silks a la Fortuny, stiff waxed linens and inside-out jacquards to mold dresses and gowns to the body with a lyrical romance — gathered into a bustle at one hip, fanned across one shoulder, falling to a graceful train or whirred into ruffles like the centrifugal force in one of Brancusi’s sculptures.
Although the shapes were completely modern, there was a touch of historicism seen in some of it, including the bronze jacquard caftan edged in ruffles that looked at home in the soft light of the cathedral, and the washed out red crinkled silk dress that brought to mind a veined tulip.
Besides being prodigious at draping, Wang is also a master tailor and she took the same sculptural approach to suit jackets and coats, turning them back to front, releasing the seams so they became side-swept tunics, or softening the silhouette altogether until it became almost liquidy, buttoned and contoured to the curves over cropped or ruffled pants.
After so much commercialism on the runways, it was refreshing to see someone approaching fashion from a more artistic stance. Which is not to say there wasn’t much of it that was wearable, too. Wang is the rare talent who can balance both, also with a heady dose of desirability.
For more Paris spring 2025 reviews, click here.
