Settling into Lane Crawford's designer section, Manhattan-based designer Jason Wu looks at home. The clean-cut 27-year-old has just arrived from London and has a whirlwind ahead of him, launching his new collection through a series of events. But you wouldn't know it to look at him.
'I travel all the time,' he says. 'I'm young and I've already lived in Taiwan, Vancouver, Connecticut, Paris and New York. I know how to adjust quickly to time zones.'
Wu takes inspiration from this globetrotting lifestyle, observing how people live and what we want from our clothing. 'Our world is becoming increasingly casual,' he says. 'We have busy lives that keep us out of our homes all day and then into the night, so I became really intrigued by looks that are casual in nature but have luxe solutions.'
His designs appeal to a vast audience - fans range from cult fashionista Chloe Sevigny to United States First Lady Michelle Obama - but Wu claims they all have one thing in common: 'They want clothes that blur the line between day and evening.'
This tension of high and low, dressy and casual, is repeated often in Wu's work: a muted chiffon dress topped with an acid green belt, for example. 'I like light and heavy together, or hard structure but in a light fabric,' he says. He's making a name for himself by thoughtfully executing everyday pieces in fabrics previously reserved for the high-fashion sector.
Instead of coming off as youthful irreverence or revolution for revolution's sake, Wu's philosophy of tension results in a purity that is becoming his signature: playful and sometimes wistful fashion, executed meticulously.
'I'm definitely the kid who used every crayon in the box and coloured outside the lines,' he says. 'I'm still colouring outside the lines, but I'm a classicist in ways too. I have deep respect for couture techniques. I'm all about the finish - I develop all of our fabrics personally and hand-finish where appropriate to provide the most polished look possible.'