Balenciaga's Alexander Wang brings American cool to haute couture house

A long stairway sweeps up to an imposing minimalist chapel with the word "Balenciaga" lit up above the entrance. After the audience sits down inside, a bevy of the industry's leading models walk the runway in a revised spring-summer 2014 showcase, featuring pieces from the Paris show as well as a capsule collection of 13 new designs for this Balenciaga China Edition event at the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting in Beijing.

The new pieces, by creative director Alexander Wang, include mesh cropped tops with a lacquered effect paired with basque-style shorts embroidered with foliage motifs. Six new black-and-white cocktail outfits were added, the dress that morphed into a cape, a baby doll robe and a skirt and top combination - all reflecting the strictness, purity and volume play of Cristóbal Balenciaga's original aesthetic but injected with Wang's signature sportiness and easy, urban chic.

The show, held on May 15, was short but contained a specific mash-up of commercially appealing looks from the season, with fresh ideas inspired by the original principles of the house interpreted by the talented young designer.

"It's the first time the brand has done an event in China, so I felt it was important to tell the story in chapters … and highlight and select the most significant parts of the story," says a smiling Wang from a suite in the Opposite House hotel in Sanlitun.

Staged on the grounds of the academy and curated by Wang, the China Edition Exhibition comprised more than 40 seminal archival pieces - Cristóbal Balenciaga's own designs - that marked the invention of several foundation ready-to-wear shapes, such as the designer's famous cocoon coat, the first high fashion trapeze baby doll dress, his tunic dress and deconstructed suiting.

"When people first look at what I've previously done and his [Balenciaga's] work, the parallels aren't obvious," says Wang. Although some critics lauded his first three collections for the label, others are still unsure. Much has been made of Wang's youth (he is only 30 years old), his Americanism and own label, which is rooted in a modern, androgynous, urban and, at times sporty, aesthetic. But dig deeper and there are unexpected links.