Alexander Wang will invest to make it come back and expand

To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, Register here.

As Alexander Wang tries to recover from sexual assault charges against the designer in 2020, he has secured the biggest foreign investment yet for his family-owned property.

The deal has been in the works since before the outbreak, but is now coming together despite the lawsuit. Wang secured the undisclosed minority investment from two entities based in China: venture capital fund Challengers Capital and Yanggar Group, an institutional investor whose main activities are apparel manufacturing and property development.

Once the hottest ticket at New York Fashion Week, the shows and designs in 2016 In 2012, he won the coveted role of creative director at Balenciaga, which Wang lost in controversy. Along with a mature design aesthetic that draws more attention to its traditional heritage, it hopes the new influx of resources will take the brand, launched in 2005, to new global heights.

The investment will be used to support the brand’s recovery efforts, which began with its return runway show in Los Angeles in April. Wang projects that the funding, along with his foreign expertise, will help him double the company’s revenue within five years — currently worth $200 million a year.

In the year Initially dismissing the numerous allegations against him in 2020 and 2021 as “false, fabricated, and often anonymous,” Wang met with the accuser and released a statement saying, “I regret having acted in a way that caused pain.” He promised to “do better”. The defendants’ attorney, Lisa Bloom, released a statement on Twitter saying they had accepted Wang’s apology and were “moving forward.”

talk with Vogue business Via Zoom, Wang admitted: “When this happened, I was very confused by all this… I was angry… and I reacted well. Reflecting, he added: “What I’ve learned is how much responsibility I have. It was a great lesson to be more sensitive and more understanding.

18 months later, can this new investment help push Wang’s brand beyond the darkest period in its history?