For a designer who made his name by recreating the nonchalant, off-duty uniform so beloved of models and hip It-girls, Alexander Wang has, it seems, discovered the pleasures of telling women what they should wear and how they should wear it late in his career. Perhaps it came with the bravura of dragging the fashion crowd out to `Brooklyn for his show.

His autumn 2014 show opened with a series of stiff, anti-fit tunic dresses in grey check, complete with utility pockets, that acted as a mission statement. Their proportions, while deliberately boxy, were counter-intuitive. Each was topped with a vinyl-looking collar, tall on the neck and with elongated tips, schoolmarmish but also sexy in their starch, worn with rubbery jack boots and gaiter mules.

What followed – in tailored shorts, silk lurex trackpants, bagged-out parka jackets and long-line zip-front cardigan dresses – felt like both a progression of Wang’s work and a diversion from it.

Each piece was every bit the sporty, slick and manneredly severe update on a wardrobe staple that we’ve come to expect from him, but each piece was also just that little bit ‘off’, a challenge to wear. Intentionally so, of course. There was a utilitarian-style onesie, and even a pair of combat trousers - what further indication do you need that Wang wants you to flinch a bit at this?

Readjusting the fit of a classic garment is nothing new. Repinning and recalibrating them to feel purposefully counter-intuitive, ungainly and perhaps even unflattering, has been tried by very few designers. But those who have attempted it have had overwhelmingly positive response from customers thrilled with the look of the new. Miuccia Prada is queen of this, of course – Wang’s collars owed a little to her subversions, his streetwise zippies and hoodies, as well as raw and ragged edges on the softest sheepskin and nappa coats, owed something to Comme des Garcons and Junya Watanabe in their deliberate sag, and (whisper it) there was a touch of the Ghesquieres in there too.

But that isn’t to say this collection was derivative –  far from it, it was one of the freshest looking takes on the tradition of American sportswear in years. It’s more to point out the company that Wang now keeps, in terms of pushing the boundaries of the cool, chic and wearable clothing empire he has built up since 2007. He has at the foundations of this a cult of forward-looking buyers and customers who are willing to be guided by him, so far New York’s unerring eye for the tiniest alterations in day-to-day cool.

From the glam-grunge nonchalance of his early days, via the sportswear and ascetic tech-luxe of latter seasons, even the resurrection of Noughties logomania for spring, to this: easy separates no longer, not so much staples as statements. Alexander Wang’s woman is no longer off-duty, she’s putting in the effort to try something new. And it’s working.