Along with Thakoon, Alexander Wang and Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu is amongst a crop of the Asian-American designers really dominating in New York right now. While brands like Proenza Schouler, Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren have tapped into Asian references and sensibilities, this is something that all but Wu have refrained from exploring. Talking to Vancouver-based magazine, Montecristo, he said that he felt like his fall 2012 collection was the perfect time to embrace his roots.

'I suppose this hasn’t really been done before—an Asian designer tapping into the Asian side,' he told the magazine. 'Usually, culturally, we stay away from it … I feel like I’m at a place where I’m maturing not just as a designer, but as a person, to embark on inspirations that hit close to home.' But rather than going down the literal route, Wu has praised for showing the signature references but in a contemporary way. 'I almost wanted to poke fun at it a little bit by interpreting it through stereotypes … but also by incorporating all of that in a way that is elegant and powerful at the same time.'

Read more after the jump

Piracy is the age old problem faced by many designers and things initially seemed to be moving in the right direction when the CFDA pushed a bill to crack down on it last summer. Everyone from Narciso Rodriguez to the Proenza Schouler duo backed the anti-piracy legislation in Washington but unfortunately they haven't made much progress.

'If we learned nothing else in this giant civics lesson, we learned that’s the way things work in Washington.…A bit of patience is needed,' Steven Kolb, CEO of the CFDA, said this week. 'We remain focused on it, but we are also building other ways to spread the word on why intellectual property belongs to the person who created it.' Without the support of Congress it looks like it's back to the drawing board.'