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Alexander Wang hasn't said much about his new job at Balenciaga, but he's already logging hours studying the house's design history.

'"Immediately,' he said, 'I want to see the archives. I want to understand the culture behind the brand,'" said the brand's CEO Isabelle Guichot in an interview with WWD. "He could have slept there almost."

Pulling all-nighters might be necessary for Wang, who's due to present his first collection — a Fall 2013 women's line — in February. Guichot says she and Wang haven't decided how they're going to present the line and that she doesn't want to create any "unnecessary pressure" for her new designer.

Other than saying he felt "deeply honored" by his appointment, Wang hasn't commented on the new position other than to say, "We're still figuring things out."

Guichot has been a little more talkative and said she chose Wang because his understanding of the world — to say nothing of his fluent Mandarin and other ties to China, where the brand has 10 stores — will help bring Balenciaga forward.

"We wanted someone with global thinking, a citizen of the world, and someone who could understand the digital world and the direction of fashion and retail tomorrow," she said. "It will be a new vision; a new understanding of the brand. The heritage of Balenciaga is so big. Just a part of it has been exploited, but obviously not all of it."

Last week's rumors and Monday's confirmation that Alexander Wang is the new creative director of Balenciaga have elicited mixed responses in the industry and beyond.

Fashion critics like Cathy Horyn have taken analytical stances to Wang's appointment, commenting that his performance at Balenciaga will largely depend on where PPR executives want to take the company.

"The fact that they chose Mr. Wang, a contemporary-market designer, and not a high-fashion designer, emphatically suggests that they do want something different," Horyn wrote.

Robin Givhan of The Daily Beast agreed, writing last week that "Wang almost certainly would bring a broader commercial appeal to Balenciaga." When the news was confirmed today, she tweeted, "Bon chance to all!"

On Twitter, reactions ranged from elation (more than one account called his hire a "new era") to cautious optimism. A look at how the industry reacted to today's news, below.

Congrats Alexander Wang who will be taking over at Balenciaga. Can't wait to see (and shop!) xo ....via @womensweardaily

— Joe Zee (@mrjoezee) November 30, 2012

So it's Alexander Wang to Balenciaga but whither goes Nicolas the Great Ghesquiere?

— Hilary Alexander (@HilaryAlexander) December 3, 2012

It's official: Alex Wang goes to Balenciaga (tho keeps his own label too). Very new direction for the label!

— Christina Binkley (@BinkleyOnStyle) December 3, 2012

After weeks of speculation, @balenciaga officially appoints Alexander Wang Creative Director of the Balenciaga fashion house. A new era.

— i-D magazine (@iD_magazine) December 3, 2012

Raf Simons at Dior, Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent Paris, Alexander Wang at Balenciaga. PARIS IS ON FIRE! #PFW #excitingtimes #helluvayear

— Jim Shi (@jimshi809) December 3, 2012

Confirmed: Wang announced at Balenciaga. Happy graduation day!

— bryanboy (@bryanboy) December 3, 2012

I see Wang xBalenciaga like a comedy where the older character is worried about the younger one "winning" but in the end no one loses anyway

— Amy Odell (@amyodell) November 30, 2012

Not sure how it will play out, but a younger American designer taking the helm at Balenciaga is a great moment for the US.

— John Jannuzzi (@johnjannuzzi) November 30, 2012

RT @seoulcialite: Wanglenciaga.

— Elizabeth Holmes (@EHolmesWSJ) November 29, 2012

very excited at all the chatter re @alexanderwangny heading to @balenciaga...can't WAIT for those clothes. WWD: wwd.us/Txo2iU

— Cindi Leive (@cindi_leive) November 30, 2012

Big global step for american fashion !“@nytimesfashion: Alexander Wang Appears as Leading Candidate for Balenciaga: nyti.ms/U3Gyvy

— steven kolb (@stevenkolb) November 29, 2012

Update: Alexander Wang will replace Nicolas Ghesquière as the creative director of Balenciaga. In an official announcement released this morning, PPR and Balenciaga announced that Wang will design the brand's women's and men's ready-to-wear, as well as accessories and image. Wang will continue to oversee his own namesake label as well.

"I am deeply honored to embark on this new role for a brand and house that I have such great admiration and respect for," Wang said in the release.

As for what a Wang-helmed Balenciaga will look like, it's anybody's guess. "Alexander Wang will use his creativity and his own research to reinterpret and immortalize the distinctive, modern, and extremely innovative style imposed by Cristóbal Balenciaga," explained François-Henri Pinault, CEO of PPR.

The news comes just a few days after both WWD and Cathy Horyn released independent reports that Wang was the rumored front-runner for the job.

Meanwhile, last Friday was Ghesquière's last day at Balenciaga. He announced earlier this month that he would leave the house after 15 years at the helm.

— Additional reporting by Christina Pérez

The exact circumstances under which Jil Sander replaced Raf Simons as the creative director of her eponymous fashion house were unclear until today.

According to a new profile in WSJ. Magazine's Winter issue, Sander wasn't called back to the house she founded in 1968 just because Simons was on his way to Dior. In fact, Sander entered talks with Onward Holdings Co., the Japanese private equity firm that owns the label, about coming back over six months prior to Simons's departure. Sander left her job designing the +J capsule collection for Uniqlo in September 2011, and it was announced that she would replace Simons at the end of February 2012.

Simons's departure, it seems, came before he officially accepted the Dior job — though when he left, he had already entered talks with LVMH about becoming the house's creative director. And while Simons's work at Jil Sander was a critical success, the profile notes that during his time there, "the company remained solidly in the red." To turn Jil Sander's fortunes around, the label's chairman Franco Pene said he wanted "to get back to the roots of the company — to its DNA. And there was no one more capable of doing this than the original designer."

Whatever the reasoning for her return to the label, where her first two collections have earned favorable reviews, Sander credits divine intervention with steering her back home.

"With all of my history, I feel it's been more like a journey, and driven by something up there," she says, pointing toward the heavens. "This is actually what it has to be. We learn to never go back, never try to repeat, only look to the future. But in this case, maybe this is an exception."

Photo courtesy of Jil Sander

At some point within the next 12 months, Net-a-Porter will launch a magazine that lives on real paper, not on an Internet platform.

The online retailer's CEO Mark Sebba pooh-poohed the notion that print operations are decreasing in relevance when he announced plans for the magazine at a recent business leadership conference.

"Traditional publishers always say that we are lucky for being born in a digital age and don't have a legacy of print," he said. "But we still see it as important."

Not only is it important, Sebba said, but it's also been a part of the way Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet (who worked at WWD and Tatler before she got into retail) envisioned the business when she started it. Content — like the site's weekly magazine, mobile apps, and video channel — has allowed Net-a-Porter to sell advertising space to the very brands it sells. And that advertising is what will keep a print product alive.

"Twelve years ago when Natalie launched Net-a-Porter, it wasn't so much about revolutionizing shopping as revolutionizing the magazine industry. It's about understanding the media side of commerce rather than just trying to move products. I don't want to denigrate [the retail] side in any way as it pays the rent, but advertising revenue increasingly pays the rent as well."

Sebba did not say how often the magazine would be published or give any other details about the project. Requests to Net-a-Porter for more information were not returned as of this post.

Photo: A spread from Net-a-Porter's online magazine.

One of Cathy Horyn's sources in Paris claims that Alexander Wang is the likely replacement for outgoing Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière. The house could be ready to announce that it's hired Wang as early as next week, the source said.

Shortly after Ghesquière announced his departure, Balenciaga CEO Isabelle Guichot said that she had a short list of potential candidates, which was rumored to include Wang, Joseph Altuzarra, Bouchra Jarrar, J.W. Anderson, and Christopher Kane, among others. A spokeswoman for Kane said earlier this month that speculation about him joining Balenciaga was "unfounded," but just this week it was reported that Kane has had discussions for possible financing with Balenciaga's parent company, PPR.

Wang, who runs his brand independently, was rumored to be in the running to replace John Galliano at Dior last year. At the time, he said that he would only take on another design challenge if it were "completely different" from what he does with his own label.

"Sometimes you don't get to say all you want to say in your brand," he said. "When the right opportunity comes, it will present itself in a way that I'll be inspired by it. But right now, it's not like, 'Oh I'm after that house, I want to do that.'"

Only time will tell whether Wang is sufficiently inspired by Balenciaga. Ghesquière's last day at the house is Friday, Nov. 30.

Photo: Alexander Wang photographed by David Needleman for the October 2011 issue of Out Magazine.

If PPR invests in Christopher Kane's eponymous label, will they ask him to return the favor by taking the reins at Balenciaga?

Sources told WWD that Kane has been in talks with the French luxury goods conglomerate — which also owns Alexander McQueen, Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent — about financial backing for his line. This news comes hot on the heels of Kane's departure from Versace's Versus line, which he designed for six seasons. It also comes just two days before Nicolas Ghesquière is set to leave Balenciaga.

Speculation that Kane would replace Ghesquière has been floating around since Ghesquière's departure was announced earlier this month — but a Kane spokeswoman called those rumors "unfounded." Ghesquière, who, rumor has it, may start his own label with LVMH, was spotted last week having dinner in Paris with LVMH's Delphine Arnault, Dior CEO Sidney Toledano, and Camille Miceli, Dior's artistic director for costume jewelry.

In any case, it's not unprecedented for a big firm to make an investment in a small brand on the condition that its designer works for one of its larger houses. For example, when LVMH bought a stake in Marc Jacobs's line in 1997, he ended up as the creative director of Louis Vuitton. Whether the same will happen with Kane and Balenciaga remains to be seen.

Before Alexander Wang was a household name, he was a fashion closet intern at Vogue — and when he first got there he was "too nervous to even walk past Anna Wintour's office," much less leave the building to get lunch.

"I was in school at Parsons and I'd already interned at Teen Vogue, but this was a completely different experience," Wang said in an interview about his time at the magazine. "Seeing the editors and stylists working with the clothes, seeing the product of all of that come together, it truly opened my eyes. My first day on the job, I was starving, but I was too scared to ask if it was all right to go have lunch. Even though all of the other interns working next to me went out and picked up lunch, I just kept working. Eventually, though, I started eating lunch."

Photo: Alexander Wang photographed by Craig McDean for the 2012 CFDA Journal.

Update: Givenchy has denied speculation that it will collaborate with H&M. According to Vogue UK, the house says rumors about the partnership are "false." And while H&M never commented on the Givenchy rumor, its creative adviser Margareta van den Bosch told The Telegraph it will "not have any [collaborations] for Spring. We decided to skip it, as we have had so many this year. So it'll be something for next November."

The Internet has been aflutter with rumors that H&M's next designer collaboration will be with Givenchy, and so far, both parties are keeping mum on the topic.

On Monday, a Givenchy representative told Fashionologie that the house does "not have a comment"; a spokeswoman at H&M said the retailer "does not comment on rumors."

But radio silence from both brands hasn't stopped fervent speculation, which was sparked by a Nov. 19 post on the Tumblr Fashion Industry Confessions. The author of the post claimed, "Rumors straight from the Givenchy headquarters have it that they will collaborate with H&M next year." The claim has since been bolstered and questioned by blogs and Twitter accounts far and wide, but confirmed by no one.

The last time H&M kept quiet about a rumor, it was when rumors ran rampent about the company's plans to start a higher-priced label. We all know how that turned out: & Other Stories is set to launch in Spring 2013.

If this latest rumor pans out, then it would make Givenchy and Riccardo Tisci the first LVMH house and designer to partner with H&M. But whether there's a deal between the two brands or not, the time for H&M to announce its next designer collaboration is drawing nearer. The retailer unveiled plans for its Spring 2012 partnership with Marni on Nov. 29, 2011.