Not quite two weeks ago, Antwerp-based designer Christian Wijnants took home the ultra-prestigious International Woolmark Prize, an award that counts Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld among its winners. In some ways, Wijnants was a surprising choice—he s anything but a showy designer. But as today s collection proved, a great deal of thought, and not a little poetry, goes into the making of his clothes. Wijnants opened with two knit wool looks that undoubtedly helped land him the Woolmark Prize: a loose cardigan and a funnel-neck sweater, both featuring an intriguing circular knit and the incorporation of varied knit gauges. That s technical stuff, but the sculptural effect transcended the technique. Wijnants repeated those looks, or elaborations of them, throughout this collection; some of the punchiest pieces found him shibori-dying funnel-neck dresses and coat-length cardigans, to graphic effect.
Those knit pieces weren t the only standouts on Wijnants runway. The designer s silk-fringed coats and jackets had a similarly expressive quality, and everything in his mottled black and white jacquard was a winner, in particular a cocoon-ish coat with cropped sleeves. The jacquard, Wijnants explained after the show, was meant to conjure the craggy look of melting snow; likewise, the well-judged bursts of color here were inspired, he said, by the experience of engaging with nature s own surprising palette while out mountain climbing. That point of view came through most clearly in the serenity of the collection—there was a sense of ease, and a sense of space. The only quibbles were Wijnants emphasis on shorts that felt a little too summery, and more generally, his reluctance to give a really defined silhouette to the pieces that weren t knit. Overall, though, these clothes were compelling and fresh.
