“I wanted something very airy, very light, very easy—and quite minimal as well,” said Christian Wijnants at his presentation today. Well, consider that job done. But . . . hold on . . . presentation? Wijnants has stepped off the runway. He said this was a result of the opening of his first flagship store, in Antwerp, a project that has been dominating his time.
Hmm. Hmmmmm. Well, whatever the reason, the absence of a runway proved no greatly significant obstruction to the delivery of this collection. Wijnants said he had been thinking about Brancusi, and there was some correlation to that evident in the irregular lumpen-ness, hinting at distorted symmetry, in his fil coupe applications. More broadly though, this was an efficient but not especially uplifting compilation of contemporary fashion tropes. The strongest pieces included a tightly fringed kicky jumpsuit, and a blouse fronted with frayed panels of clothes that transformed the canvas pants obscured beneath them into the viable foundation of an evening look. Fil coupe suiting printed with a tonal monkey relief motif, frayed panel cotton viscose knit tees, some linen-lined scuba-foam hot pants, and fringing galore on denim-chambray separates were all fine and dandy. It was interesting, though, how the transplantation of this collection from runway to showroom rather sucked the oomph out of it. This collection was full of solidly tasteful left-field pieces, but there was not a great deal to get properly excited about here.
