Christian Wijnants thinks that, subconsciously, the artist Christo’s The Floating Piers—the much-Instagrammed buoyant sculpture installed on Italy’s Lake Iseo this past summer—influenced his thinking for Spring. “I like the idea of nylon and creating a bit of a parachute,” said the designer, further interpreting Christo and his late wife, Jeanne-Claude, with their famous earlier works of billowing, fabric-wrapped buildings.
With scale and graphic impact as his mandate, he ended up delivering a collection that paraded a panoply of aesthetic motifs, from monochrome to polka-dotted to floral printed. Wijnants’s best parts were long, curving-around-the-back windbreakers, which achieved his parachute-channeling goal and added an athleisurely kick. A caftan in resilient orange, similar to the color often used by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, was also a standout.
Wijnants chose the song “Opus” by electronic musician Eric Prydz for his soundtrack. The track’s buildup is slow, but the drop is highly satisfying. When that crescendo broke over the runway, the tempo shift wasn’t quite as fulfilling; hyper-saturated prints of flora on silk tops, pleated knit skirts, and high-waisted trousers felt less convincing and a bit frenetic. But then again, each model had little lines of neon paint applied as makeup. Maybe she was going from art-world day job to nighttime rave. It wouldn’t be the first time.
