A peripatetic at heart, Christian Wijnants is having a ball following his own path from ancient Persia to Asia. He’s also a gifted colorist, which is why his clothes—and his knits in particular—are a stealth choice for the woman who wants to cherry-pick certain aspects of today’s dominant trends—plaids, pink, florals—and make them her own.
This season, the designer made a strong case for treating prints like color-blocking. Sometimes he tempered all that energy with solid pieces—a shiny burgundy skirt, a bright yellow windbreaker, a fuchsia overdress, turquoise trousers. His shiny pink trench hit the spot.
But the main story is the hybridization of prints. A black, white, and green-dominant floral might get an asymmetrical sash in a larger blue-and-pink print, for example. Or there might be a triangular pink incursion on a breezy blue-and-green floral dress. Even more daring were the skirts with a split personality, say with pink, white, and blue on one side and orange and green on the other.
He also showed a knack for taking Spring’s ubiquitous orange and making it work in a plaid iteration, either on security-bright tanks or burned-pumpkin pants. It’s not for wallflowers, but it worked. Not everyone can pull that off.
