Of course, it was Wijnants’s innovative way with knits — exemplified in the fall look pictured here — that endeared him to local fashion legend Dries Van Noten, who gave him a job upon graduation specializing in knitwear and encouraged him to push boundaries. It was a formative experience. “I remember for days and days I would be working with machines and I could just experiment all day long trying out things,” he recalls. “And Dries was really promoting that. I’d use five colors and they’d say, ‘No, use 10!’ Or I’d do something with a few sequins and they’d say, ‘Now put them everwhere!’ You never felt like he’d tell you to try to reduce your creativity and make your work more commercial, or cheaper.”