The other half of the studio is devoted to a spacious work room, where fabrics that come back from the producer can be cut and constructed into garment samples. This is another big testing ground for Wijnants, who tends to make pieces over and over again until he’s satisfied. “You always put question marks on everything you’re doing — that’s the way it should be,” he says. “The Academy always encourages you to question you work, and whether you’ve taken it far enough, to be really critical. You make a two, three, five, even ten different trials for the same jacket. You’ll change it 10 or 20 times until it's really good. You have to be a perfectionist.”