Christian Wijnants
Biography
Christian Wijnants is an Antwerp based fashion designer.
Born in 1977 in Brussels, Christian moved to Antwerp in 1996 to study fashion design at the Royal Academy of FineArts. After graduating in 2000 he is the winner of the leading competition foryoung designers "Festival de Hyères", where he wins the Grand Prixand start selling his collection to stores Colette in Paris, Pineal Eye inLondon, Via Bus Stop in Tokyo and Henri Bendel in New York. After working ascreative assistant for Dries Van Noten in Antwerp and Angelo Tarlazzi in Paris,he launched his own brand in 2003.
Presenting his collection twice a year during Paris fashion week, he has been granted many prestigious awards as theDries Van Noten Price (2000), the Festival of Hyères (2001), the Swiss TextilesAward (2005) and the Yves Saint Laurent/Andam Prize (2006). His collections areproduced in Belgium and have been carried by many prestigious stores worldwideas Le Bon Marché in Paris, Colette in Paris, Maria Luisa in Paris, Jeffrey inNew York, Mameg in Los Angeles, IT in Honk Kong, United Arrows in Tokyo, Club21 in Singapore, Beams in Tokyo, Midwest in Tokyo, Belinda in Sydney, Podium inMoscow...
Since 2005 Christian is teacher at theRoyal Academy in Antwerp.
PRIZES
Mango Fashion Award
November2007 and April 2009, Barcelona
2 times finalist at the Mango FashionAward
Yves Saint Laurent Award
June 2006,Paris
Yves Saint Laurent Award at ANDAM
Fondation Pierre Bergé Award
June 2006,Paris
Fondation Pierre Bergé Award at ANDAM
Beams Award
June 2006,Paris
Beams/ Japan award at ANDAM
2005 Swiss Textiles Award
October2005, Luzern
Wins from other finalists: CharlesAnastase, GIles Deacon, Undercover and David Szeto
Peugeot Award
June 2005,Antwerp
Winner of the Peugeot designcompetition
Festival de Hyères Grand Prix
April 2001,Hyères
Grand Prix and Henri Bendel Prize
Dries Van Noten Award
June 2000, Royal Academy graduationshow Antwerp
Christine Mathijs Prize awarded byDries Van Noten for best collection