Wanda Nylon Spring 2017 Ready-to-Wear Paris Fashion Week

Let’s congratulate Wanda Nylon’s Johanna Senyk—not for her well-deserved ANDAM win in July, but for resisting the temptation to let the award alter the raw allure of her brand. For while the turnout today may have been more substantial in quantity than before, and perhaps also in quality (a subjective measure), the venue preserved the same underground aesthetic previously employed to complement her nonconformist designs. Still, the show was hardly status quo, with a shift immediately perceptible from the first look: a soigné one-shouldered jumpsuit pleated à la Miyake, and cooled up with a bucket hat dripping in chains plus motorcycle booties. Backstage, Senyk confessed that this was something she could see herself wearing—as if she were desperate for a counterpoint to the mildly kinky outerwear that had become her impermeable calling card. Hence, also, her experimentation with different materials, including woven metal mesh and Alcantara, a substitute for suede that, unlike skin, can be cut in large sheets. The resulting trench styles, uninterrupted by seams, emphasized the sharp tailoring that the eye may not detect in her high-gloss coats.

Of course, with more eyes on Wanda Nylon this season, Senyk shifted into higher gear with woven nylon bags and statement jewelry, the latter benefiting from a rare collaboration with Chanel subsidiary, Maison Desrues, which produced the metal waterfall earrings and lariats. Those with gusto for luster will feel spoiled for choice—the gold-coated cotton tracksuit, iridescent perfecto, bronze knits, and Swarovski fishnets; the accumulation bordered on baroque, but we’ll indulge Senyk this moment. Anyway, there were so many other strong, idiosyncratic ideas—boots and clutches in PVC woven with raffia, a trench back pleated like vertical blinds, printed iridescent silk, orchid ultraseude, and a killer petrol blue leather bomber—that when the models appeared en masse, they radiated Senyk’s confidence like solar flares. Which might have explained her postshow glow, had she not also revealed that she was pregnant.