Weinsanto RTW Spring 2022

Victor Weinsanto put the sass in Alsace with his spring collection, an ode to his hometown near Strasbourg in a French region located so close to Germany that a version of sauerkraut is practically on every menu.

Cue the pretzel-shaped braids propped on headbands, and his kooky kougelhof handbag, based on a raisin-flecked cake baked in a tall, ridged bundt mould, which one model pulled from her purse with the help of two hunks in overalls.

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Having worked at the elbow of Jean Paul Gaultier before launching his brand last year, Weinsanto loves runway razzle-dazzle: One of his models performed aerial acrobatics on a hoop — in Louboutin stilettos, no less — and another sashayed down the runway like the female alien spy in “Mars Attacks!”

His show felt like a happening, attended by the likes of French artists Pierre et Gilles, Princess Noura bint Faisal Al-Saud and designer Simon Porte Jacquemus, who brought his dappled dachshund Toutou. “It’s his first show,” said Jacquemus, dressed in a fuzzy sweater that was the same vivid pink as the half-timbered house frame suspended over the runway.

Weinsanto took elements of traditional Alsace dress — including the blouse and the “corselet” — and zhushed them up in his cabaret-tinged way, parading terrific shirt dresses with nipped waists and ballooning sleeves.

He’s partial to slinky pinup dresses that lace up tightly front and back, giant headpieces and clingy catsuits that got everyone filming. But he doesn’t hide his knack for striking yet approachable designs, including T-shirts with couture-like cuts and sensational two-tone jeans that zip open at the sides, or around the legs.

Weinsanto said the latter are based on trousers with zip-off pant legs that he wore as a child for mountain hikes. Here is a fashion storyteller — and showman — to watch.

Launch Gallery: Weinsanto RTW Spring 2022

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