BEAUTY : Clothing--Walter Van Beirendonck

A Walter Van Beirendonck collection is always a splashy, notable affair. I have said in the past that Van Beirendonck's work seems like the product of an an art-school studio experiment... as if he had been able to raid a huge supply room and use all the clay, paint, fabric, and bits and bobs stored there. There is a fearless sort of freedom with what he does season after season (seen here). His concepts are always engaging, puzzling, sometimes disturbing, and expansively liberating. The concepts seem to soar up and around like wild birds, or lightning. One never knows from what direction it's all going to come. Ideas assemble themselves in astonishing ways in his mind.

And for the last several seasons, he has been creating collections whose concepts are based in political activism, much like Westwood when she was alive. He has layered anti-fascist and anti-racist motifs into his collections. But sometimes one (anyone who is paying attention to world events) can become overwhelmed, especially when one is engaged in actively trying to counter such global events and needs a bit of respite, a reminder that the world itself is full of beauty and delight even when some of the people (oh, ok, a great many) in it are trying to make it as ugly and painful as possible.

So for his Spring Summer '26 collection shown at Paris Fashion Week, he looked to childhood for some comfort. His show notes read in part, "I want to be the starry-eyed boy I always was...Believe in the best of humans, but it’s becoming harder and harder. So, what to do when everything turns dark?" His answer was to look to the past. On a personal level, he turned black and white family photos from his childhood into glitchy, pixelated prints on jackets and trousers. Buttons read "WINK WITH STARRY EYES." His inspiration from the past also took a broader approach in the form of what is called a "skeleton suit," a sort of early romper set for young boys from the later 1700s through the mid 1800s consisting of a tight-fitting, high-waisted pant buttoned to a tight-fitting, lapeled jacket. Van Beirendonck crafted his own take on this historical garment which ended up looking like a great trouser/waistcoat combo. He created his own version of a camouflage print in red and green which shows up on faux-fur trimmed coats, along with small, pastel-colored patterns, the type one might find on baby blankets. And the puzzle jackets that closed the show seem to be cobbled together from baby bibs of varying shapes and sizes! The final touch was the accessories and jewelry made from infant's toys and ordinary household objects (combs, mom's plastic hair rollers, shoe horns, plastic steamer baskets), recalling the sweet days of imaginative childhood play when a plastic colander worn on the head could be a helmet during great adventures in the backyard.

The world is a tighter, uglier, more volatile place than it was, say, even a year ago. But there is also such tremendous hope and potential. And art plays a part in this potential, whether it is a satirical political cartoon, a film, a play, a painting, or a sculpture, or a massive protest march. And couture at this level and in the hands of artists who work in cloth and fabric, is certainly an art whose concepts and execution can either offer a mirror to our troubled times or a soothing balm to remind us that there is still beauty to be had. And that in itself is a subtle but powerful political statement: you can wear down my body and mind but you can't have my soul.

https://www.waltervanbeirendonck.com/